5 Social Media Platforms for Your Business other than Facebook
Pretty much everyone and their grandmother has a Facebook profile these days, and with the most active number of users, it’s a must for your business. But because the marketing value of Mark Zuckerburg’s brainchild is already established, let’s take a look at a few other platforms that are also great marketing tools.
Twitter is an excellent place to post images and quick blurbs that can be re-tweeted, causing your content to go viral. It’s easy to ride the wave of popular trends by incorporating hashtags (#icecreamsundae) in your posts. Twitter users will often reciprocate re-tweets, so make sure you re-tweet posts from users with a lot of followers.
LinkedIn (additional information below)
LinkedIn offers an easy way of connecting with an almost unlimited number of professionals. If one of the main thrusts of your company involves business to business interactions, LinkedIn is the place for you to network. Even if your product or service is geared toward consumers, LinkedIn can still be a good place to find a supplier, distributor, employee, investor, or even a corporate client.
Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most popular social media sites, and it’s incredibly user friendly. Images are the bread and butter of Instagram, so it’s a great place to put up photos of company events and make your workplace look fun (hey, if the Quaker Oatmeal guy has an engaging profile, your business can too). Instagram is also a great place to get clients and customers to post photos of your product or service in return for a raffle ticket or prize.
Pinterest is another visually oriented site that allows your images to be “pinned” by other users, which broadly expands the base of viewers. Research has shown that unlike other social media sites, many Pinterest users are actively searching for a particular product, and browsing the options they see on Pinterest, making this site a must if you have visual content that can show off your business or service.
Yelp
Yelp is not really a social media site per se, but it’s a must for any business. If your business is not on Yelp, that may look suspicious. The main attraction of Yelp is customer reviews, so it’s a great place to build up the reputability of your business by offering clients and customers an incentive for leaving a positive review. Having a number of positive reviews on your site will also preempt the negative effect of the one sour apple who will inevitably complain about something.
5 Tips for Linking in to Your LinkedIn Network
So you’ve made a profile on LinkedIn to add to your rotation of social media outlets. But are you leveraging the unique power of LinkedIn to assist you in your professional development?
- Strengthen Your Profile
Do everything you can (tactfully) to make your profile stand out. Choose a professional looking head shot and a background photo that represents your business. Fill out every section in dynamic detail, telling the story of what you do, rather than just listing places you’ve worked at. Optimize your searchability by utilizing hot words that potential employers are using in their searches.
- Connect with the Right People
You may have noticed that unlike other social media sites, LinkedIn has fewer restrictions on the number of people you can connect with daily, so build up your digital network. Conduct searches using keywords that relate to your industry or business goals, because LinkedIn will start suggesting connections that match those criteria.
- Publish or Perish
LinkedIn allows you to publish articles on their site, so share your expertise with members of your network. Send your article to friends and colleagues, and ask them to comment, like, and share your article.
Post regularly on the homepage, and join the conversation on other people’s posts. While algorithms are frequently changing and mysterious unicorns, many experts agree that commenting on people’s posts will increase the frequency with which your posts show up in their feed. If anything, they will notice that you’re engaging them, and usually return the engagement.
- Start a Conversation
It’s amazing that when we go to a party, we understand that there are certain “rules” of engagement, but when it comes to social media, that goes out the window as we attempt to hawk our product or service to everyone who doesn’t care.
When you make a new connection on LinkedIn, look over their profile. Introduce yourself, and comment on something interesting you noticed about them or their business. Don’t bother selling them something, because they’ll disengage. If they’re interested in you or what you have to offer, they’ll check out your profile or business page anyway. Make genuine connections, because those are what will help you in the long run.
- Link Your Business
LinkedIn offers the opportunity to add links to your website, blog, or freelancing page through various buttons and extensions. Take advantage of the traffic that naturally comes to your page through searches and your growing network, and redirect some of those clicks to your product or service.
