Krista Neher
Oct 18 2022
The Social Media Landscape
In the early days of social media, we had a variety of complex graphics to discuss the landscape with hundreds of platforms and now, it has matured and there are a handful of big players that most businesses focus on.
The rate of change has slowed and a presence on social media is an expectation for most businesses. When it comes to social networks there are six main platforms that most businesses consider participating in.
The largest and most established social network, and with many people spending time on Facebook, it is the natural first choice for many businesses. Even B2B companies often find it easier to reach their audience on Facebook vs. LinkedIn because people are engaged there. More and more, a Facebook presence is an expectation for businesses.
Owned by Meta (the parent company that also owns Facebook and WhatsApp), Instagram has continued to grow steadily, and the visual format leads to high engagement rates. The Instagram audience does skew younger vs. the average population. Instagram is powerful for visual businesses, yet many businesses still aren’t as active as they could be on the platform.
The rise of Instagram Influencers also means that many businesses rely on partners to promote the platform.
There is no extra feed presence given to either personal or business accounts, so business accounts can still get a ton of organic reach.
Twitter is one of the oldest social networks and still has a large and engaged user base. It is heavily used for interest-based topics – like politics, entertainment, hobbies, and B2B categories.
Twitter can be a challenge for businesses because it takes more time and effort vs. other networks, but the payoffs can be big if your audience starts to interact with you there.
YouTube
You could argue whether or not YouTube is a social network, but the reality is that tons of people watch and interact with videos on YouTube every day.
As video becomes people’s choice of content, YouTube is highly relevant and continues to drive business. Possibly YouTube is more of a syndication platform vs. a social network. Mastering YouTube can result in millions of video views for your business.
LinkedIn is still the business network. Nothing else comes close, and since the acquisition, by Microsoft, they’ve gotten more serious about rolling out new innovative features for users and businesses.
Every business should have some presence on LinkedIn, but B2B businesses should see it as a strategic tool. With a renewed focus on the news feed, content, videos, and groups, LinkedIn is positioning itself bigger and the most relevant business platform.
Pinterest is still privately owned and arguably not as broadly popular as the other big networks. It is still large and growing and importantly, shows tremendous potential for businesses to organically promote their content.
Pinterest is the go-to website for recipes, style, home décor, weddings, food, shopping, design, and fitness. What makes Pinterest unique is that people are sharing content from the Internet.
Blogs
Blogs are usually included in social media marketing as a type of social media because of the commenting features and how readers can engage as part of a community.
A blog is a website or a part of one that is characterized by content, updated regularly, and displayed with the newest content first.
Businesses have blogs as a way to share their thought-leadership and expertise with their audience, and to act as a hub to draw people to their websites.
Blogs also have significant benefits for SEO or search engine optimization.
Key Takeaway
If you want to create profiles on multiple social networks, create a central email to register all of your profiles. This tie all your accounts to one email that can be accessed by multiple people in the organization.
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