Types of Social Media Platforms:
Social media is a must now for companies to update clients about existing and new products, court new customers or clients and remain current about trends in our professional field. For the purposes of our company, there are five popular social media platforms worthy of consideration:
Facebook: This platform allows us to create a page about the business and encourage clients to follow us. We can share what’s new on a time line and we can post photos and links to company products. (www.facebook.com)
Google+: Google+ will integrate all Google services, uses Google search engines and existing Google profiles and we can customize our communications with options like Circles, Huddle or Hangouts. (Karch 2015)
Twitter: At Twitter we can “tweet” 140 characters at a time in either public posts, available for anyone to see, or protected tweets that only our followers can view. They are meant to be “..quick, frequent messages”. Tweets cannot be edited once posted, but they can be deleted. (www.support.twitter.com)
LinkedIn: This platform bills itself as “the world’s largest professional network” and is meant to encourage communication between professionals in similar fields or with similar causes and interests. It provides access to other LinkedIn members, jobs, news and updates that pertain to our field. (www.linkedin.com)
Pinterest: Pinterest is a very visual site that allows the users or for our purposes, clients, to bookmark articles and ideas for their use.
Advantages and Disadvantages to Social Media in the Workplace
There are billions of people globally using social media. (“Who is Using Social Media” 2014) Our business will be able to access far more people utilizing social media than any other advertising platform. In addition, all these platforms offer free services, with some offering paid advertising options. (Helmrich 2016) The paid advertising can either allow us to target our clientele more specifically or to step up our access to more options on a particular platform.
However, utilizing social platforms means delegating that responsibility to a member of the company, deciding what content to post and keeping content current. In addition, we will need to make our presence “heard” above the other clutter on these platforms and strategize how to attract “followers” to our posts. We also need to make sure social media does not become an artificial preoccupation. We still need to focus on the aspects of the business that have made us successful thus far.
Two Platforms Worthy of Consideration
I suggest we focus on just two social media platforms for consideration. I would dismiss Pinterest, due to its primarily female following, Twitter due to its limitation of 140 characters and need to post frequently and Google+ as this venue attracts mostly males and is more technically oriented. (“Who is Using Social Media” 2014) That leaves Facebook and LinkedIn as the more viable social platforms for our business.
Both Facebook and LinkedIn are free to use, have paid options that provide increased services or targeted advertising, offer some kind of “messaging” service to provide for contact between members or followers and both will allow us to link clients to articles or product pages for more information. In addition, both sites have an international following, allowing us to extend the reach of our company.
A major difference between the two is who they attract to their platforms. LinkedIn is meant to be for use among professionals. It is more popular than Twitter with adult users and its audience is well educated. (“Who is Using Social Media” 2014) It will allow us to post articles and we can become “Influencers” on the site, building and attracting more people to our business. As we look for more talent to join the company, LinkedIn can also help us find professionals by seeing posted profiles, posting jobs and having contact with applicants. (www.linkedin.com)
Facebook is the biggest social platform on the web with 1.55 billion active users world-wide. (Helmrich) It allows for business pages, where we can see current and past posts, allow followers to “like” us and it will provide us with a monthly report on the demographic breakdown of new users, who is following us and where our followers are located. (www.facebook.com)
Recommendation
I strongly suggest we make Facebook our primary social media platform. Our page, while needing updating, will not need to be done more than once a day (unlike Twitter). We may even be able to update once or twice a week, so social media does not become a full time job, but rather, can be incorporated into an existing position. It’s the largest platform offering global reach and we can reach all the various people in connection with our business: current clients, potential clients, job applicants and the public in general. In addition, with the provided demographics, we can opt to buy advertising to target areas that need growth. (www.facebook.com)
Finally, Facebook allows links, so we can easily direct clientele to our services and products. Although more females than males use Facebook, the disparity in their use is not as large as other social media platforms. The biggest users of Facebook are those in 24-45 year old demographic, who, presumably, will be in a position to patronize our company.(“Who is Using Social Media” 2014)
Reference List
Facebook. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://facebook.com/
Helmrich, Brittney. (2016, Jan. 29) Social Media for Business:2016 Marketer’s Guide.
Retrieved from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com
Karch, Marziah. (2015, March 4) Google+. Retrieved from https://www.google.about.com
LinkedIn. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/
Pinterest. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/
Twitter. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://twitter.com/
“Who is Using Social Media”. (2014, Dec. 2) Retrieved from https://www.rso-consulting.com
