By Kristin Savage
Social networks are a global trend of recent years, and if your business is still not represented on the most popular platforms, then you can assume that your business simply does not exist. Or your audience is limited to random visitors to a site or a point of sale, and nothing more.
In this article, we have collected 14 social media sites, each with unique marketing opportunities for your small business. We advise you to check our list and you will definitely find several places from which you can get an influx of fresh blood.
The Most Popular Social Media Sites for Business
So, in fact, the following seven platforms no longer need to be introduced. However, we will briefly talk about the possibilities of each of them so that you can include the most suitable ideas in your social media strategy for 2019.
1. Facebook
Perhaps the description of this social network will be superfluous. We will only recommend you to use its best opportunities for advertising and promotion. The most important thing you need to know about Facebook advertising is that it provides very flexible opportunities for segmentation of the target audience, and if you do everything right, you will hit right on target.
2. Instagram
This is a subsidiary of Facebook, and it is the best tool for business at the moment. Yes, we are not exaggerating. This platform makes it possible to advance through brand hashtags, cooperate with influencers, run contests and marathons, and also use IGTV and Stories to show the real-life of your business. And this is far from the limit.
3. Twitter
Microstories on Twitter also have great business potential, especially if complemented by interesting graphics. Share your innovations and ideas and track the reactions of subscribers.
4. Linkedin
If you work in the B2B segment, be sure that you will not find anything more suitable. The audience of the platform is business owners and professionals from various fields who constantly need business services. Sometimes even the right connection turns into a lead here.
5. YouTube
It’s not necessary to talk about YouTube a lot. But if you have at least the slightest opportunity to create your YouTube channel and upload videos related to your business, be sure to do it. Video is the second trend of our time, and most likely, this trend will not change in the coming years.
6. Pinterest
This is also a visual network. Its capabilities are slightly more limited than the capabilities of Instagram, and the main advantage is that you can use content created by users.
7. Snapchat
If your target audience is teens and young people, you simply have no right to ignore Snapchat. Yes, this platform is somewhat unusual, but its users still love to interact with brands here, as well as on other social media.
The Most Promising Social Platform You Need to Consider
These platforms have a much smaller number of users compared to those that were included in the previous list, but their potential for business, if not even huge, is definitely worth your attention.
8. Viber
Although the functionality of Viber is not too wide, this messenger can very well be used as a way to communicate with clients of your business. To do this, you just need to create a chain of targeted messages and add the ability to go to the order form directly from the messenger. This is a suitable tool for delivery services, taxi services, and retail business.
9. Telegram
This is a convenient messenger that has already partially pushed Skype to the background. This can be effectively used both for personal communications and for interaction between team members, as well as for maintaining communication with regular customers.
And the best thing you can do to maximize the capabilities of this messenger is to create and implement a chatbot that will answer the most common questions of your subscribers, provide useful content and work instead of the entire customer support department.
10. Medium
This is a great blogging platform that has long established itself as a source of really useful and valuable information. If you are working on developing your own blog, why not do it using this platform? Its advantage is that it already has a fairly vast, hot and interested audience that responds to really useful information quite loyally.
11. Tumblr
The main advantage of this site is that it easily makes it possible to repost someone else’s content. Create something interesting and users themselves will make you popular.
12. Baidu
This is a Chinese social network. Yes, we do not know much about it, but a huge Chinese audience cannot imagine their life without this platform. Therefore, if your product or service is already localized to a Chinese audience, then your direction for promotion is this particular platform.
13. Reddit
Reddit is a unique mix of human revelations, which positions itself as the main page of the Internet. This tool can be useful to the business in several ways. Firstly, you can create short notes designed to solve user problems, comment on posts that are related to your business one way or another, as well as track the most popular publications and stay up to date with trends.
14. Quora
This social platform is made in the format of questions and answers. Its main advantage is that here users openly talk about their pains and problems, and can get advice from disinterested persons. And it can be used to the benefit of your business. First, you will always be aware of what your target audience is concerned about, and second, if you give a good answer to a question with a link to your business, you will get quite promising potential customers.
Conclusion
Do not limit yourself to just one social platform. Choose the one whose main idea and opportunities are most appropriate for your business, and develop strategies for each of them. With this approach, you will be able to get such a target audience, whose values correspond to your business as well.
Featured photo credit: Depositphotos