The all encompassing social media has got everyone running at a marathon\’s pace to create a presence on the world wide web. With the online marketing cosmos having players such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, LinkedIn to name a few, the dilemma of making the right choice for marketing your product/blog/service is no less complicated than a three year old solving a Rubik\’s Cube.

Why Should You Be Present On Social Media?

  • Create a presence on social media to monitor what’s being said about you
  • Incredible tool for deepening connection with customers
  • Yield larger interest among customers through detailed marketing
  • Faster mode of communication
  • Minimal investment for small and medium scale businesses

With all the social media channels at our disposal, it is not a choice, but now a necessity to make one\’s presence in not one, but all the spheres of the online marketing. The social media channels not only enable way less cash outflow than traditional marketing techniques, but also channelizes our product and services through the right mediums enabling a larger market presence. The choice of the right channel or a multitude of channels however is the smart thing to do, helping you make sure that you are heard. So here\’s a basic checklist for business to determine which social media platforms they should be present and spending their resources on:

Choosing The Right Platform

This chart shows which industries are present on social media platforms.

A brand should focus their time and resources on practical social media platforms that work for them. Research has to be done to figure where their target audience is on social media and which platforms are most effective at creating brand awareness and engagement. If your target audience is minimal or non-existent on a particular platform, don’t waste your time on it. Read, research, plan, organize, schedule and make your way mark on social media.

Solve the Social Equation! They took the right measures and earned the cookie! Courtesy of Wed Me Good

In the small scale sphere, Wed Me Good,  an online portal that helps you to find wedding inspirations, ideas and the professionals who create dream weddings took to Facebook in the month of February, 2014. In it, you can view gorgeous real weddings and see the vendors they hired, or browse wedding inspirations by color, theme and category. With great content, visuals and links, WedMeGood got itself more than 3,000 likes in a span of two months. This poses as a great example of what benefits you receive while choosing the right platform.

Using More Than 1 Platform

When Instagram was on Twitter!

With a list of social media channels available, it does not come as a surprise when we find other social media brands having accounts on rival social media channels. In August last year, Instagram went offline for over an hour. They eventually took to Twitter to share their technical issue. This was due to the all encompassing presence of these channels making it inevitable for these channels to have accounts with their rivals.

Essentially, choosing the right social media platform is an individualistic choice that varies from business to business. What works for your competitor may not work for your brand. Thorough research and analysis should be done, so that your efforts and resources are not wasted on creating a presence on a social platform that doesn’t end up working for you brand.