Social
Buzz
Evaluating Social Media What’s Best for Your Business by Ben Seidel The number of social media platforms increases nearly every day. Usage of these platforms also is on the rise for every demographic. Being involved with social media provides another way for customers to interact with your brand or product outside of the normal purchasing relationship. In addition, people use Google and other social media to investigate and gauge a company’s credibility. With all these benefits, social media still remains a daunting challenge for most small businesses to tackle. Part of the enormity of this challenge is the common misconception that your small business needs to be on all the major social media platforms. This is simply not true, nor is it economical. So, which platforms should your small business pursue? We recommend answering the following three questions to help get you started:
1. WHAT PLATFORMS WORK FOR YOUR TYPE OF BUSINESS? Is your product or service visual (i.e. a custom home builder or restaurant) or information based (i.e. accounting or legal services)? Highly visual businesses may push you towards Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest which are optimized for visual sharing. Are timely updates on industry news from your company sought after by your customers? Twitter works well for this format. Would most of your posts consist of shorter or longer updates? The answer will help determine the best platform for your business. 2. WHERE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS? Just because your product or service works for a particular social media platform, does not mean it will have success reaching your customer. As a company, you know who your ideal target market is, but can you deduce where they go for social media? For instance, if you’re targeting business to business relationships, you might notice your customers are participating on LinkedIn or industry specific social media platforms. If you do not know what social media your customers prefer, consider doing some research online for demographic usage statistics, or simply ask some of your current customers. 3. WHAT CAN YOUR COMPANY REALISTICALLY MAINTAIN? Even if the previous two questions point you to three different social media that work well for your company, you must identify what resources you can dedicate to managing social media.
38 | CATALYST - BUSINESS MAGAZINE