When you’re considering building a social media strategy for your market, a few preeminent social platforms probably come to your brain right away: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and maybe YouTube or Pinterest, depending on your industry.
Most instituted social media platforms have been developed to incorporate shopping, social audio, live streaming, augmented reality, and more.
With the ever-growing abundance of social media platforms, it can be fantastic to wonder whether each of them is worth your time constantly.
To avoid wasting too much of your time perusing the strands of each new platform, let your social media marketing strategy lead your decisions and only enter the networks that promote your purposes.
Tips To Build & Evaluate Social Media Platform
Know your audience
It is more thoughtful to go where your audience is previously stretching out than to join a new platform and draw your audience to it. So the second point to learn is how your audience is employing that platform.
Stay updated with Statistics.
Whenever an innovative social media platform surfaces, it’s necessary to know the distinction between a sparkling new object and a fast-growing platform that has the potential to hold.
Align to your critical Business Goals
Suppose one of your goals increases awareness about a new product or service that could benefit from video tutorials. In that case, you should focus on video-only platforms (like YouTube and Vimeo) or video formats available on the sites you’re already active on (like Instagram Stories and Reels, Facebook Live, etc.).
Types Of Social Media Platforms & Formats
1. Social audio platforms and formats
New social audio platforms and formats have thrived during COVID-19 lockdowns while people have been at home with more time to join live conversations. Lively, engaging discussions can help you build your image as a leader in your niche and introduce your business or products to valuable audiences already interested in topics related to your place.
Examples: Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Spotify
Helps in: Listening to live conversations on specific topics.
2. Video social media platforms and formats
Video social media platforms are excellent for driving brand awareness, capturing attention, and bringing products to life in a way that still photos can’t. Any video content you publish should be designed to entertain, educate, and inspire your audience. Videos made purely to sell will not engage viewers.
Examples: Instagram Stories and Reels, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook Watch
Helps in: Watching videos in short and long formats.
3. Disappearing content formats
Transient formats like Stories are well-suited for posting up-to-date content, like limited edition items, announcements, or live events. However, most Stories and Snapchat content also feels more genuine and less polished due to the 24-hour shelf life.
Examples: Facebook Stories, Snapchat, Instagram Stories, LinkedIn Stories
Helps in: Sending ephemeral messages privately and publishing timely, in-the-moment content for all of your followers to view for up to 24 hours.
4. Discussion forums
Be genuinely significant to your customers by lending your business’ subject matter expertise and solving questions associated with your industry. Bonus points if you can share data about your brand and goods in reactions.
Examples: Quora, Reddit
Helps in: Networking, Asking and answering questions, forming communities around a niche- and interest-based topics.
5. Shoppable social media platforms and features
Take the help of built-in mobile-friendly features to enable your audience to purchase from you without leaving a social media app.
Features like Instagram Shops, Pinterest Product Pins, and TikTok’s in-app shopping allow you to connect your product catalog directly to your profile on each app.
Examples: Facebook Shops, Instagram Shops, TikTok, Pinterest Product Pins, Shopify, Douyin, Taobao
Helps in: Researching and purchasing products from brands directly through social media platforms.
6. Social media live streams
Livestreaming’s fame erupted during the pandemic when people were held at home during lockdowns with nothing to do. Livestreams also allow users to interact live with the hosts, so it’s vital to monitor and join with comments during the stream.
Examples: Twitch, YouTube, Instagram Live Rooms, Facebook Live, TikTok
Helps in: Broadcasting live video to numerous viewers. Live video streams can vary from one person giving themselves and what they’re taking on their screen to professionally organized committees with versatile speakers.
7. Business social media platforms
Business social media platforms offer many potential uses: recruiting and hiring talent, building B2B relationships, and connecting with professionals in your niche. Platforms like LinkedIn are ideal for B2B purposes because they allow brands to connect with new audiences, meeting them where they go to network and do business.
Examples: LinkedIn, Twitter
Helps in: Connecting with professionals in your industry or potential clients.
8. Closed/private community social media platforms
Businesses can use private groups to bring community members together to bond over shared challenges, help answer each other’s questions, and feel a sense of professional belonging.
Examples: Discourse, Slack, Facebook Groups
Helps in: Creating communities, with the possibility of requiring registration or other screening measures for new members.
9. Inspirational social media platforms
Inspirational social media platforms like Pinterest and YouTube are well-optimized for search, which means your posts should include keywords, hashtags, and images that align with what your audience usually searches for. Use collections, playlists, tags, and guides to group your content and create themes that match your audience’s interests.
Examples: Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, blogs
Helps in: Searching for information and finding inspiration for anything from cooking to travel to decorating to shopping and more.
Conclusion
Whatever your needs and goals, it’s a safe bet you’ll find a way to use social media to benefit your business. Easily manage all your social media profiles using Hootsuite. You can schedule and publish posts from a single dashboard, engage your followers, monitor relevant conversations, measure results, manage your ads, and much more.