The choice in regard to what social media platform best fits your business, professional association, nonprofit or government body (which are also known as social media channels) can be a bit challenging and maybe even daunting – there are obviously many options, with different target audiences that you can reach. Remember rule one in marketing communications, which is to be where your audience is – when they need to hear from you. Let’s break that down a bit…
In addition to being where your target demographic is, the platform or channel you use should make sense relative to who you are, what you do and the value you provide for your clients, customers or stakeholders (your target audience). For instance, a company that provides clowns for entertainment at children’s birthday parties might not be best placed on the more serious, business-focused platform LinkedIn…or maybe it is well placed there because business people have kids…and their kids have birthday parties, too…. you get the point. On the flipside, since a strong audience on Facebook are Moms ages 25-45 with children, that may be more of an ideal platform to focus the clown entertainment information on…
For businesses and even nonprofits, relying on social media for a return on investment (ROI) is pretty much a poor bet. I don’t think many people choose an attorney or a financial planner based on a social media post. What you can be assured of, is that your messages (whatever they may be) can increase exponentially based on the engagement with your posts. So, focus on communicating important and meaningful messages to your demographic – including information and education they want to know…. so they like, comment, retweet, share, reply, direct message, love, etc., – with your posts, which creates more engagement, and more eyes on what you are communicating.
Marketing means exposure, and there is plenty of it to be had on each of the social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Nextdoor and YouTube (the channels that Vicarious Productions traditionally focuses on for our clients).
Make it interesting, make it real, educational and informative, and the subscribers (YouTube) followers (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and connections (LinkedIn) will help this information to reach new heights.
For more information on Social Media Management through Vicarious Productions, email us at engage@vicariousproductions.com or call 847-654-1269.
Social Media Breakdown
Facebook: More than one billion users, custom page design is optimal for engagement and providing unique information, ideal for uploading pictures and videos to showcase products, services and value propositions for businesses, professional associations, government bodies and nonprofits. The page also provides robust metrics relating to engagement.
Things to Consider: Maintaining a Facebook page takes time, resources, energy and creativity, as well as man/woman hours. Building a fan base takes time; lack of interaction or negative/poor reviews on your business page can reflect on a company and create a negative impression. Reviews of your business cannot be deleted, whether they are bad or good.
Twitter: Unlike other social networking sites, there is 100-percent certainty your followers can see the tweets you send, as long as they are actively following your page. Solid metrics are also available, and Twitter provides the opportunity for one-on-one contact with individuals that are engaged with the page.
Things to Consider: Most people follow multiple accounts, so don’t count on exposure based solely on followers. Selling a product or service is oftentimes considered spam and though it could provide more exposure for your business, it could also mean more negative interactions.
LinkedIn: Businesses and professional individuals receive exposure which drives website traffic, as this platform allows you to stay up-to-date with news on your industry or field and supplies data about companies, which saves time and resources. It is also an avenue if you are looking for employment, or to look for different skill-sets by viewing the professional profiles of others. It is most definitely slanted toward businesses and networking.
Some people treat connections as more of a database, meaning your connections on LinkedIn may or may not be meaningful. There are millions of users on LinkedIn, which can create a ‘needle in a haystack’ feeling, though the filters for upgraded accounts are relatively robust when searching for certain companies or employee skill-sets.
Instagram: Free insights and analytics, direct contact with followers, provides directions to locations, is visually-driven and makes it easy to create promotions. You can promote posts from your business app.
Things to consider: Business profiles cannot be set to private and do not have all the tools that individual profiles have; Instagram reduces growth; you cannot click on links within a post; and there is less visibility. Users can only link to one Facebook profile and posts can only be uploaded via a phone.
YouTube: Your video has the opportunity to go viral and reach millions of users – YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. You receive Google support, since Google owns YouTube; and because it is a free platform, it is ideal for anyone to try it out because there is not a large financial investment.
Things to consider: There is no guarantee whether people will opt to watch your video, there are video restrictions, people must figure out how to subscribe to your channel and negative reviews cannot be hidden from view.
Nextdoor: Focuses on people and places that are physically close to you and each other making it hyper local, it is labeled as the one app that ‘could save humanity’ and it automatically pulls everyone in the geographic area into your network. People must unsubscribe in order to be removed from a government page.
Things to consider: Only members of your neighborhood can visit your page. Members of other neighborhoods are unable to look or visit your page. Neighbors are essentially walled in from other communities.
