How to Choose the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business

If your local business is just entering the world of social media, you may wonder how it’s possible to stay engaged on every one of them. This can be a common concern among businesses and for many of them the short answer is you can’t. In other words, if you try to have a great business presence on each platform, you’re likely to find you’re not really making a significant impact on any of them. It’s far better for a local business to focus its marketing efforts on just a few platforms. To aid in your select of the right platforms for your business, start with these two steps.

1)   Know your audience. In order to determine what platforms your local business should ultimately have a presence on, it is vital to understand where your current and potential customer base is likely to congregate. Therefore, spend some time compiling what you know about potential customers you want to target with your social media efforts and current customers who are engaged with communications avenues you currently use. You may want to consider the answers to the following questions:

• What is the demographic of the audience I want to attract?
• What are the demographics of those who interact with my current promotional materials?
• What types of messages appear to engage my audience most?
• What type of content will I be primarily seeking to share?

2)   Understand the significant features of each major social media platform. Six social media platforms currently dominate the market.

• Facebook: Provides the opportunity to engage customers in a conversation and educate them with picture, video, and text. It also provides some handy tools such as “Offers” which can allow your business to grow its online engagement with customers through special deals reserved just for them.
• YouTube: Is a great forum to share tutorials and how to videos which can provide potential customers a basic understanding of the knowledge and skill set your local business provides.
• Twitter: Allows you to easy send out up to the minute information about what your business is doing. There are numerous tools available, which allow for easy scheduling of updates and tracking feedback of all types.
• Google+: Functions similar to Twitter and Facebook in that it provides a great avenue to engage potential and current customers in a conversation.
• LinkedIn: May best be used for networking one on one or via groups. Additionally, LinkedIn has a question and answer function which allows your local business to demonstrate its expertise by providing guidance in the area in which it operates. LinkedIn is also a great venue to share content from your blog, YouTube, etc… It is important to note that of all the platforms, millennials often seem most hesitant to engage on this one.
• Pinterest: Provides a great avenue to promote a local business through visuals. This platform may best be utilized to share your catalog or show customers how to use your product(s). However, like many of the other platforms discussed, it can also be beneficial to ensure you’re cross promoting content across platform. For example, video is quickly gaining ground on Pinterest so it is a great avenue to pull in your YouTube content.

Ultimately, it’s often best to choose the top two to three platforms you feel best fit your local business and what you’re trying to achieve. Start small in your efforts on each and refine your approach as you learn what works best for your audience.