Top 8 Best Social Media Sites helps for Business Marketing
There are so many different types of social media networks to promote our businesses, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. While we use these networks to connect with our future and current customers, there are also social networks that allow you to chat with other like-minded business professionals.
While LinkedIn may be the leader in social networking for professionals, there are a variety of other networks that allow for community and networking in different ways. With existing networks and new networks, there are plenty to chose from that all fit your needs and wants in finding a community of professionals to network with.
Here are 10 social networking sites for entrepreneurs, business owners, freelancers, bloggers, and other professionals that are worth looking at and joining to help your networking and promoting efforts, along with learning from other professionals.
Facebook has come a long way in a short seven years. Now with an estimated 800 million active users, it is ranked as the most used social networking service in the world. Lucky for you, starting a business page – and tapping into the power of Facebook – is pretty easy. Once your page is created, users ‘like’ it (opt-in to get your posts) and your news will be posted to their ‘wall.’
Twitter is an awesome way to connect with people and/or other businesses participating in the same event. Following a hashtag at a concert, live performance or webinar creates a richer experience. As a business owner, you can utilize this at events your company participates in.
Twitter differs from Facebook in that users ‘follow’ each other. If someone follows you, you can follow them back. Therefore it is easier to gain a following, but the followers are not as targeted as they are on Facebook.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing social media site that is owned by Google. There are more than 48 hours of new video uploaded to the site every minute. Wow! As a small business owner, using video in your online marketing strategy – and the back-end keywords of your YouTube video -is just as important as your other online strategies.
Google+
Google is a powerhouse; this is no surprise. Initially launched as a search engine company in 1996, Google has continually added, updated and created new products that will appeal to it’s 1 billion unique visitors per month.
Some of the features of Google+ include Circles, Hangouts, Messenger, Instant Upload, Hashtags and more. These products are definitely designed with the user in mind. The downside – there is no way to create a vanity url for your brand page.
LinkedIn is THE premier B2B social networking site. LI gets two new members every second, putting it at 135 million active users in more than 200 countries,Traditionally viewed as the spot to put your resume and search for a job, LinkedIn has growninto a robust networking site.
From job listings to interest groups (there are more than 870K groups) there are great benefits to keeping your profile up-to- date. Look at it as a business after hours event…. put on your suit, add a smile to your face and be on your best behavior because you never know what kind of business leads you’re going to get.
If your products are visually appealing, then this social media site is for you. Pinterest is a vision board-styled social photo sharing site that was launched in 2009. The mission is to connect everyone in the world through shared taste and the things they find interesting. Users find and create theme-based boards, populating these ‘boards’ with a “Pin It” button. Pins may be divided into pictures, videos, discussions, and gifts.
Quora
Quora is a great place for small business owners to be. For details, visit this recent post.So, there you have it. My top 10 list of best social media sites for small businesses. You may also find this super informative infographic helpful – Social Media Cheat Sheet.
Instagram is a mobile photo-sharing application and service that allows users to share pictures and videos either publicly or privately on the service, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr.
In addition to Instagram Stories, users can take and stream live video that disappears — sort of like a combination between Facebook Live and Snapchat. You can give customers a live look behind the scenes of interesting aspects of your business (or answer live questions through the comments). Once the video has ended, it is no longer available anywhere, which sets it apart from Facebook.
