Social media is an essential marketing tool that can bring big business, brand awareness and real time communication. There are common social media platforms that users connect for professional or personal reasons. However, social media is such a constantly changing industry that it can be difficult to stay in the trends.
Do you know which social media network your target audience is on? Are you making the most of the opportunities on social media? How do you know which social media is right for you?
Here is a high overview of the different social media networks mixed with my personal opinion on Pros / Cons.
– is the most common network among social media platforms. It is an easy network to connect and share with your friends or family online. Facebook has two opportunities to take advantage of 1. Profile: You can create a profile page or a business page. On your profile page, you can “add friends” to see their updates / posts. 2. LIKE Page: If you create a LIKE page, you can promote your business products, services or brand. Today, Facebook is the world’s largest social network with more than 1 billion users. You can connect with me on my LIKE Page – DI DESIGNS
Pros: You can easily share information to your network. You can post stories, images, links, videos and more. You can create photo albums of different moments in your life. There is a live video opportunity to post real time. promotes brand visibility of your products or services. You can like different pages to grow your profile interests.
Cons: There is a lot of advertising that clogs up the newsfeed. I will accidentally click on an ad that opens to another page. There is a lot of drama when people post their status — it can range from politics to abuse to all kinds of things.
Facebook Business Page ^^
Twitter –
allows you to microblog short posts called tweets. A tweet is 140 character message that anyone can publicly read if your profile is set to public. In order to search different conversations on Twitter; users will use hashtags or keywords. Tweets can be delivered in real time like an instant message. Some users will host Twitter chats – which is an online chat where users will ask questions and participate with a hashtag. Some users get really organized by creating a graphic, promoting the event and publishing the questions ahead of time.
Pros: Social connections can respond to you in real time. This is a quick way to share thoughts and website links. Easy opportunity to reach businesses by bypassing their email – which I think that users respond to their tweets faster than emails. Hosting a weekly Twitter chat has increased my brand visibility. Trending tweets are a good asset to participate in building your network. #MondayMotivation is an example
Cons: Users are dropping off. Profiles are going cold without posts. I haven’t gained any new business in awhile because my target audience merged to a different network.
Instagram –
relays heavily on brands with images or videos. Many young adults like to post foods, clothes or things of interest. You must use your smartphone device to upload & share photos / videos to your profile. You can use hashtags to find new users and tag your posts. You can check into your location and view other images from that location.
Pros: It is one of the most commonly used social media networks for millennials. It;s a quick way to share your life with friends or family with a series of pictures.
Cons: There are many spammy photos or users. People will write a lot of awkward comments on your photos that make you feel uncomfortable.
LinkedIn –
is a professional network to grow business relationships. LinkedIn is like an online resume where business owners can view your education and experience. You can list your experiences, education, interests and more. Use LinkedIn to get your foot in the door at a business. Connect with the HR – CEO.
Pros: Utilize the recommendation tool for professionals to endorse your skills. Endorsing yours skills makes you looked highly qualified in those areas. Joining niche groups can increase your exposure to grow your network.
Cons: I do not like when I add a connection and :30 seconds later – boom a long email about their services. It is hard to tell if the person is trying to connect with you for a relationship or sell to you.
Google+
is a resource to share announcements with your circle of friends. Google+ has a feature called circles where you can categorize how you know that person – school, business, etc. You can choose to share information to limited circles or the public. I enjoy using “Hangouts” which is a tool to video chat with up to 10 people at once. So now people cant make the excuse that they are not available.
Pros: Join communities to reach further audiences. Post your resources into these group to gain more followers.
Cons: If you are not following the person on Google+, you will not see hashtag content in search engines.
YouTube
is a video channel where you can create tutorials, educational, entertainment and other types of content to share with your network. Youtube is a visual platform
Pros You can upload content quickly to reach users. You can make video blogs about your life, tutorials and more. Videos are easily opportunities to showcase your services or skills.
Cons There is a lot of video to sort through. It can be challenging to find what you are looking for.
is another visual social media network. You can “pin” which means like or add these visuals to different boards. Boards can be created to define who you are or what you like. I’ve created boards about graphic design, social media marketing, art and other things like that I like. Be inspired by the different pins that are posted by other users. You can repin items into different boards to repurpose the content.
Pros: Pinterest can uniquely define who are you by your posts. It is an opportunity to collect different images to put into boards.
Cons: There is a lot of different content that can be hard to organize. It can be difficult to find what you are looking for in searches.
Snapchat
Is a story-telling social media network that allows you to send snappies to your friends or public. The concept is “supposed to be” that the snap will disappear after 7 seconds but you can reply and studies have found that data has been captured from Snapchat. This social media network is only accessed to participate via mobile phone.
Sunday Funday got me over playing on @snapchat filters lol 😂😂 what did I just watch pic.twitter.com/7N8RwLXKpw
— Melissa DiVietri ♔ (@Missydi) September 11, 2016
Pros: Geo-filters which is the ability to create an image tag that will overlay your photo when posting to your Snapchat profile. The geolocating filters are based on radius.. if you are in Toronto – you may have a filter that says “Fashion District” or “CN Tower” – Some people create geo-filters for weddings and special events.
Cons: The advertised stories at the top of Snapchat, when you log in on mobile device are trashy magazine about celebrities. I’ve never been fond of that drama and who is kissing who.
Although this guide doesn’t have all the answers for where your target audience may be or where you can make money; but use this as a starting point to understand the main social media platforms that users are taking advantage of. Each social media network has a unique style of messaging – different ways that users will communicate or make an action. I personally like to dabble in each of the social media networks because I am a social media strategist. Before you create a new social media network, do more research. Understand what your competitors using and leverage that to your advantage.
Let’s connect on these social media networks!
– Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/missydi
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/Missydi
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mel.di.designs/
– Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelissaDiVietri/posts
– Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mdivietri/
A photo posted by Melissa DiVietri (@missydi) on
