There is an ongoing debate as to which social media platform is the most effective marketing channel for business. The reason there is no definitive answer is that the concept of an ‘effective’ strategy is rarely consistent among all companies and industries. It all comes down to your business’s goals. Whether you are looking to simply increase website traffic, or rather, your priority is to create a brand identity, the different social media channels prove to be more or less effective dependent on what you are hoping to achieve and whom you are trying to reach with your marketing strategy.
Check out these guidelines and our infographic to gain a better understanding as to how to effectively choose and use the various social media channels:
Whom You Can Reach: According to Luke Chitwood, the popularity of Facebook spreads across nearly all demographics making it a great way to increase brand awareness.
How to Have a Presence: This is a place for two-way communication, so the tone of voice of posts should be conversational and helpful. It is also easier to generate engagement if you make posts that include pictures, are shorter, or that are structured as questions rather than statements.
What Your Message Should Be: This is not a place to post advertisements or make obvious promotional posts – rather, use Facebook to clarify your brand image by posting useful content such as articles, links, videos, etc. Ultimately, use this network to promote not a product or deal, but rather a likeable brand personality.
Whom You Can Reach: Use its interactive nature to not only connect with your own target audience, but also with other similar or complementary businesses, and hence also their target audiences. Tip: Do not just have your own Twitter page and tweets, but also follow people or businesses who are relevant to your industry in order to increase your presence and attract new interest.
How to Have a Presence: Post concise messages. This brevity gives you the opportunity to be enticing, so keep your tweets interesting and engaging so that they can stand out against the immense amount of others.
What Your Message Should Be: Because of its live updating feed, Twitter is a great place to announce new products, deals, events, news headlines, etc. that may be appropriate to your business or helpful to your followers. While providing useful content is a great way to achieve retweets and gain followers, do not be afraid to send out funny or clever tweets that may also help to develop your brand identity.
Furthermore, the character limit provides a great opportunity to re-direct your followers to your other social media pages or website in order to ‘learn more’ about the subject of the tweet.
Google+
Whom You Can Reach: Google+ is a bit more professional than Facebook, making it a highly appropriate platform for B2B firms and bloggers to reach their audiences. Besides, the Google+ ‘Communities’ feature provides the opportunity to join and post in various groups, further broadening awareness of your brand.
How to Have a Presence: Google+ still promotes a casual and personality-driven atmosphere (it is a part of Google after all), meaning that you should use a friendly and helpful tone of voice in your posts to help promote your brand’s personality.
What Your Message Should Be: Its casual, yet professional, atmosphere makes it a great place to share fun photos and videos, as well as content like helpful articles and blog posts.
Also, because of Google+’s superiority in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), use your posts to link your Google+ page back to your business’s website as often as possible in order to help increase your brand’s presence in search engine results. However, remember to keep these links relevant and useful to your audience!
Whom You Can Reach: Its more formal nature caters to a predominantly older demographic (according to James Scherer, 79% of users are 35+ years old). In addition, because of its networking functionality, this is a good place for B2B firms to reach potential clients and prospective employees (if you are hiring).
How to Have a Presence: The tone of voice of posts should consistently be professional – unlike the aforementioned sites, this platform IS the place to sell your product or service, and not your brand’s likeable personality.
What Your Message Should Be: This is less of a place for you to share general useful content. It should be used more as an opportunity to drive purely your brand’s original content, website, or other service details. Keep posts direct and to-the-point to increase the perceived accessibility and ease of working with your business.
Remember that depending on your business and its goals, each of these various social media sites may be more or less effective when being used as marketing tools.
Do you think your business needs to improve its social media marketing strategy? Let inSegment help you outline your goals and implement a strategy that is both appropriate and effective for your company. Contact us today.
