Mind Your Own (Small) Business
VPS.NET outlines the 5 best social media websites for small businesses.
Small businesses and social media go together like fish and chips. Today’s communication channels offer invaluable – yet free – publicity for startups and home-grown ventures, as well as providing real-time customer interaction that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago.
However, just as haddock goes better with chips than sardines, some social media platforms are more suited to corporate communications than others. Reddit is better for debates and expressing opinions than product marketing, while Snapchat’s self-destructing messages and Vine’s brevity make them niche marketing tools at best. While no self-respecting entrepreneur would be without a LinkedIn page, these are the platforms their companies should appear on:
The world’s leading social media platform may be increasingly unfashionable with younger audiences, but it still recorded 1.59 billion monthly users last December. Facebook is a solid all-rounder, capable of hosting audio-visual content alongside mobile updates and lengthy articles; it also has a database of active members unmatched by any other social media channel. Some people Facebook a company before they Google it, and a Facebook profile can provide free advertising that also scores highly in search rankings.
Purchased by Facebook in 2012 for a cool $1 billion, Instagram is a platform for sharing photographs and short videos. There’s relatively little interaction between users, but the immediacy of a well-judged photo (with accompanying captions) can be compelling. The introduction of hashtags has made it easy for retailers or manufacturers to get their images viewed by the right audience. In-app advertising has been poorly received by users, but it offers companies a way to promote themselves to a youthful, attentive audience.
Twitter is a massively popular microblogging platform for expressing opinions or sharing information. It’s also widely used by customers seeking feedback, offering praise or expressing criticism. A Twitter account is probably the most important social media site for any company to have, and it’s imperative that tweets are responded to within hours not days. The ability to upload photos and short videos can be ideal for startups and retailers, and the viral nature of many tweets means a good product can be shared around the world.
YouTube
Despite numerous pretenders to the crown like Periscope and Vimeo, YouTube remains the undisputed king of online video content. It’s also the second largest search engine, behind parent company Google. Companies can create their own YouTube channels, uploading dynamic promotional content for their products and services. An ideal way for companies to demonstrate their professional services (such as plumbing or estate agency), YouTube videos can be recorded on a smartphone and embedded into corporate websites free of charge.
It may be of little use to service providers, but Pinterest is an ideal platform for retailers and product manufacturers. Its business accounts are used by everyone from BuzzFeed and ELLE to L’Oreal and Sony, with dynamic photos showcasing products or demonstrating them in use. The ability to pin interesting content is the ecommerce equivalent of a web page bookmark, encouraging people to return and serving as a reminder of things they’ve liked. The increasingly popular ‘Buy’ button can also directly link through to retail sites.
Different businesses will choose an optimal blend of social media accounts to suit their unique circumstances. A vehicle wrapping company might use YouTube for demonstration videos and Instagram for finished wrap photos, whereas a cupcake shop could use tweets and Facebook posts to promote themselves among local audiences. Every firm is expected to have some degree of social media involvement nowadays, even if it’s just for correspondence and customer communications.