Social Media Primer for New Business Owners (Part 2)
13 Apr, 2015 |
In our Social Media Part One post, we suggested three essential networks to join when launching a new business.
But there are hundreds of other social sites out there that you can participate in that enable you to further connect with your clientele.
How do you decide which ones to join? Are they all relevant for every business, or should you only participate in the ones most fitting for you?
We’ve added four additional social media sites for you to consider adding to your repertoire of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Check them out and see which ones fit best with your business’ culture.
LinkedIn is the largest business networking social media channel out there. The 332 million current members use this network to build online resumes or company profiles, connect with fellow colleagues and industry leaders, share relevant news and updates, search for jobs, apply for jobs and post jobs. Small businesses may not reap as much from this as growing businesses surely would. But advertising and company page analytics help grow your LinkedIn presence.
Pinterest is all about discovering things that interest you, in many ways like Google. While it may not seem as formal of a network as the others discussed in this list, it is entirely more engaging with over 30 billion pins to be searched. It also drives more traffic to websites than any other network. If you have anything that can be pinned and posted here (product images, artwork, DIY tutorials, recipes, blog posts, etc.) that would lead people to your website, you should pin it and watch it spread like wildfire. Check out their resources for creating a successful business page and refer to their analytics. Stay tuned as advertising opens up to the public to promote your pins.
YouTube
YouTube is the best place for business updates if videos are a part of who you are. Many a makeup artist and video gamer have become famous millionaires by enabling monetization (ads) on their videos and engaging enough viewers. While a company YouTube page would likely be more interested in sharing updates and growing a fan base, it is evidence of how influential a channel can be if it reaches even a handful of the network’s 1 billion monthly active users. Advertising on the platform is also a great way to spread awareness of your brand.
Yelp
Yelp is essential for local businesses. It enables users to search for your business, learn about it, rate and review it. While it may be daunting that this network largely relies on the unpredictable feedback from Yelp’s 135 million monthly active users, it is a go-to source for customers to check out a business before they even stop by. Fortunately, page owners can interact with Yelpers that review them and respond to questions or requests for better customer service. Advertising is available as well as customer analytics.
All of these social media networks may not work for your company and, ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which ones to join. Whatever your choice, make sure you are willing to update them regularly and keep the content diversified and interesting.
