Which Social Media Platforms Should Your Business Use?

Social media is prolific. It almost seems there are new sites, new platforms springing up nearly every week. There’s so much choice out there. How do you, as a fledgeling business, know which ones to use? Which ones generate the most traffic? Which sites should you set yourself up with?

Here at Sample Room, we think, along with most things, that it comes down to your business, your brand and importantly, your customer. If you’ve done your research about your target market, then you know who your customer is. You know who you’re selling to. And that means, you know which social media sites are going to get you the most exposure that will benefit your brand. Ultimately, that will translate into more business dollars.

But, let’s be honest, there are some sites that generate exposure more so than others. There are social media sites that are good for businesses and there are ones for, well…um…social linkages, to phrase it in the nicest possible way.

So, firstly, let’s talk about Instagram. If you’ve got your brand ready to launch, if you’re looking to widen your exposure to your target market, then get yourself a business account on Instagram.

There are many ways for you to increase your followers on Instagram.

Be strategic about who you follow: make a list of the brands that identify with yours the most, including the reasons why, and follow them.

Make interesting comments on those sites; comments of ‘geez, cool’ aren’t going to generate interest in your brand. Be thoughtful, interesting and funny in your comments. That is what will lead others to your site and they become your new followers.

Look into ways to streamline your posts so that it’s more time effective. Let’s face it, nobody, except for teenagers avoiding homework, has time to endlessly skulk through Instagram to create posts and make thoughtful, engaging comments. Look into the various apps that can schedule posts. Canva helps you do all your posts and allows you to set up schedules for posts – and it’s free too! If you haven’t already heard of it or started using it, get onto it! Similarly, Schedugram is another useful tool for scheduling, posting, hashtags and all things related to Instagram. It’s not free – keep that mind.

Hashtags! Not so long ago, most of the world assumed that hashtags were useless. Not so. Using the right hashtags can help you expose your brand. Have a clear strategy in place for your use of them. Do your research and discover which hashtags your followers are using most, and which ones are most active. Use them. You can also use those active hashtags to search for other posts that use those same hashtags.

Once you’ve found some that you identify with and aligns nicely with your brand, then start commenting.

Pinterest is another high traffic social media site that we suggest you think of for your brand exposure. It doesn’t take much to set up and can generate up to thirty percent of traffic to your site.

Twitter, of course, is still a powerful method of putting yourself out there, but each tweet has such a quick turnaround that there’s a chance your brand could be missed. Which leads us to Facebook, the stalwart of social media. Facey is the behemoth of sites, isn’t it? Well, you’d think so, and it does have its positives. A Facebook group is one such positive and Facebook ads have incredible reach.

They’re great for support and collaboration among similar brands and businesses. You might notice that we’ve spent more time on Instagram than other social media platforms. That is simply because we think it’s far superior. For all the success of the other mentioned platforms and those that we’ve not mentioned, we like Instagram for a business account.

Finally, a cautionary word: be aware of followers who aren’t playing nicely. Don’t be afraid to delete any posts or comments or tags that seem a bit off for you. Remember, it’s your brand, so be brutal.

Block followers if needed. The whole idea is to get your brand noticed, to put yourself out there, build a community of followers to your brand. Get on it, folks – and good luck!