Which Social Media Platforms are Right for Your Business?
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During the Q&A section of our most recent webinar, “The Art of Connecting Your Personal and Professional Brands,” we were asked a question that we felt deserved a more robust response than we were able to give during the live event:
Do I need to be on all social media channels to be successful?
Here we cover some of our top suggestions on how to utilize certain aspects of social media channels to positively impact your business—whether you are a solo-preneur or a team member at a large organization.
A Quick Overview:
While it may be tempting to have a presence on every social media channel, a good rule of thumb is to not have a channel just because. If you aren’t going to feed the channel with content, you’re better off not having one.
Secondly, where are your key stakeholders most likely to consume information? If you are a financial services company and only have enough resources to populate 1-2 channels, maybe you forego Instagram in the short-term and focus on Facebook & LinkedIn where your consumers spend most of their time. A good marketing partner (hint: KMG!) will help you determine which channels are best suited for your target audiences.
Let’s Dive In:
To help you decide which of the social media heavy hitters to leverage, we’ve created a shortlist of tips and tricks.
And—drum roll please!— introducing: Our handy dandy Professional Personality Score! To help you understand just exactly how professional your content should be on each channel, we’ve rated them on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the “most professional.”
→ LinkedIn: Having a LinkedIn company/business profile is a surefire way to showcase your professional side. It also helps your business—in plain terms— look more legitimate. Share industry thoughts, articles related to your business, professional blog posts, and more on here. Connect with like-minded individuals and thought leaders, and share their posts that are relevant to your business or showcase your interest in industry topics.
Professional Personality Score: 5/5
→ Instagram: Instagram is arguably the fastest way to deliver visual information to the public. Try to infuse your brand identity into your posts by choosing brand-related colors. Curate your feed by ensuring that each post seems to “fit” the visual story your profile tells. Try working with photography from free stock image websites like Unsplash.com to elevate your feed—layer text if you’d like to add even more easily-ingested information to your followers.
Professional Personality Score: 3/5
→ Facebook: The original networking platform, Facebook is suggested for all businesses and entrepreneurs to use due to its capacity to share and house more information on a social platform. Be sure to routinely update your hours, location, etc if those things should change. These days, you can even add slots for your services (prices too!) onto your Facebook “About Section.”
Professional Personality Score: 4/5
→ Twitter: Knowing that Twitter restricts its posts’ character numbers should be all you need to know about using this platform: short and sweet posts shine. Twitter is great for real-time updates, live chatter, and connecting with fans/consumers. Keep in mind that Twitter can be somewhat of a Wild West mentality: larger companies benefit from having customer service agents dedicated to watching Twitter for complaints.
Professional Personality Score: 3/5
→ TikTok: The youngest channel in the mix, Tik Tok is more of a playground than a professional platform. It’s fun, it’s fast, and it’s undeniable that influencers have built empires from their content on Tik Tok. Some industries that benefit from Tik Tok include retail, beauty and performing arts—you’re able to showcase products, how-tos, and video content quickly and in a shareable format. Because humor shines on Tik Tok, we encourage brands to step outside of the professional comfort zone and play with content here.
Professional Personality Score: 2/5
Overall, what it all really boils down to is knowing where your audience spends their time on social media, and what they’re interested in. If your demographics are young and you’re trying to grab their attention, stick with the image and video-driven platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok. As always, be sure to keep in mind where professional content fits. What is your post about, and how will it best be consumed by your audience?
And last but not least—trust your instincts. If your content calendar contains a drafted caption that gives you pause, go ahead and press pause on that post! Revisit it later, or ask a colleague for feedback. Taking a step away will allow you to most objectively identify what your caption is imparting to readers.
Curious to learn more about utilizing social platforms in the best possible way for your brand? We’d love to talk. Contact us today.
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