If you have any sort of business presence online, then you need to also be on social media. That’s because your prospects and customers are already there, which makes these platforms great places for you to connect with people and grow your business.
Now most online marketers are on Facebook and/or Twitter.
That’s excellent, as those are big platforms where it’s easy to connect with your market.
And while you shouldn’t spread yourself too thin across social media platforms, you’ll want to consider adding one or more of the following proven platforms to your marketing mix…
This is an image-based site, so it’s a good choice if you tend to post a lot of photos or other images. If you’re trying to build a visually based brand, or if you want to encourage your prospects to post images (such as in a contest), then Instagram may be good platform for you.
Take note that people who post on Instagram use very little text alongside most graphics (although they do tend to use plenty of hash tags). This is important that you follow suit, because you want your images to do the speaking for you. If you post images that are funny, emotional, or even informative, you’re more likely to get more shares.
This is another visually based platform. However, this platform lets both you and your users post graphics directly from websites. That makes this a good platform if your business relies heavily on graphics, such as if you have a cooking site, wedding-planner site, home improvement site, gardening, or similar.
Take note that women tend to use Pinterest more than men, and they tend to gravitate primarily towards the topics/niches mentioned above. You can sell products directly on Pinterest, particularly if these products look great in photos.
For example, if you have a food-based site or you sell recipe books, you might start a board on Pinterest that just depicts chocolate desserts. Or if you have a home-improvement site, you might start a variety of boards to depict kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels and so on.
YouTube
If you do any sort of videos, then you really ought to be on YouTube. Popular channels and videos not only can help you build your brand, drive traffic to your site and sell products, but you can also make money via YouTube’s profit sharing program.
If you’re selling to business owners or other professional people, then LinkedIn is good option for you. This platform not only lets you connect directly with other professionals, it also has features such as groups where you can connect and share information with like-minded individuals.
Google+
Google+ in theory has a lot of users, because Google was giving accounts to the social media platform to everyone who had any kind of Google account. However, the actual number of active users tends to be lower. If you sell to technically minded people, such as web developers or IT specialists, then you’ll want to consider using Google+ as part of your overall marketing strategy.
Conclusion
One final note…
As mentioned before, you’ll spread yourself too thin if you jump on all of these platforms. Instead, do your research to determine where your specific audience is most likely to congregate, and then focus on those specific social media platforms.