The Best Social Media Platforms for Building Your Business
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Developing a social media marketing strategy is an important step that many of us just skip over in our haste to get started. Instead of identifying the best social media platforms for our business, we just dive in.
“People are in such a hurry to launch their product or business that they seldom look at marketing from a bird’s eye view and they don’t create a systematic plan.”
Dave Ramsey
Like anything else we do in business, or in life for that matter, you’re more likely to get results when you set goals. Your social media marketing plan should address the following points:
- The platforms you will use
- Whom you will follow
- The type of content you’ll post
- When you will work on your social media
- The social media tools you’ll use
- Whether you’ll do everything yourself, outsource all or part of it, or share the tasks with a team member
- How you will measure your outcomes
Earlier this month, I had the privilege of presenting at a Professional Development Day for Professional Organizers in Canada’s Halton-Peel Chapter. It was wonderful to meet some of my readers and followers in person for the first time and to reconnect with others, especially Hellen Buttigieg, Laurene Livesey Park, and Karen Sencich, whom I’ve known since I started my business in 2002.
As a group, we talked about five different aspects of social media marketing, and I’ll be sharing the highlights of one discussion every day this week.
Question #1: Which social media platforms are working best for you?
Facebook Pages were named as the top platform for building a community of loyal followers and increasing brand awareness.
Twitter was a close second, and was identified as valuable for networking, engagement, and staying connected with the local community.
“Social media is here. It’s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are.”
Lori Ruff
Also recommended were:
- Instagram – for visual marketing
- Houzz – for connecting with DIYers
- LinkedIn – for connecting with professionals
- Pinterest – for showing off your portfolio of work
- Google Plus – for search engine optimization
- YouTube – for compelling video, showing how you can solve clients’ problems
To choose the best platforms for your business, refer to your colleagues’ recommendations or conduct your own research into current social media demographics.
Come back every day this week to learn the answers to these questions:
- What type of social media posts have been most successful for you?
- How have you successfully built relationships on social media?
- What is your best tip or tool for time management and social media?
- What do you recommend avoiding when using social media?
Photo © vilman – Fotolia.com
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I think it’s better not to cover all social media, but the ones that will work for your business. Think about it – if you want to be on every social media, you’ll either need someone to take care of it (that means put some money in it, which is not so good if you don’t have much, especially in the beginning), or you should take care of social media channels yourself – this is going to be so time consuming that you’ll exhaust yourself and you’ll not be able to manage your business properly.
Excellent points, Belgravia! Have you figured out which sites are best for your business?
I love the point about the one you will use. For example, I really like Twitter. It is fast-paced and you could get a big bang for a small buck. I find people on this platform are very generous and responsive and fun. I learn and lot and love it. Because it is a positive experience for me, I enjoy it, so my participation is genuine, not contrived for business purposes!
Thanks for that comment, Seana. I think it’s really important to enjoy the social media experience. Otherwise, other users will sense that you’re only there to promote your own business, and that’s very off-putting.
These days small business entrepreneurs are using all prominent social media platforms without researching and thinking that which one can be best for them. Thanks to share this useful tips with us. It is really helpful for others including me.
Happy to help!
I use Fiver. There I can find a lot of materials for my social networks. There I met many bloggers, copywriters or people who maintain social profiles. Most are accurate and correct. There are incorrect but are small and put them away.
I’ve never used Fiver, but I know others who have – some have been happy and others not so much. As you say, for $5, if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t spent a lot of money. It really depends on what you need and if you have time to find someone else if the first person’s work isn’t up to snuff.