Finding the right social media platforms that fit your content can make you or break you in terms of your social media success. In deciding which platform is appropriate for your organization or small business, start by thinking about how you’d like to tell your story. How can people best get to know you and what you’re about?
Are your products particularly photo friendly? Instagram and Pinterest might be for you. Does your organization constantly have some news to share? Twitter and Facebook are likely the best platforms to share current and relevant updates.
To help you decide what works for you, here’s a list of today’s most popular platforms and the types of content they’re known for:
1) Facebook, the king of social media, has over 500 million users that are active daily. Let’s be honest - there’s basically no way you haven’t heard of it. While at first only available to college students, today its increased accessibility may also be a productive platform for your organization. It’s ideal for images, short content, and links. Your followers will receive updates on their own newsfeeds after liking your page, and the key is to keep that community engaged.
2) Twitter is a social media powerhouse with 400 million tweets a day. 200 million active users include your average Joe, businesses, news sources, and celebrities. In messages of 140 characters or less, you can keep your customers or members updated in real time with information that is quick to process. Easily plug into current trends and see what people are talking about that may relate to your business with keywords. These features make Twitter theideal space to speak about your products or organization in your brand’s language.
3) Instagram, available as an app for iPhone and Android, is a way to post pictures directly from your phone with added filters to make your photos look professional and add your own touch simultaneously. There once was a time when taking a photo was a long process both in shooting and developing, but Instagram derived its name from the capability of instant photos and the idea that sharing a photo is a kind of modern telegram. There is also the option of uploading video 3-15 seconds long, and Instagram easily allows you to share your content via Facebook and Twitter, among other sharing sites. By highlighting information through the medium of photography, this platform provides an ingenious way to stay connected to your audience visually.
4) Pinterest, along the same lines as Instagram, is based entirely on photos. Basically an inspiration board, Pinterest provides categories from style, to recipes, design, and wellness. Users can organize and collect their interests all in one place. These collections can be wish lists or ideas for a trip. As a business or nonprofit, being “pinned” on someone’s wish list or inspiring them with your mission is a form of flattery. Pinterest, as another extremely visual social media platform, is one of the best ways to show your audience who you are and quite possibly make them obsessed with you.
5) YouTube, the center of all cute cat videos, can also be a useful platform for your organization. Solely video-based, YouTube’s statistics are mind boggling. There are over 1 billion individual people visiting the site each month who are watching over 6 BILLION hours of YouTube content in that same time frame. 100 HOURS of video are uploaded to the site every MINUTE. Millions of subscriptions take place each day and 70% of traffic to YouTube is actually outside the US. Available on all sorts of devices, this platform can bring eyes to your organization from all over the world when used correctly.
Keep in mind when deciding which platforms to use that it’s important to understand their interconnectivity. It’s significant to figure out which set of platforms work best for you, rather than which one platform works for you. If you have a video on YouTube, then Twitter and Facebook are great places to post them and increase engagement across all three platforms. Your followers will like that you have a well-managed Facebook, but they’ll admire you even more if they can find different types of content, all used appropriately, in a variety of places.