Justathought

It is 1 am and you are furiously typing away – replying to important business queries on LinkedIn, or posting a comment on Facebook, sharing an interesting article on twitter, thinking which picture to next post on Instagram, concising the advert for SnapChat or WhatsApp or writing a blog on WordPress... somehow, you wish there was just more time to cover ALL of your online presence! Familiar scenario? What if I tell you, your online appearances needn't be across all platforms but you can choose what suits you and yet be known?

There are few key points that you have to consider first and identify some important factors:

• What is the prime need for your business to be on social media – is it growing/enhancing your business, getting more customers/clients or be a well-known entity?
• Who is your target audience? (yes, I say audience because what you put out there is nothing less of an art!) - each social media platform have their specific goal, caters to different age groups, appeals to certain select groups, etc.
• Are you looking for a boost for a start up or looking at expansion or just showing your presence in the market?

You need to understand these first, for you to narrow down on the most important site(s) in which you wish to be seen!... Simple

Let us delve a little deeper into what it entails -

First off, what kind of business set up are you –

• Start ups/New businesses: Well, there’s no saying which site will particularly give you that much needed boost. Most new businesses are present in all social media platforms – of course the language and content that goes into each media is modified to cater to the generic outlook of the site. These businesses invest heavily on making themselves seen, heard and talked about and social media platforms readily offers all of these. This also helps grow a network from which they can source out their potential business.
• Expansion/growing businesses: A more evolved set up than a new venture – I am sure you would have spent enough on research and marketing that you know which the most profiting platform is for you. Mostly when businesses reach this stage, they know who exactly their target customers are and where to find them. This is when they start filtering where to invest their hard earned money to get them ample returns – which means some of the social media sites may be nulled and some may get double allocations!
• Established businesses: Now these are pros in what they do and seek perfection in everything – including their thorough research. Here again are two things, these entities may choose to just have a presence in few social media sites (not necessarily advertising but generally putting up important news/announcements/new product launch etc) to eliminate competition to their establishment. You would forget your favourite brand if they didn’t pop up somewhere telling something!!! On the other side these businesses could completely remove themselves from social media and rely on the older forms of marketing (TV ads, print ads, radio ads, etc).

Sites like Twitter – where the CEO could tweet of important announcements or make an opinion on some issue, WhatsApp – where there’s a mass message of an upcoming launch (maybe), Instagram – where words are supported with pictures/videos, help retention of brand names in one’s mind. Businesses use this tool to their advantage wherein the investment is low but there’s guaranteed retention in the customers mind leading to growth of their entity.

Now, let’s look at some of the platforms and what they actually do to your business and who it caters to, then it’s easy-breezy to put yourself out there in the right places!

Facebook – Though it is a more personal insight kind of platform, there’s one huge advantage this site has – It has members of ALL ages and backgrounds. So if you are in the service industry, resource and survey industry, artiste, B2C set-up, then this is an apt place to be seen. Many B2B enterprises literally 'loot the market' here, however, it is advised to analyse carefully who is the target audience here – it may seem like an ocean of customers when you want only some shells!  Some industries may not do so good (like technical industry or research based industry, industries dealing with hardcore scientific interests, etc.,.) unless they post an article or video/picture links that might garner attention. There are paid advertisements too so the choices offered by this site is endless.

LinkedIn - This is a portal purely made for business and also a brilliant SEO tool – much needed for your business now! (check my previous blogs to know all about this site). So here, all you can or rather should do is talk about what you did, are doing and will do in the business world! Works for most industry types and serious businesses will definitely have to be seen here – either as a company or as an individual.

Instagram – This is more a niche portal with lesser reach than FB. However, there are 'sponsored' posts that could reach out to those who aren't following you or vice versa. Though this site could lean towards being a personal profile maker, it still gives a large leeway to advertise (prettily, since it has visual options – works like a 'charm' for many fashion, arts and artistic business, who are literally reaping a lot of benefits). This is presently the 'in-thing' for businesses to be seen!

Twitter – I call this the 'opinioners forum'! Individuals opine on anything and everything here.  Apart from creating sensations with words across the internet, this site pretty much can hype anything – be it announcements, links, products, reviews..... just 'shout-out' on Twitter and the world will soon know!  So you must be careful HOW to create words of sensation if you are to make the best of this site.  (psst! Unleash the potential of this site – this is almost like a secret weapon to boost your business- tweet the right things and upload some interesting stuff about you/your business and... you'll thank me later!!!)

YouTube – Taken over by Google, brands can now have video ads supporting their business. Of course, not all products/services need a video ad but even connecting videos could do a lot more good for your business.

Also since this is a free of charge platform, it brings down your advertisement (visual) costs down to almost a pittance! It is also an excellent choice to have in association with an equally strong marketing site.

WhatsApp – A must try for start ups and small businesses – since there is direct interaction with customers. For more details on this medium and WhatsApp as a business tool...read the blog

SnapChat and Tumblr sites – Just like WhatsApp there will be direct interactions. However, I would suggest checking on the connections on these sites – there may be a repetition of persons who already are either following you on other sites or be your friends/connections. Beware! it could be like that annoying 'sir are you interested in our 0% loan' calls!

I know, when you set up your business (product or service) you want to reach out to maximum number of people but that doesn't mean the same people are bombarded with the same information on different mediums. Your business tag-lines/promotion has to be strong enough to impress across just a couple of effective social media sites.

If it is so required for your business or targets to represent in all sites/mediums, I suggest you atleast choose to post at different intervals, use different line of thoughts, tweak your language (according to the platform). You may probably want to consider to use scheduling tools (like Hootsuite or Buffer) if you feel it is darned necessary to be everywhere!!!

As I said earlier, you have to understand few key points, analyse them and I am sure with a few experiments here and there, you will well be on your way to understand when and where to be seen! (Ensure your targets are active and are receptive to your posts)

I hope I have set your brain muscles into work mode by ticking off a few questions and easing the dilemma of being present in all social media sites a little... I welcome if you want to counter any point or discuss further to help you narrow down on the perfect sites for you.