Social media marketing is doing wonders for businesses. unprecedented reach, easy engagement options and fast-expanding user base make social media marketing a compulsory for all the businesses and brands irrespective of industry type. The enormous potential it carries to create a brand identity and boost brand image are unrivaled.
At a point of time social media means Facebook for many, but over the years quite a few new platforms like Twitter, Instagram have been added to the popular list. Subsequently, dedicated platforms for photos, videos, etc. started gaining ground.
Of course, already existing ones like Facebook do their best to add additional features to not cede the ground for the new platforms. The expansion of social media platforms is an interesting story; by the time one platform reaches its peak a new social platform comes and captures the imagination of people. So, in a way, Social Media is a never-ending story for now.
Well, when we come back to social media marketing potential, there’s so much confusion about the types of social media and which best suits for what kind of marketing activities, etc.
Here we try to explain different social media type and the advantage which comes with each of the platforms.
Broadly, social media platforms can be categorized into 4 types.
- SN or Social Networking sites
- Exclusive Photo Sharing platforms
- Dedicated for video platforms
- Blogging platforms
1. Social Networking Sites
These are the original social media outlets designed for socializing and networking, virtual though. Still, this segment of SM is most popular and has a huge reach.
Facebook with a monthly active user base of 2.4 billion, Twitter with the user base of more than 120 million and LinkedIn with a user base of nearly 500 million users dominate the Social Networking sites from amongst many other. All of these facilitate different interaction chances including liking the posts, sharing and commenting, etc.
There is a peculiar class of social networking platforms which are more interactive. Snapchat and TikTok fall under this categorization. There are being labelled as interactive social media platforms for all the interactive opportunities they have.
All these social media platforms are of great help to connect to the users. You can create a page or account on Facebook, Linked and Twitter. You can post about the latest developments, news about the company, about your services, different initiatives and also various promotional offers and discount sale, etc.
On Facebook the business pages are allowed to take rating. Twitter, also called as microblogging site, is mostly used to post about the company and industry news. Linked is widely used for career-related networking, where discussions about the industries and the latest developments take place to acquaint with such happening in and around the area.
All of the channels have enormous potential for marketing activities aiming to promote the brand, generate the leads and grow the business. Needless to say, these platforms offer great opportunities for engagement. Each channel has its own paid advertising opportunities.
Read different paid advertising options available on Facebook here.
These days, customer support is being offered over social media channels with an aim to provide everything at one platform.
Read about the social media customer service here.
It has become imperative for brands and businesses to monitor social media for negative stories. Often disgruntled customers are expressing their angst on social media. So, it is important to look for such developments and take the conversation offline and to address the queries quickly. Because social media has a large reach and everyone is watching you. Brands which are conscious of brand identity cannot afford not to do so.
2. Exclusive photo-sharing social media
Instagram and Pinterest are the two major dedicated photo-sharing social media platforms. Unlike social networks, you can just post and share the photo only on these platforms. Of course, you can speak through your photos, and there is space to describe your photos as well. The user base statistics for the site include over 500 million for Instagram and nearly 250 million for Pinterest. Both the platform offers photo-based feeds on timeline. Instagram doesn’t allow links, but the Pinterest provides for linking of the photos to product pages of Ecommerce portals.
Instagram brims with influencer marketing. Some of the highest-earning influencers are based on Instagram with associations with food, jewelry, clothing and other industries.
Both the platforms have paid advertising means giving you the advantage of a huge reach of the platforms for harnessing the business potential to grow.
3. Video Sharing Social Media platforms
Well, you all must be familiar with YouTube, the most popular video-sharing social media platform. Video content consumption is on a continuous rise for some time now and it is expected to grow further in the near future, as internet penetration increases and the data become cheaper.
Studies suggest that videos are best for engaging the people for long and offer ample scope to showcase the best features of products and services. The ROI is also far higher compared to other means marketing.
Videos become an integral part of social media marketing for various reasons these days. YouTube provides better marketing opportunities. If you are retailer or E-commerce site, video format best suits you to market and increase the ROI.
4. Blogging Sites
Blogging site also constitutes social media platforms. Tumbler and Reddit come under this social media group. These are different because they provide for longer blog posts besides photos and videos about the brand.
These are best for starting a conversation about niche topics and encourage discussions. Individuals can start blogs to express their own opinions and understanding as well. But content hear is rated based on the rating content is shown more. Not attracting any reaction on Tumbler and getting downvoted on Reddit may cause the disappearance of your content.
