Social Media Platforms: The Most Popular Ones?
An SEO strategy is a process by which you optimize a website’s content by topic. To improve the likelihood of appearing in search results.
Essentially, it is the process you should follow in order to maximize the opportunity to gain organic traffic from search engine results.
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What are Social Media Platforms?
Do you know the world’s top five most popular social media platforms are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger? While TikTok comes immediately after them. But Snapchat is on number 11, Twitter is on number 15, and LinkedIn is still below.
It may seem surprising. But 80 percent of online customers engage with brands on social media. However, not all social media platforms are designed for this use case.
As you know, marketing evolves and changes – you will find – constantly new platforms and strategies are being touted as the next big thing. At times it might seem impossible to keep up with all of them. But still, it is vital to get on board so that your business does not appear outdated. Social media is one of those channels.
You may ask why social media is essential for business and what role social media platforms play. Social media is crucial as it offers companies like yours a way to connect one-on-one with their target audience, thus helping to convert them into customers.
As you might know, some of them are purely for instant messaging. On the other hand, some platforms are wildly popular in other areas of the world, such as in China.
Social Media Platforms – An Overview
1 Today technology is so advanced that it allows the sharing and interaction of users who form an online community.
2 Online platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and Tumblr, where anyone can share their views.
3. These web-based technologies enable the development, deployment, and management of social media solutions and services. These platforms provide the ability to create social media websites and services. They also offer complete social media network functionality.
4. These are highly interactive tools that use web-based and mobile technologies. These platforms provide individuals, communities, and companies the means to share, co-create, promote, discuss, and modify user-generated online content.
5.These platforms that are built on the foundation of web technologies. These platforms enable interaction and publishing of user-generated content.
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Social Media Platforms for Businesses
Every social media platform is different and is created for a different purpose. To develop an effective social strategy, you should focus on the social channels that best suit your brand.
There are several social media platforms that work well for your businesses small or big.
Here is an overview of the most popular social media platforms and their business tools.
1. Facebook
Facebook, as you know, is a top-rated social media network. It has a varied audience of more than 2.9 billion active monthly users. That is worthwhile for any business of any size to use Facebook’s tools and have a Facebook business page.
You can use Facebook to share everything from photos to important company updates. With a business account on FB, you can also access powerful advertising tools and in-depth analytics.
Moreover, business pages on FB also have many customization options. You can highlight your contact info, hours of operation, the products and services you offer, and much more.
2. Instagram
Do you know that Instagram is also incredibly popular? It will have over 1.1 billion active users in 2022. Instagram Live, Instagram Stories, and Instagram business tools are equally popular. With Instagram business tools, you can help your brand promote and sell the services and products you want.
Instagram is a visual platform, and its focus is on photos and video posts. So it is an excellent tool for businesses with strong visual content to share. Moreover, the platform is almost entirely mobile, with tools and services optimized for mobile use only.
It has become a trend now – more artistic niches tend to excel on Instagram. The fact is that most businesses can benefit from the platform today due to its broad user base. Your team should have a good eye for detail and some photography skills. It will ensure that these photos and videos posted to your account are high quality.
3. Twitter
Twitter is ideal for short updates. The platform is perfect for engaging with followers and sharing links to blog posts. But the platform is not ideal for all businesses.
On Twitter, you can only share short tweets consisting of 240 characters at the max, videos, images, links, polls, and more. Remember that it is easy to interact with your audience on this platform as there are several options.
If you are a highly visual business or do not have a strong brand voice, experts suggest this platform is not for you. Many companies use Twitter for business functions – like handling customer service, or they may seek out companies to share praise or express concerns.
If you have interesting content to share and can engagingly voice that content – then Twitter is an excellent tool for quickly spreading the word. Using hashtags can help boost your posts making your content viral.
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Other Popular Social Media Platforms
You can explore social media’s most effective business uses. You can also follow the best practices for an effective social media marketing strategy.
There are some aspects of business that can benefit from social media like marketing, customer service, sales, and crisis management.
Some of them
1. Pinterest
Pinterest is a visually oriented platform allowing users to save and display content by “pinning” digital bulletin boards. For example, a user may have a food board for pinning recipes. Another board may be dedicated to photography and so on.
