No Nonsense Guide to Social Media for Business

When we think about social media, the two main platforms that spring to mind are Facebook and Twitter. Social Media has become a huge part of our lives whether it be for business or personal and even if you do not have an account of your own the majority of people have heard of at least one of the big platforms.

According to Digital Insights in 2013 there were 1.15 billion+ facebook users worldwide, 500 million+ twitter users and 500 million+ Google+ users too. Pew Internet have reported that 72% of Online Adults are Social Networking Site Users. It is likely that these figures will continue to grow.

Most business owners are well aware of the fact that social media is a ‘must have’ if they want to do well online. What is not always clear is why social media is important and how to get the best from it. One thing is for sure, with so many people using social media on a regular basis you’re customers are sure to be among them.

Choosing the right platform

With so many social media platforms to choose from it can be hard to decide which one is best. Do you chose Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or any of the other myriad of options available? Do you need to have a presence on all of them? The simple answer of course is no. Rather than setting up lots of accounts that will end up sapping your time or lying dormant with no content, we advise you find the ones that you are comfortable with. It is also important to choose a platform that will allow you to engage your target audience.

If you are going to be using more than one social media platform as part of your marketing strategy then you need to factor in how long this is going to take as it will impact on your working day. It is worth considering tools such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Spredfast or Sendible. Why? Because they will help you manage multiple accounts at the same time and to schedule when you are going to post.

Let’s talk about the main platforms in more detail.

Facebook

In 2014 so far Facebook estimates that it has 1.28 billion monthly active users across the globe.

Twitter

Although not as popular as Facebook with 255 million active monthly users Twitter is one of the top social platforms. Unlike other platforms, with Twitter you are limited to 140 characters per tweet.

Google+

Google+ is actually the second largest social media platform with 540 million monthly active users in 2014. Britney Spears was the most followed Google+ user with a whopping 8.1 million followers.

Pinterest

With only 40 million active monthly users, Pinterest may seem to be the least popular. However, due to the graphical nature of the platform, any business with access to high quality sharable imagery should be giving it a whirl. It is worth pointing out that the majority of users (around 80%) are female.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Other notable social media platforms include YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat and the list goes on.

Social Media Integration

It has now become commonplace to find social media buttons or widgets on websites. These links provide users with easy access to your social profiles. As well as this, we recommend adding social share buttons too. These are especially useful if you write news articles or have an ecommerce website. It has been reported that 60% of online consumers they would be more likely to share a product or service if social media was integrated into a website. If you are looking for any third party system integration we can assist with that, simply contact us.

As a social media agency, we can also assist with posting to your social media channels and setting up paid social media advertisng.

According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network – http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151908376636729.1073741825.20531316728&type=1

http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Deals-Discounts-Dethroned-Reasons-Follow-Brands/1009242

http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/

http://www.statisticbrain.com/facebook-statistics/

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/files/2014/06/social-media-statistics-2014.jpg

http://oursocialtimes.com/10-useful-social-networking-statistics-for-2014/