Everyone uses social media nowadays. And by everyone, I mean everyone. If my 80-year-old grandma can use Facebook, so can you!
To help you determine what social media sites and apps are best for both professional and personal use, we’re here to count down seven you should consider using.
Social media may seem easy, but every site and app offers something different. The first step you will want to take is deciding the goal of your social media channels.
To help you figure out your goal, ask yourself these questions:
Now that you've read the questions, keep thinking about them as we talk about the following seven social media channels:
When someone says social media, the first thing most people think of is Facebook. Why? Simply because it’s the most popular platform. With over 2.2 billion monthly active users, it’s no wonder why people have Facebook on their minds.
Facebook can be used for both personal and professional use and tends to be pretty user-friendly across the board.
Users can engage with their family and friends on a personal level while businesses can share content with their audience as well as answer any questions.
As with any social channel, regardless if it’s for personal or professional use, your content only lasts for a certain amount of time.
For Facebook, a post is relevant for about five hours. From a business perspective, this makes it extremely important to make sure you have a consistent posting schedule. Creating a content calendar is a great way to help!
Although Instagram was purchased by Facebook, it is a very different type of social media channel.
On Instagram, everything that can be posted is visual — whether it’s through pictures or videos. Even though it doesn’t have as many active monthly users as Facebook, it still fluctuates within the top five social media channels.
Instagram is great for both individuals and businesses alike. Because only visuals are shared, people don’t mind scrolling through their feeds. Some profiles are so aesthetically pleasing that you can just get lost in the photos.
It's important to note that your Instagram content lasts for about 21 hours. From a business standpoint, it's crucial to make one post a day because the content doesn't last very long.
Twitter has a similar concept to Facebook, but the content is short and sweet as there’s a 280-character limit on tweets.
This social media platform is a fantastic place to reach out to other businesses and users as well as share other peoples' content.
Tweets only last around 18 minutes, so it's important to put out several updates throughout the day for your business. But don't post too often or Twitter may put your account in "read-only" mode.
Stay tuned for a specific blog that discusses how to optimize your Twitter profile!
Did you know that LinkedIn is the largest networking site for both professional and personal use?
With LinkedIn, you can customize your profile and include your school, work and volunteer experience as well as include your portfolio or resume.
It’s also a great platform to post and find potential jobs.
For businesses, you can use LinkedIn to promote your services or products as well as inform your audience with important updates.
LinkedIn content typically lasts for about 24 hours, so keep that in mind as you’re planning out your content calendar for the month.
Whether you like crafting for fun or your business creates craft-type products to sell, Pinterest is a great place to look for ideas and to post original content leading back to your website.
If your business is using Pinterest, you’re in luck! 78 percent of users say that content from brands is useful compared to finding it on other sites.
As a business, you can create pins and categorize them into different boards for your viewers to browse through. If you’re an individual, you can also create boards using pins created by others!
On average, Pinterest posts last for around four months. This timeframe is longer than most other social channels, making it more beneficial overall for anyone who decides to use it.
For creating pins, it’s easier to use a desktop browser instead of using the app. However, browsing through pins and adding them to various boards is easier through the app (in my personal experience).
We’ve talked about ephemeral content a lot lately, but it’s a hot topic! Snapchat is one of the apps that solely uses content that is only available for a limited amount of time before it disappears.
Snapchat is extremely popular for personal use among Generation Z, but social media influencers and businesses are starting to jump into this app as a part of their digital marketing strategy, too!
If you’re looking to target a younger crowd, Snapchat is the way to go!
Although you can’t access the app through a desktop at this point, Snapchat just released a Snap Camera you can use to place filters on photos and videos through your computer’s camera.
YouTube was launched almost 15 years ago and never would the creators have thought that almost five billion videos are watched every single day as of 2019.
If your business has the basic social media channels mastered, you may want to consider adding YouTube as a part of your digital marketing strategy.
On average, YouTube video content lasts for around 20 days.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know a little more about these seven channels, go back and think about the questions I mentioned at the beginning. After you create your goals, then you can decide which social media channels are best for your digital marketing strategy!
Getting started with social media can be difficult, but you shouldn't have to struggle! At RevLocal, our social media plan can help your business start out on the right foot. Talk with your marketing strategist or request a demo with a marketing consultant today!
Lauren Snyder, Content Contributor
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