How To Pick The Right Social Media Platform

Social Media Marketing

How To Pick The Right Social Media Platform

By finishercreative ⋅ July 28, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Filed Under Bradford, Finisher Creative, Haroon Rashid, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, West Yorkshire

SHARE THIS!

Social media marketing is vitally important to businesses succeeding online. That debate is long over. One of the biggest questions facing businesses now is, “Which social media platform should we use?”

The temptation is for businesses to jump on a lot of them and everything falls apart. they can’t keep up with everything, the become inconsistent and they end up frustrated and thikning that this ‘social media thing’ doesn’t work. (For more help see this video).

It does work. You just need to know how to work it.

And how you start is vitally important.

Here is how you can pick the right social media platform for your business:

1. What’s Your Plan?:

I bet you were hoping I wouldn’t mention this. And that’s precisely why I have to. Most businesses either don’t have a marketing plan or they fail to see that social media is a tool that should be used to accomplish your markeitn plan. (Check out this video which explains this principle in more detail).

You have to have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, do not jump on social media!

2. What Content Are You Creating?

The strength of you online marketing and social media efforts are determined by the strength of your content.

Think of it this way – what are you going to be sharing/posting on social media platforms?

Surely the answer is ‘content’.

Now think of it contextually. There are lots of people and there are lots of social media sites. Our lives are cluttered with content in our repsective news feeds. We are bombarded with content. The companies that win are the ones with the most compelling content. Content is not king. Compelling content is king.

Based upon your marketing plan you will determine what content you are creating and in which formats – video, blogs, podcasts, pictures, infographics, Slideshares, physical products etc.

3. Sign Up According To your Content:

As you can see in point no.2, you will have a lot of content (and most likely in different formats.) From this you will be able to determine which social media platforms suit your content the best.

For example, if you have a lot of video content then YouTube is an obvious choice for you.

If you have a lot of potential for pictures and visual stimulation then you could consider Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.

It all depends on your plan and your content. Get those two points sorted first and the rest will fall into place.

Hi, I’m Haroon Rashid and I’m the author of this blog and the founder of Finisher Creative. If you are a small business or a charity/non-profit I would be more than happy to talk to you about your online marketing and social media needs. If you’re in the Yorkshire area (UK) I’ll even take you out for a coffee! You can email me on info@finishercreative.com, check me out on Facebook, follow me @FinisherCre8ive or Google+ I look forward to hearing from you!