Social media has become the forefront of communication throughout recent years. It is now one of the most common ways customers interact with their favourite businesses and brands. There are now an estimated 3.2 billion users on social media – this equates to around 42% of the world’s population and this figure will only continue to grow.

What social media sites should my business be using? This is a question we’re always asked and rightly so, the number of social media platforms is evergrowing. Different platforms all have different purposes to a business and they can all be useful.

Instagram:

Instagram is one of the younger social media platforms, however, due to its popularity, it is also one of the fastest-growing out there. Instagram gives you the chance to connect with your customers visually through posts and stories. It’s great for targetting a young demographic with most of the users aged 27 or under. Businesses are able to create a portfolio of posts which can include images and video (up to minute-long – up from 30 seconds when it was first released). 

Instagram offers a good user engagement with the simplicity of liking and commenting, meaning good quality content will get you great organic reach through to potential and existing customers. Instagram is great for every business and has now become a must-have. Businesses which include products and services which can be easily shared on the visual platform may benefit the most.

Facebook:

Considered by many as the original social network, Facebook offers businesses engagement with a statistically older generation. It offers you the chance to create posts, articles, upload images and videos, check-ins, polls and much more. It’s one of the more versatile social media platforms.

Facebook is great for creating a community around your brand, allowing customers to receive updates and events from you straight to their feed. Facebook is the most used social media platform in the world and is essential to have for any business, as users tend to search for a business on here first.

LinkedIn:

The largest professional networking platform in the world, LinkedIn has now become the best place to create connections with people and other businesses. It’s great for growing B2B exposure and also helping you paint yourself as an industry expert. LinkedIn is a great place to post articles and useful information such as blogs for other people in your industry to read.

LinkedIn has now become a great place for recruitment with businesses opting to post job openings on here as users essentially have an online CV attached to their profiles.

Source: www.oberlo.com

Twitter:

The original microblogging social media platform. Twitter has become the central hub for news and discussion for users around the world. Businesses are able to offer quick updates and share content with other social media platforms and their own website easily. 

Twitter requires less production than both Instagram and Facebook making it great for business who just want to keep users informed with simple regular updates about events. Although Twitter does have much more hidden potential value to businesses.

YouTube:

YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform in the world. It offers businesses the chance to show users content on a large scale ranging from informational videos to outrageous marketing videos which have a huge potential to reach millions of users.

Youtube requires the most production effort out the bunch, that’s if you’re doing it right. Businesses that offer products or services that can be transformed into video content can benefit the most. YouTube also offers businesses a chance to reach users through ads, placed before and in between billions of videos. You can also choose to target demographics and users who are watching content which matches your businesses offering.

The average person uses social media for 2 hours and 22 minutes per day, this means there is a lot of potentials for users to interact with you during this time. Social media has become a key tool in increasing awareness and communicating with customers.

It is important you get your social media right. Get in touch now to see how we can help you.