Top Social Media Platforms for Marketing Your Business

Social media is a great tool to use when marketing your business. You can use social media to get your business known within your communtiy and take in more money via Interent orders. However, before you decide which social media platform will best fit the marketing of your business, you need to figure out what your goals are for your business. From there you will need to decide on what strategies will best fit the goals you have in place. 

Social media can provide a wide range of benefits to you and your business. Here is a list of some common benefits.

* You can sell your products directly to your customers. 

* Your business gains more awareness and market share, making you more money.

* You build relationships with people online, including your customers. Having a deeper relationship with your customers ensures they will come back to your product or brand.

* You get to find potential business partners and contacts. 

* It helps establish you as an expert in your trade. 

* Your activity on social media can lead to an improvement of your website. 

Once you have a clear idea of what you want your business to accomplish online, you can decide which social media platform is the best option for the marketing of your business. Here is a list of the more well-known social media sites that can help with the publicizing of your business.  

1. Facebook

This social media site is very easy to use, and is a quick (and sometimes free) way for you to gain new customers. Invite your friends to like your business’s Facebook page and grow your page by posting interesting things that you have to offer. You will have to spend advertising dollars in order to attract new followers however.

Your followers will like and share your posts (assuming they are good), and that lets more and more people see the type of business you own. With the “like” and “share” feature on Facebook, this social media platform is a great way to grow your business beyond your friends and family. A really good post might just go viral! 

2. Twitter

This social media platform is very popular among "crafters" and "make at home" business owners because of all the connections it offers. You can have small conversations with your customers and get to know them on a more personal level on Twitter. 

One of the disadvantages of Twitter is that you have to constantly keep tweeting because you’re judged on the last tweet you posted. Be careful that you’re not only promoting yourself all the time. Be sure to take time to retweet other articles and neat ideas. Also be sure and reply to other people’s tweets. 

3. Pinterest

Pinterest was made to direct people to other sites, so if you want more traffic on your website, this may be the best way to go. This is also a great website to use if you have some amazing pictures of your products to share with others. You can then send your followers to your sales page where each of your products are being sold. Another cool thing about Pinterest is that even if you posted a pin months and months ago, you’ll still get traffic on your website when someone sees it for the first time. 

4. YouTube

You may not think of this platform as being the most social persay, but if you develop a good base of subscribers, your business will largely gain in popularity. Remember, it takes time and money to produce a high quality video, so make sure to leave enough in your budget to do this. 

5. LinkedIn

This social media site is a great tool for networking with other business owners you may benefit from getting a partnership out of. It's less useful for marketing as you don’t get to become directly connected to your customers. It may open the door for some connections, however. 

It’s important to know the differences between these social media sites and how they can help you and your business. Use the tools provided to make your business easier to run, and become educated on what separate social media sites have to offer for your business.