Social Media has exploded over the last few years to the point where traffic from Social Networks surpassed traffic from Search Engines for the top 100 media companies.
Which Social Network?
There are dozens of Social Networks and new ones popping up all the time. Here's a few of the most relevant ones in New Zealand right now:
- Facebook
- There are about 1.9 billion users active every month and about 1.1 billion users active on Facebook every day. Your target market is probably on Facebook. However, they aren't necessarily on Facebook to shop so make sure your strategy adds value.
- Twitter
- Microblogging is short 'posts' about a topic, often with a link. If you're new to Social Media then Twitter is going to seem overwhelming. Twitter is a great place to learn and converse about specialist topics, especially if you or your audience are techies.
- LinkedIn
- Originally LinkedIn was a just a glorified collection of CVs. Now it's evolved into the leading Social Network for professionals.
- Instagram
- Visual posts attract and engage a different type of user. Instagram is ideal for people who like to consume and publish visual content. Beware, Instagram is still considered a place to consume images, not advertising. Instagrammers react negatively to pure advertising.
- Pinterest
- The original visual Social Network which has been overtaken by Instagram. Still relevant for visual users and has powerful features for creating collections of images – ideal for design projects.
- Snapchat
- The millennials' video sharing app. A Snap is a short piece of video content that is designed to disappear withing 24 hours (although there are ways to capture the content when shared). This Social Network is gaining lots of attention and will become more relevant for marketing as new features are released.
- YouTube
- Not many people consider this a Social Network but it's one of the originals. Also, because of the sheer volume of searches every day YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet.
- Google+
- This is only listed here as a professional courtesy. Google+ only ever gained traction with geeks, and only really a subset of geeks - those that worked for Google. The network has been unbundled so some of the useful features could become stand alone products.
There's lots to get your head around. The trick is to prioritise and start with one Social Network and do a thorough job before moving onto the next one. If you're not sure get in touch and we can work out what's the best plan for your Social Media Strategy.
