Social Media Strategy for Businesses

Here’s the lineup of the top eight social media platforms of 2014: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube, and Four Square. 

Just because all of these social media sites exist, it doesn’t mean you need have an account on every single website to appear well-connected. Also, if you’re a do-it-yourself business owner, you probably have limited time and budget to dedicate yourself to learning and effectively maintaining these channels.  That is why it is imperative that you select one or two channels that best fits your business’ social media strategy and your personal interests.

Google+

Good strategy for SEO. This is especially important if your business has a blog. You can link your personal Google+ profile to your business’ Google+ page and to your blog to markup your search results with your profile image next to the articles you have authored which is helpful for gaining exposure and furthering your personal brand. For more Google+ benefits, I’d like my friends at marketingland.com to take it from here. Read the Article: Beyond Social: The Benefits To Google+ For Business

Facebook

Good strategy overall. This is the most popular social channel and reaches a broad user base. If you’re not sure what social channel to be linked to, Facebook is a good place to start.

Pinterest

Good strategy for targeting female personas and strong visual brands. Pinterest is a giant virtual pinboard on the internet. Entirely visual. Almost all users are women (80%).

Twitter

Good strategy for quick wit and breaking news. Twitter is the home of the hashtag. All twitter posts have 140 character count tweets. Twitter is a great “breaking news” platform and monitors buzz around major industry developments.

Instagram

Good strategy for strong visual brands. Instagram is an entirely visual platform for smartphone owners. Take pictures, apply an effect, and upload!

Linkedin

Good strategy for networking. Linkedin is a great social channel for business owners and companies that thrive on referrals and networking. When properly used, Linkedin is a good resource for sales leads.

Youtube

Good strategy for strong visual brands. Youtube is a video platform, and is the second largest search engine after Google!

Four Square

Good strategy for location-based companies. Four Square allows your customers to “check-in” when they visit your business and receive loyalty offers.

Honorable mentions

Stumbleupon, Delicious, Live Journal, Quora, Digg, Formspring, Myspace, Reddit, Flickr, Meetup, Tumblr

I admit, this article barely scratches the surface of social medial strategy. If you’d like to see more detail leave me a comment and I will update this post with more information.