Making up your mind to invest in social media sites for your business is a great decision. Social Media’s ROI is outstanding, as it is one of the least costly marketing tools available. More and more businesses are discovering that using Social Media is key to their growth. If you aren’t taking advantage of this, you are missing out! We’ve compiled a list of the 10 best social media sites that you should be using for your business. So now the question is, which social media site should you use? Is it wise to just go with all of them? Which social media site offers the best bang for your business buck? We’ll go over each site and tell you what they have to offer. But first, let’s start with a general look at social media. Facebook
With just under 2.5 billion active daily users, this choice is one of the more popular options. Facebook is the most widely used social media platform in the world. Facebook provides a diverse array of options for your business to meet its marketing goals. This platform can help you increase website traffic, brand awareness, online conversions, and can generate leads. When used correctly Facebook is almost guaranteed to bring positive results. Because of the billions of unique users on this platform, nearly every business can find their target users. It’s easy to see why this is the number 1 choice for many businesses. You may be saying to yourself that you already know this, but want to know HOW to target people who are, or would be interested in your brand/business. The only thing it really takes is great content (the more the better) and properly setting up Facebook advertising. Facebook’s advertising platform is bar none the best. You can customize your targets by age, employment, gender, interests, relationship status, purchasing behaviors, location, and so much more. This allows you to zero in directly on your target audience to make your ads visible. Generally, when someone asks if they should be advertising on Facebook, our answer is going to be yes. However, there are 2 scenarios when we may suggest using a different platform. The first scenario in which you do not want to use Facebook is if you do not have a social media advertising budget. The second scenario in which you may not want to use Facebook is depended upon the type of business you have. Facebook prohibits certain companies (such as tobacco companies) from advertising on their platform. If your business falls into one of their “No” categories, you’ll want to advertise elsewhere. Facebook uses paid advertising. To use this platform you must have an advertising budget. The good news is, clients using this platform almost always see a substantial ROI from investing in Facebook ads. This can be a powerful tool for your business if you combine likable content with the platform’s extensive user base.Instagram
Instagram is just behind Facebook for our ranking of social media sites for businesses. Mark Zuckerburg, owner of Facebook, also owns this platform, which boasts over 500 million active daily users. Mark bought Instagram only 18 months after it launched for $1 billion. He knew the benefits and potential of Instagram early on, and with his backing has continued to see growth and success. Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, it also has access to the advertising platform and impressive user base. To make it short: Instagram has identical paid benefits to Facebook, but Instagram has its own benefits apart from these. As we’ve discussed, with Facebook, you’ll need to pay for advertising in order to increase the reach of your content, and increase your following. With Instagram, you can increase your following organically, thus extending the reach of your posts and profile in the same way. For this reason, Instagram is a stellar option for businesses whether they have an advertising budget or not. Another great thing to consider is this: In general, people can recall 80% of what they have seen as opposed to things that they hear or read. With Instagram, you can only make posts that have a video or photo with it. In other words, no text only posts. This means you’ll automatically be pushed into creating more memorable content.Pinterest
Pinterest is a great platform for business in the creative industry, or those whose target audience is mostly female. Of Pinterest’s 291 million active monthly users, 81% are female. 93% of these users say they use Pinterest to research and plan purchases, and 87% of users say they have made a purchase because of Pinterest. The top searches for Pinterest include outfit ideas, food recipes, wedding inspo, and lifestyle how-to articles. If your business fits into one of these categories, you’ll want to include Pinterest in your social media marketing strategy. Pinterest does not have an advertising platform as advanced as Facebook’s, but you can still track online conversions and increase your posts reach with Pinterest’s paid ads. It should be noted that Pinterest has some capabilities that other social media sites do not when it comes to organic reach. Pinterest determines reach from the amount of keywords in a post, and if they match up with what the user has searched. This feature allows businesses to have a strategic plan set in place to make sure their content contains words that are frequently searched on Pinterest, without having to dip into their advertising fund.Twitter
Twitter is an OG of the social media sites, with over 336 million active monthly users. Your posts can be photos, vidoes, text, or any combination of the three. It’s important to keep in mind however, that with text, there is a character limit. What Twitter is most known for is it’s real-time updates. Maybe you’re familiar with the term “live-tweeting”? Just like Instagram, Twitter uses hashtags to reach new potential customers. You simply search a hashtag and you will see various businesses or private users who have used it in their posts. This makes it easy to effectively reach those who are looking for exactly what you offer. Let’s say you own a specialty food company, catering to those who are on the Keto diet. You would search relevant hashtags such as #Ketodiet or #Ketosnacks to find users who are interested in trying new brands or recipes. Once found, simply tweet them with a discount or free shipping on their first order, and there you have a simple direct way to generate leads.LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the few social media sites that was made for businesses that follow a B2B model, or that are looking to target consumers based on job history. This platform has 303 million monthly active users, most all of which are in the working world or close to it. Because of this, people are generally more detailed when it comes to information about their job titles, employers, contact info, etc than other social media platforms designed for a more casual purpose. While LinkedIn does not have the advanced advertising platform that Facebook does when it comes to campaign functions, it does excel when you are looking for specific job titles, as it has more options available than Facebook. This can be crucial if you have a niche target audience..