With so many social media outlets, it can be difficult to figure out which ones are best suitable for your business. It is clear, choosing to communicate with your audience through a social media channel is necessary if you want to stay relevant in today’s digital age. But, it doesn’t mean a business needs to share its content on all social media channels, indiscriminately.

Here’s how to figure out what social media platforms are right for your business.

What Are Your Goals?

The best start when choosing the right social media platforms for your business is to ask yourself what your goals are and why you want to use a social media outlet in the first place. From a marketing point of view, it is helpful to separate social media platforms in categories, based on what they do best.

One way of classifying social media platforms is the following:

  • Networking: While networking is a defining role of all social media, some platforms are way more suited for it than others. Networking serves as a means of finding and connecting with your peers, based on your common interests. The biggest networking platforms are: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
  • Promoting: Promotional platforms are the ones providing a channel for your promotional content, such as YouTube for videos and Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and Snapchat for photographs. Facebook is ideal for most businesses to boost posts promoting their business or spending a few bucks on a display Ad campaign that points people back to your website or special offer.
  • Sharing: Naturally, all social media is meant for sharing, but some platforms are more specialized in creating your sharing space and is more visible as a whole. Examples of sharing platforms are Blogger and Yelp.
  • Niche: If you don’t want to limit yourself to the main, most popular social media platforms, check out other options like Flickr, Pinterest or Stumbleupon, especially if your audience seems to be using them. For example, if you operate in a craft business, being on Pinterest will raise awareness about your brand easily.

Who Are You Addressing?

Your audience and its social media preferences should dictate the channels you choose for your communication, naturally. Stay connected with your client base and observe where your brand is mentioned the most. Using the social media platforms where most of your audience spends its time is crucial, but don’t limit yourself to that.

One of the roles of industry leaders is to come up with new ways of engaging the audience and surprise their customers. Keep an eye on what your competitors are using and what the overall trends are. Show you are actual and relevant by using the most efficient channels to share your content. For example, right now is a big time for video content, as it has a massive impact, it is easily shareable and original.

Let’s Do This

Choosing the right social media platform is an important step in establishing what kind of content represents your brand and how it will be shared. If you need guidance from social media experts, call us at (800) 617-6975 or contact Sprout Media Lab and we’ll be happy to assist you in planning the perfect social media strategy for your business.