Deciding which social networks are important to your business requires analyzing what goals you want to achieve through them.
Social media is an important factor for the recognition of your company. The importance of social networks in companies grows the greater the use of social networks by users,equally, the more popularity these networks acquire, the more the possibilities they offer companies.
Since its arrival, social media has been a new business channel for companies,where they mainly try to attract new customers but also use them for many other actions such as making themselves known and branding, gaining reputation, establishing professional networks, having real-time knowledge of the sector, etc. The most popular social networks today have millions of users,many of whom can be part of your company’s target audience.
In this article we help you discover what are the keys that your company must consider to have a presence on social networks and which social networks to choose.
Key factors before choosing your social networks
Before you open profiles on all popular social networks today, you should get answers to the following questions to determine which social networks are best for your business:
- What social networks your target audience is on:The first thing you need to know is which social networks your customers are on.
- Doesthe social network users do fit your business? Your social media presence should allow your business to give answers and solutions to the users who are on them.
- What are the goals of your company to be on social networks: Social networks are more suitable than others for specific purposes.
- Determine what your resourcesare: you should assess how much time and money you are willing to invest in social networks, since it is not enough to create a profile in them, and therefore require human and economic resources. If you can’t manage them in your company, you can outsource their management by hiring agencies or freelancers.
Answering these questions will help you select the social networks you should be present on.
Types of social media
Nowadays there are many social networks working. Before we focus on the most important ones, which are surely among those that you will have to choose in which to have a presence, we will proceed to introduce a short classification:
Generalist social networks
Generalist social networks,also known as horizontal social networks,seek interaction between people and brands without a specific goal. In them you can talk about any subject and are equally valid for B2B and B2Cbusiness models. The most popular social networks today such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Snapchat, tok tok, Pinterest and WhatsApp are part of the group of generalist social networks.
Specialized social networks
Specialized social networks allow a greater selection of the audience with which we want to interact. They generally specialize in professions. Among the various specialized social networks, LinkedIn is the most popular.
Themed social networks
Within the thematic social media group are YouTube, Vimeo, or Spotify, among others. They are platforms in which users find content focused on the same topic or format.
Geolocation social networks
Geolocation social networks make a lot of sense for businesses, especially if we’re talking about local businesses. Among them, the most famous are Google My Business, Foursquare and Facebook Places.
What social networks are important to your business?
Considering the types of social networks and the usefulness of each of them,and the questions you need to answer to choose your social networks, we will determine which social networks are important in each case. How to choose which ones to have a presence in? Which ones are best suited for your business?
Although it has lost a lot of popularity, Facebook is the social network with the highest number of users,but that doesn’t mean that your business has to be present on Facebook and dedicate all its efforts to developing Social Media strategies on the platform.
Most Facebook users talk about their life, show interest in specific tastes, etc. and for this reason, Facebook offers great targeting possibilities for businesses.
On Facebook users show their most personal face. Its character is mainly leisure and leisure.
Another of its great advantages is the platform that offers to make promoted ads,which together with the possibilities of targeting, can be a very effective paid advertising.
On Facebook you can find the same users as in professional networks, but on their most personal side. This can be an advantage, as at this moment of more relaxation users can see your brand from a better point of view. It’s a pretty useful social network for B2C businesses
Even as part of Facebook, today Instagram outperforms Facebook in popularity, and in recent years it has become a social network where branding and paid advertising can be very effective. Instagram has a very high engagement rate and quality images and visual content are often successful.
For this reason, if working brand awarenessis one of your company’s goals, choosing Instagram among the social networks on which to be present is a good option. You can make Instagram your main social network as long as you have a Bio in which you show accessible to your business.
Instagram is an equally effective social network for B2C and B2B models.
LinkedIn is one of the best social networks for companies based on a B2B model. LinkedIn seeks professional relationships that generate business and good use of it involves publishing content based on work aspects.
LinkedIn is a social network that has traditionally been widely used to look for employment, it is a very useful platform to look for work, but to help users find work, they must have an active profile and take care of their personal brand.
Twitter is also one of the most widely used social networks for companies. One of its most outstanding advantages is immediacy. Content posted on Twitter is volatile and passes fast. But this advantage means that companies have to be very active in it and tweet several times a day if they want their profile to gain visibility and relevance.
It is ideal to promote the digital communication of your company,since its dynamism allows you to dialogue quickly and directly. This is why political parties use it and are present in it.
Google+
Google+ never finishes working the same as other social networks, but being part of Google can’t be considered a failure. Anyone with an email on Google has a profile on this network but this factor has not served for it to take off. Google+ is Google’s endless commitment to having its own social network.
Although there are few active users in it, Google+ is important as one of the social networks for companies because it helps to position in the search engine, becoming this advantage in its main benefit.
Youtube
If you sell products in which it is important to know how it works, or ease of use, Youtube is one of the essential social networks for your company in which you must have a presence.
Creating quality videos of your products and services requires time and resources (human and economic) so it’s not always available to all companies.
YouTube has great advantages for companies.
- Helps organic positioning in search engines(SEO).
- It helps companies differentiate themselves from the competition. If you want to read more about Marketing strategies on Youtube, do not miss this article.
Google My Business
Companies that have a physical presence or are local businesses should enhance their presence on geolocation platforms.
For a business it is important to be found and subsequently valued. Therefore, pay special attention to Google My Business. In addition, it also helps positioning. Users who have to go to a specific site and don’t know where it is, check into Google. They find it super useful to find it quickly and with reviews that offer additional information.
Pinterest has been in Spain for a long time being a reference social network, but gradually has been losing activity. Although the traffic it generates is high, we would only advise it if you have many resources and can allow you to expand your presence on initially defined social networks.
In both cases, I think there are social networks for your company that better meet the general objectives that any project aspires to. And that’s where brands can focus their efforts.
Snapchat and Tik tok
Every year new social networks emerge, some arrive to settle down and others stay on the road or are displaced by new ideas. These are among the most recent social networks.
Snapchat pioneered short videos and images that are released for a limited time as well as augmented reality filters, and became a very popular social network for a limited time, as it is now not as popular. Instagram introduced its stories, betting on ephemeral content and taking the spotlight away from this social network.
Mean after, Tik tok was launched in 2018 and is based on Musical.ly already emerged in 2014. Although its use is not yet widespread among audiences of all ages, with its users among the younger audiences, Tik tok is reaping successes. Tik tok is a social network to create and share short videos. The app allows users to create 3–60-second short videos that are fun, share them, and create community. It is currently gaining ground in the United States and many other countries around the world.
Let’s hope this article helps you decide which social networks are most important to your business, if you need help developing an effective network strategy, do not hesitate to contact us at Kiwop, web development agency and Digital Marketing. We help you!
