If you want to market your brand, you have to use the internet. Once you're connected, you cannot avoid social media. Services such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have connected people like never before, creating online relationships that aren't substitutes for in-person interactions, but rather, extensions which further our realm of communication. Since marketing is all about creating a message that reaches a wide range of people directly and impactfully, social media is the perfect tool. The question remains, which social media channel is the very best to market my business? Let's take a careful look at main options when it comes to social media.
The sleek and simple design of Instagram has helped to make it top among photo-sharing apps. Thanks to its straightforward interface and specific focus, Instagram users can scroll through their feed easily. As a marketing tool, Instagram can be pretty significant. Users can upload photos and videos from their phone easily. As a marketer, you can share the most eye-catching images that are relevant to your business and use appropriate hashtags to gain a following. Plus, you can easily follow Instagram pages of similar businesses in order to establish your name. A disadvantage of Instagram is that you don't have much room to elaborate in posts.
The grand behemoth of social media sites, Facebook is so widespread that everyone you meet is going to assume you have it (even if they themselves don't). Facebook realizes its power as a marketing tool, allowing users to easily create pages to promote their businesses and allowing them to “boost” posts to reach a wider selection of readers, depending on how much they want to pay and how long they want their campaign to last. Any business should have a presence on Facebook if it wants to do well. However, the crowded market of Facebook means that your page could end up lost in the shuffle of congested news feeds, meaning you'll need to be some-what innovative in order to truly stand out.
Snapchat
At first glance, Snapchat might seem disposable. After all, the whole point of it is that the photos and videos you share disappear after a certain amount of time. So how is that conducive to marketing? Well, savvy marketers can use the sharing mortality of Snapchat to their advantage by creating truly memorable and urgent ads for their services. Just like how a television commercial has to make use of every single second, so does a Snapchat promotion. The short lifespan can be a disadvantage, but only if the ad has no staying power in peoples' memories.
The job search game has been greatly affected by the introduction of LinkedIn. Users can create a network through “connections” and grow it wider and wider in order to help them grow their professional network. While LinkedIn might not have the frills of Facebook or Instagram, its emphasis on straightforward, professional communication means that you can promote your brand in a way that won't displease others.
“Brevity is the soul of wit” or, in the case of Twitter, replace “brevity” with “140 characters or less.” One of the most influential social media sites, Twitter has revolutionized communication and turned the word “hashtag” into a everyday household word. With the ease of retweets and favorites, you can get your business off the ground running by firing off some great tweets. You just have to make sure you can deliver an impactful message with your limited character allowance.
So, which of these social media channels is the very best for marketing? Is it Instagram for its photo emphasis? Is it LinkedIn for its professional emphasis? Ultimately, it's up to the each individual. Each has its own distinct pros and cons, but the full benefit can only be felt if the marketer invest their energy into creating quality content. You can't guarantee overnight success but with time and determination, you can reap the benefits of your hard work.
Dan is happily married for 18 years and has 2 wonderful children. After experiencing success in the corporate world, Dan decided it was time to start a business of his own. He has been in Internet Marketing for 3 years now and has built an online business that is growing every year. Dan created a 10 part video course on Affiliate Marketing which you can access free of charge by clicking here.
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Hi Dan, I just love Twitter. I think it’s the brevity for me. Even when I receive and send emails I like to keep them short. If I receive a long one – I get overwhelmed and don’t respond or sometimes don’t even read it. I like to get to the point.
I like Facebook for family and friends but do have a page for my blog as well. It’s a MUST place for all of us.
LinkedIn is awesome for its professionalism and reaching like minded people.
All of the networks offer different things for different reasons.
Everyone has to figure out what is best for their businesses and which work the best. Sometimes you have to test them out for a while too.
I’ve also found the place you spend most of the time at is where most of your traffic tends to come from. Interesting indeed.
Thanks Dan for the info on each of these.
Lisa
I am learning to use Twitter and other social media platforms in my business. You website has served as a good reference for me.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hi ,This is a very informative article.Lots of good points here.Will visit the site again.Thanks
Thanks for stopping by and for your nice comment.