As Pinterest uses you can use a series of special pins called Rich Pins, which brands often use to add specific information to their pins. Every pin on Pinterest may include an image or video – thus making it a purely visual platform. Meaning Pinterest is not the place for you to share info about your business.
This social media platform is famous for categories like DIY projects, fashion, beauty, exercise, photography, and food. This makes Pinterest a perfect marketing tool for businesses in those areas.
2. Snapchat
Snapchat is another mobile-only, visual social media network similar to Instagram. It is known for its disappearing content. Users can send videos and photos to each other – which disappear after 24 hours. The app has additional features, including chat, image storage, messaging, events, and media content.
Because posts are temporary, there is less pressure to create super-polished content. Regarding Snapchat for your business – only a small business will most likely utilize the platform’s Stories feature. It is mostly for individual use.
3. YouTube
YouTube, owned by Google, is a video-sharing platform where you can view, upload, rate, share, and comment on the content. The site is a massive hub for the news and entertainment world today.
Many businesses on YouTube generally have a creative, visual, or educational component. The platform is heavily innovative – so it is essential to have a dedicated video editor producing content. You do not need to market on the platform, as there are influencers who publish frequent videos and can also maintain large audiences.
4. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a corporate world social media platform with 260 million monthly users. It is one of the best platforms for professional networking. As far as LinkedIn business uses, it’s an excellent place to find top talent, position yourself as an industry leader and promote your business.
LinkedIn is designed to be more professional than all the other social media platforms. The platform is geared toward businesses and professionals. As LinkedIn is a professional platform – it is one of the best places to post job openings. You can also post info about your company culture.
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Use Social Media Platforms for Marketing
You must try to incorporate an effective social media presence into your small business marketing plan. The platforms may help you reach customers and prospects wherever in the world they are.
Today many brands struggle with creating engaging content and also reaching their target audience. These social media platforms can play an important role at the top of the funnel. Using these platforms – companies can actually build a social media marketing strategy.
These platforms can work for your specific business as they are beneficial in several ways. Note that the marketers’ top goals are to advertise their products/services and increase their brand awareness.
Here are some tips and best practices that can help you create a successful presence on social media to market your brand:
1. Craft a social media marketing strategy.
The best way to work is to go in with a plan. This means creating a social media marketing strategy that includes all the platforms you plan to use.
2. Post consistently.
You should follow a consistent posting schedule for your followers.
3. Develop a clear voice.
Try to create a consistent voice and tone on your social media platforms. One that will resonate with your audience and influence your customers.
4. Know your audience.
You can use your analytics tools on these platforms to see demographic information and social media trends. You can also know what your audience wants to see from you and respond accordingly. These steps can go a long way toward boosting your engagement rates.
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Social Media For Customer Service
Today so many customers already communicate through social media. Using social media for customer service is no longer a big deal.
Social media communication can be an easy option to address customer problems efficiently and quickly. It will help you to create a loyal customer base.
Here are a few ways.
1. Respond to customer issues quickly.
Many businesses use social media as another channel for self-promotion. According to research, 42 percent of consumers expect a response to a complaint on social media within 60 mins. Nearly one-third expect a response within half an hour. Therefore, you should monitor social media channels and respond to concerns promptly. It can help you build strong relationships with your customers.
2 Use hashtags strategically.
You should try to stay updated on your social platforms’ hashtag best practices. Hashtags can help you easily navigate within platforms like Twitter.
3 Take public conversations private.
Many frustrated or angry customers leave public comments on their Instagram and Facebook accounts. While you should not ignore these messages – it is wise to handle the entire encounter publicly.
Conclusion
You may ask which social media platform is best for your business. It will largely depend on the type of business and its social media goals. Facebook has the largest audience. And is popularly used to customize your social media marketing. Twitter is the best platform for receiving feedback and directly engaging with customers.
Besides, Pinterest is ideal for small and niche businesses that can market directly on the platform. YouTube is video related and perhaps the best social media platform for driving traffic to your website.
The best social media site – differs from person to person. Look for the one you can leverage for your business’s specific goals. Keeping that in mind, you can also use a combination of social media usage on multiple websites will typically yield the best results.
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