Thought Twitter was the only social media platform you had to contend with? Social media expert Justyna Sowa introduces the other main contenders in the social media maze …
Social media is the most effective marketing communications channel, allowing you to communicate directly with your target audiences on a daily basis. Does that sound powerful? It should – but if you’ve finally got to grips with Twitter and now think you’ve got the social media ‘thing’ sorted, you are already behind.
Here, I take a look at some of the lesser-understood – but ever-growing – social media platforms, and discover how they can help grow your business.
The strongest link – LinkedIn
Long neglected, LinkedIn has been developing new features in the past few months, and now offers a more interactive professional networking experience. It’s the only social media platform which is truly business focused – meaning people expect you to want to do business with them when you connect on LinkedIn.
Of course, there are gimmicky features such as ‘skills’, which might put you off (an interior design friend recently suggested adding ‘ability to make a double cheese toastie’ as a skill) but the essence of LinkedIn lies in the activity outside of the ‘public domain’. Many interior design professionals regularly set up business meetings with the connections they have discovered through LinkedIn.
You can explore the contacts of your connections to widen your networking circles and discover people within the industry who you haven’t connected to yet, but who are within your wider circles of connections. You can see who’s viewed your profile, and while it might sound creepy, it can result in really good conversations away from the platform.
You can now connect your emails and calendars with LinkedIn contacts, meaning so long as you’re not paranoid about security settings and LinkedIn stealing your contacts, you can keep all your business activities in one place.
LinkedIn is not something your marketing team can manage, because the majority of LinkedIn activity takes place between individuals. Instead, the marketing team should work with individuals in your company to train them on the best practice, and encourage personal use.
What’s the fuss? Google+
It might be that you’re hearing about Google+ for the very first time, and if you ask your marketing team about it they’ll tell you not to bother. Why? Simply because they don’t understand it. But Google+ is the future – the immediate one.
Of the hundreds of reasons supporting the use of this social network, one cannot be undermined – it’s owned by Google, synchronised with Google and it does affect Google Search. So the only reason you would dismiss Google+ is if you don’t want to improve your search rankings, you don’t want your local business to appear on Google Maps and you don’t want your target audiences to find out more about your business when they search for it online.
What’s the easiest way to start on Google+? If your business operates from a physical location, set it up on Google Local to appear on Google Maps and local Google searches. Then open a Google+ page for your business, filling in all the crucial information about your business, so that it’s picked up in Google Search.
And if you’re a business owner or in a company’s senior management, we recommend setting up a Google+ profile and applying for Google Authorship Tags – they’re pretty important for your personal search rankings.
Pinterest – let’s get rich
Pinterest is e-commerce’s best friend. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Pinterest is an online ‘pinboard’, making it easy for you to collate images you discover online. With the recent introduction of ‘rich pins’, which feature pricing information against a product, as well as a link to it on your website, it is now easier than ever for online retailers to drive website visits and product views.
“With the recent introduction of ‘rich pins’, which feature pricing information against a Pinterest product, as well as a link to it on your website, it is now easier than ever for online retailers to drive website visits and product views”
With well-written image captions, your products can be found not only by people searching for your brand, but by those searching for particular products in general. The other great advantage of Pinterest is that you can use it to capture the attention of people who did not intend to make a buying decision, but thanks to Pinterest, are prompted to purchase. It also allows you to present wider services/product offerings than you have on your website, which may be more complicated to update.
Facebook – an uncertain future
We’re still awaiting the launch of the brand new News Feed – scheduled for some time in the unknown future. It will be filled with photos and videos, presenting better opportunities for advertisers for sure, but how about businesses not wishing to budget for Facebook advertising? It’s for us to see.
With its current settings, Facebook has lost some of its powers when it comes to promoting businesses, and while it doesn’t mean we should stop using Facebook (it still gathers the largest audiences), it’s important to continually rethink social media and marketing strategies, making sure we don’t dismiss the newer platforms such as Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn.
Justyna Sowa is a social media expert, and co-founder and head of social at Decorum, an integrated communications agency specialising in growing interior design businesses through the professional use of social media platforms. Find out more by visiting the website.
