In an increasingly “social” world, having the right communication channel for your business is more important than ever, and the list of social media platforms is growing. The options seem endless: Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube. These are just some of the channels that dominate social media marketing services.
But which ones should you choose?
While any social channel will be an extremely useful tool in your company’s inbound marketing strategy, there are some general trends to keep in mind. The type of social media solutions your business will want to use depends on the depth of your brand messaging and the demographics of your target group. The latter can be a bit tricky, so analyzing the age, interests, and other characteristics of a business’s target market is an important first step in determining which social channel to use.
A young, hip student is likely to spend more time checking out new content on Tumblr or Pinterest and browsing default pages on YouTube or Facebook. However, a more mature audience is likely to be found in LinkedIn Groups and Google+ Communities.
Online publishing platforms like Blogger or WordPress work particularly well for B2B companies. They allow companies to highlight their own expertise and knowledge, establishing credibility and exclusivity of content. A company’s vision in the world of financial investing, for example, is communicated much more effectively through a full blog post than in 140 characters on Twitter. If a B2B company wants to use Twitter, it would be better to use this particular social media solution to promote blog posts or news, rather than to communicate company-wide ideals.
Although Twitter is fast becoming part of the B2B social media marketing suite of services, it’s really more of a B2C communication channel. B2C companies looking to communicate directly with customers often find many advantages in platforms that allow them to monitor customer reactions in real time, like Twitter does. Twitter also offers businesses the opportunity to respond directly to potential or returning customers, without having to search for contact information or sales data. Setting up a corporate Twitter account has the advantage of being extremely quick and easy to update. Instead of spending weeks creating ads and sending them out through email marketing and the like, companies can now update customers on promotions and sales in a matter of minutes, spreading the company’s message further and faster.
If your business is social media savvy, YouTube is also among the best social media solutions for content marketing. While engaging YouTube videos require more work, they are more effective in grabbing the attention of a larger audience.
Now, what if you love social media, but don’t have the bandwidth to deal with it? As with any other business process, outsourcing this type of marketing is a cost-effective way to ensure you receive top-quality social media solutions. Knowing which channel to use and how to use them requires knowledge and experience. Why not leave your company’s social media adventure in the hands of capable professionals?
Outsourcing social media marketing services does not mean that a company reneges on its brand. A recently published article on outsourcing explains why outsourcing really improves the brand experience.
In the end, finding the right social media solutions for your business is complicated and time consuming, but the work will be worth it because when done right, social media marketing pays off big.