Hi Dan,
I use all of these except snapchat, which I have to admit to being someone who simply does not understand the advantages of using it. I also have an Instagram account with nothing on it, I do understand its importance but have not got round to exploring how to use it effectively yet! Nice overview of each, thanks for sharing!
Enjoy the journey!
Thanks for stopping by Mandy.
I’m getting started on social media which is what led to my research for this post. It would be too hard for me to start on all of them simultaneously.
Hey Dan,
Out of your list I only use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This year I find myself using Twitter and Facebook more often as opposed to last year which were Twitter and Google+.
With Facebook I started focusing more on my Facebook page using boosts. I based this off of the interest section in Google analytics to determine who I’ll promote my posts and page too.
I do the same with Twitter. I started interlinking posts getting very little traffic with posts get more traffic based on the fact most of my traffic comes from Twitter.
Thanks for sharing! Have a great weekend!
Thanks for stopping by Sherman, I appreciate your input.
Hi Dan,
I’ve found that Facebook and Pinterest seem to be working well for me. I am still learning as much as I can about using them successfully. Twitter comes in 3rd for my site.
Right now I am putting most of my focus on Pinterest. Once I figure out how to use that one more successfully, I’ll then start to focus on Facebook.
I’ve found that if I focus on learning one at a time, I tend to get more of a return. I haven’t done Instagram or LinkedIn, so not sure if I’m missing any potential traffic.
However, right now I’ll stick with the ones that seem to be working for me.
Thanks for sharing and I hope you have a great day 🙂
Susan
Aaahhh, I forgot to mention Pinterest. I’ve heard of some bloggers having great success with it. That is a smart move, good luck with it.
Thanks for stopping by
Hi Dan
My favorites are Facebook and LinkedIn, these platforms are very useful for me personally and professionally….i can make friends in them them as well as share any knowledge with them…Pinterest and Instagram are also good…nice article..thanks a lot for sharing…!!!
Arvind
Hy this article so good
thanks sharing
super information, thank you sir…
I have to maintain a good professional network for this I think LinkedIn more suitable for me. Thanks for your good and informative article.
hy
This is a very informative article.Lots of good points here. and I get some good point in this article
I Will visit the site again.
Thanks For Sharing This Article
hello, Mr your article is very good and informative.
Hi Dan,
From an SEO perspective, twitter is by far the most important tool. It is good to let you know that it is only twitter that has PR10 ( Page Rank of 10).
From my personal experience, the more engaged you are on twitter, the higher probability of ranking high on Google SERP.Aside from the use of Twitter, Linkedin is my next favorite platform.
Thanks for sharing.
this article so good
Great information. I’ve been blogging for 4 years and struggle with keeping up with social media platforms all the time. There are so many! Scheduling helps. I spend the most time on twitter and Facebook, but am thinking of adding more to my linked in. Great post!
Hi Dan,
Facebook, Instagram and twitter are the recommended social media websites to use. Facebook and instagram are exceptionally good if your product is image centric and also if you have the money to push for an advertisement.
But, if you want to leverage on Google search by obtaining rankings, then the use of twitter is the best because it has a PageRank of 10 out of 10.
Thanks for sharing.
Very nice explaination about social media,
I think facebook is good for me,
Thanks for sharing.
Hey
Such an nice and informative article you really killed it bro thanks for sharing with us
keep it up for the good work
Well Done Bro its Good Article
Hi Dan,
It’s great to read your post. I was busy with my projects, that’s the reason I was inactive a bit, specially reading & commenting was completely off.
Anyways, all these social media platforms are equally important these days specially for me, but I appreciate your efforts for giving these tips. Great work.
~ Donna
These all are best but my favorite is instagram..
Its really a great elaboration of each social media platform and its basic feature. I mostly use twitter, LinkedIn and for my graphics & other designs, I generally use Pinterest & stumbleupon which is not mention. I outsource web design & graphic service and these platform is like good to keep all designs & show.
Love to read this article
Great to read your post! Love the information shared by you. I work with php website developers India and this is great info.
I appreciate everything you have added to my knowledge base.Admiring the time and effort you put into your
blog and detailed information you offer.
I would say they are all important, but it also depends on your target market. The age of our target market is roughly 40 and older. Most of the time, they are not snap chatting or instagramming. We have found our best tool for our business is Facebook.