Best Social Media Sites for Small Businesses
Are you feeling confused or behind on the current social media trends? Owning a small business can make you feel like you don’t need to be totally up on current social media standards like the major companies out there. However, that is totally false! Every sized business needs to capitalize every aspect of social media. Although social media may seem currently overwhelming to you, this blog post will help simplify and break down the different social media sites that your small business needs!
First, before you read any further, we need to establish something very important. Establishing your website must be of greater importance before you move on establishing your social media sites. Your website is the “portal” where you connect to and from any other external points.
With that being said, your social media sites are the important component to help guide your customers to your website! See what we did there? Social media sites are the vehicle that drives your traffic to your website, which is your key component to your business. This is why becoming “social” is so important to your marketing plan. Social media is the main source where your potential and new customers will be coming from.
So, where do you start now that you know how important having social media is to your small business? The guide below on the best social media sites for your small business is listed in order of highest importance.
Currently the largest social media platform, Facebook is hosting over one billion users. If you don’t already have a Facebook, you’re missing out on your main source of new customers. We are talking billions of people here! Lucky for you, setting up a Facebook is a fairly easy process. Once you create your page for your business, users will then “like” your page, which then posts it on their “wall”. In this case, your page will start being shared and seen quickly every time someone likes your posts or page. Facebook is putting your brand in front of an audience you didn’t have before.
The next top leading social media app in the world is Twitter. This “mini-blogging” social media app is just a large network of information. Posts can only have 140 max characters, allowing people to post short and to-the-point tweets (messages) to the world. Twitter is different from Facebook because users “follow” you rather than “like” you. Once they follow you, your tweets (posts) show up on their “feed”. You can also follow other users, which is usually the best way to gain followers for yourself, as well as using strong hashtags (#food, #fashion, etc.).
Twitter is an amazing tool to connect with people and other businesses participating in the same events and gatherings. Through Twitter, you can follow hashtags, like if you were attending a concert or live event of any sort. As a business, you can use this to your advantage and use your own hashtag! Twitter is one of the easiest social media apps to understand, there’s not much more to it than following, tweeting, and liking.
YouTube
If your small business can incorporate videos in any way, YouTube is the social media app for you. YouTube is a video-sharing social media site owned by Google. Hosting one billion new active users each month, with new video uploads of 48 hours every minute! As a small business owner, video strategies, and keywords for your videos is another important component of your online strategy.
One of the newest and largest hits in the business world is Instagram. It is slowly becoming one of the most widely used business tools today. If you are not caught up with Instagram, you are lacking serious potential with gaining new customers and targeting specific audiences. Instagram is mainly a photo app, where you post photos and add captions to each photo. Your photos will show up on your followers feed, and create a picture collage on your Instagram company “page”.
That is why Instagram is huge for small businesses, you get to showcase your products and the lifestyle your business promotes through photos. Instagram allows you to create a certain image for your business to attract new customers. The best way to grow on Instagram is by following a targeted audience, using hashtags related to your product or service, and staying active to your audience by liking and commenting on their posts. The more engaged you are with other pages in your industry, the more likely you can grow your following automatically.
Google Plus
Google+ is obviously owned by Google, and is a similar social media app to Tumblr or Pinterest, but is it more corporate and professional. It includes Google+ messenger, hangouts, circles, and instant uploads. Its search engine rankings are what your small business can benefit from Google+.
LinkedIn is the official social networking site connecting 135 million people from 200 countries. Wow! Basically, LinkedIn is an online resume for an individual or business, and connects you to mutual friends or businesses, and allows others to “connect” or view your resume. It also has job listings, interest groups, and helps jobs and people find you! Dedicating about an hour or two a week on LinkedIn by connecting with other people, and updating your profile is important for your businesses resume.
If your type of service or product is visually appealing (probably a yes), then Pinterest is the social media app for you. Pinterest is a massive vision board filled with stylish, trending, and inspiring photo sharing. The mission of Pinterest is to connect the world through a shared taste and interests. Users can follow or create themed “boards” and “pin” their favorite photos. Pinterest also allows you to link your website to your beautiful photos so users can buy your products!
Yelp
As the king of all reviews, Yelp is not structured like the normal social media networking site, however, it has over 140 million users. Customers trust Yelp with reviews and ratings of all sorts of companies and businesses. You can acquire a lot of new business through your customer’s reviews and comments!
The post The Social Media sites Every Business should be using appeared first on SocialProof.
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