which social media channels work best for which company?
Social Media is and remains for entrepreneurs, self-employed or a freelancer, a pressing issue.
But what is pure hype, and what strategies have a future? You have to be represented in all social media channels or should be limited to certain performances?
These questions also arises our editorial and social media team – and regularly as the media developed at breathtaking speed.
Select social media channels to match the strategy
The answer to the above questions will endure for a long time, not every entrepreneur has all the social media channels play on. Depending on the size of the company, the industry in which it is located and the goals that he pursues with its social media activities, different channels are particularly important and can be assembled according to each strategy.
Which channel you can follow to reach your goals?
The following list gives an overview of some important goals that can be achieved with the various social media channels. At the end of each is a brief assessment, for whom channel which is particularly suitable:
Facebook:
Nearly 974 million users worldwide – the reach of Facebook is enormous and the social media goals that can fulfill this social network are widely dispersed.
The targeted use of content can make new customers aware of their own abilities, stronger loyalty of existing customers to the company and lead both groups of customers in a dialogue with the company.
But one thing does not work with security: to fill Facebook with interchangeable PR activities, which are not adapted to the medium. Formal texts with interchangeable content without going into personal contact to the Facebook user will not reach the desired goal!
Who should use Facebook?
However due to the long range and diversity of applications, Facebook is currently the most attractive social media channel for companies and self-employed people.
Twitter:
Twitter reached at the moment 140 million active users, 500 million users have an account – so you can benefit from a high range in this short message service.
The biggest advantage of this social media channel is the way to distribute short messages or links quickly. In concrete terms, you can advertise with a tweet the entry of a new product, like Samsung has done in the last year before the launch of the Galaxy Note, and so attract attention.
To increase the attraction some companies tweet individual details of a new product already in the development phase to create the “fans of the future.” and arouse curiosity on the early-adopers.
Who should use Twitter?
Who has spread regularly and with a relatively high Blows News can communicate more easily to the outside via Twitter.
Google+:
Is Google+ only another Facebook? Not necessarily. Although in the moment you can find more industry partners and media representatives than privat-users on Google+.
For online business owners, who wanted a good Google ranking, the network offers a great advantage: Content contained on Google+ pages ranked better and so the sites will be better found by customers in the search engine of Google.
Who should use Google+?
Google+ is interesting especially for online business owners who rely on a good Google ranking.
LinkedIn and Xing:
The two online job boards are logically good for recruiting goals. Who is actively seeking employees will find it here.
Of course, it also helps to present your own company’s strengths and goals in Xing and LinkedIn.
At Xing for example, you can place your specitic themes in active groups and get in touch with experts, industry members and potential new employees. It is now also possible to make your own blog posts included in the Xing news automatically.
Who should use LinkedIn and Xing?
The job boards are particularly suitable for self-employees who are looking for employees (with special qualifications) and experts on a specific topic.
Youtube:
Many experts also include the youtube video platform to their social media tools.
Who wants to play as a self-employed here, you either need a good video marketing agency that produces content (usually not really cheap) or he produces product videos and videocasts on its own.
Who should use Youtube?
For a complete Social Media Marketing Mix it is necessary to point in a video to your products and services also considering that video´s will often placed on the first site of the search engines results.
Pinterest:
Pinterest is a social media tool with interactive component and has gained significantly in the last year.
Therefore, the social bookmarking site lives on the interest of beautiful images and is especially interesting for entrepreneurs for whom the appearance of the products stimulates the purchase, such as Fashion and lifestyle company. Pinterest is also primarily used in the United States of women.
Who should use Pinterest?
Pinterest is clearly something for entrepreneurs with visually appealing products.
An own Blog tackled many goals at the same time
An effective social media tool that is often not counted directly to this category, are corporate blogs. Adjust to entrepreneurs who want to publish news about their products and services on a regular basis and want to present themselves as experts in a certain area.
To run an active blog you have to invest time and patience to make a blog known and get recurring visitors. A blog can cover an incredible number of goals, such as customer loyalty, image building, customer service and corporate presentation.
It is important that the blog does not become a pure PR tool, but sincerely turns to the user, and creates real added value. In this way, over time, a blog can create loyal following visitors.
For a blog it is important to post new content regularly – in the minimum two blog posts per week should go online to keep the visitors satisfied and get new visitors over the search engines, facebook, google+ etc. because the final blog post will be posted in the social media channels mentioned above to reach a wider readership.
Conclusion: Say: “Yes” to Social Media – Choose the channels well and do not underestimate the effort
Social media offers you many opportunities to make their own creative attention – and to win customers, clients and business partners. But before you start you social media activities please consider of the high cost when it is used correctly and consistently.
It can help to focus on one or a few channels and set at the beginning of a narrow strategy, instead of sharing bad content in multiple channels or no social media to operate.
An additional consideration is that the effort is different from channel to channel. A meaningful photo and some words are quickly tweeted during regular blog posts which significantly cost more time – and time is money 😉
Ben Mueller
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