It looks like we live in a time when a social media channel pops up every two months. This exponential growth experienced has made it quite difficult to keep up. If you’re a marketing guru you know what I’m talking about.
That as it may be, we cannot afford to ignore or downplay the critical role that’s played by various social networks as far as marketing is concerned. By now I hope you understand that since the demographics of social media users varies from one platform to the next, it would be foolhardy for you to expect to use the same strategies across all platforms and yet succeed.
For instance, Facebook is a networking site that’s tailored for people who know each other personally to keep in touch and share the most mundane of information.
On the other hand, LinkedIn is a networking site for professionals. On LinkedIn, you get to share details that make you stand out from others in your industry as well as sharing your resume with potential employers. Let’s not forget, as a business you get to build connections with your target market as well as with other businesses in your niche.
For this reason, you can use the same tactics you use to market on Facebook on Instagram. At the very best people would take you for a clown and at the very worst, you might end up burning bridges with valuable business connections.
In this article, I will try and help you discover as many social networking sites as possible. However, I will leave it up to you to come up with a strategy that you think would help effectively market your brand on those networks.
Some of these sites will already be known to you, hopefully, you’ll be discovering a majority of these sites for the first time ever.
Snapchat
Despite its hiccup in design, Snapchat is still a valid social networking site. It is widely popular with young users perhaps because of its unique value proposition. Depending on the nature of the message sent, Snapchat servers are programmed to delete information after a certain amount of time. You can send different forms of messages on Snapchat including short videos, photos and text messages.
Periscope
Released almost 3 years ago in 2015, Periscope is a live streaming app that allows you to broadcast yourself to your audience via video. It is perfectly suited for businesses to reach out to their customers with product/service updates as well as any new changes that the company might be going through.
Pinterest is a platform that allows you to create a board on which you can save graphical content from a broad range of sources. As a business, you can use Pinterest to create boards that highlight the range of products and/or services you offer.
Vine
With Vine you’ll be able to upload short looping videos and share them on Vine’s own app. Basically, it’s a video sharing platform.
Flickr
Flickr is a photo sharing site that is formerly owned by Yahoo and is currently owned by Verizon. Using Flickr, you can upload videos and photos and share publicly share them. Flickr allows other users to leave comments on shared images.
Skype
It wouldn’t surprise me that the creators of Skype were huge fans of the Jetsons. If you’re a millennial here’s what I’m talking about. From a small VoIP app to the communication giant synonymous with global communication it’s become, Skype is one of the best apps ever for getting in touch with friends, family and business colleagues.
YouTube
Obviously, you’ve already heard of YouTube, the largest video sharing on the site. There are so many ways you could market your brand on the site including using Google’s proprietary advertising network, as well as creating your own video channel where you could disseminate brand-related information.
Vimeo
Vimeo is similar to YouTube, just not as popular. Unlike YouTube though, it offers community features for video creators who are serious about their craft.
MySpace
Many young people might not know this now but there once was a social networking site that was by far more popular than Facebook, its name was MySpace and boy was it…dull! To be fair though, it probably sparked a fire in Mark Zuckerberg’s belly though, but I digress.
Though not as popular as it once was, MySpace is still relevant with entertainment enthusiasts.
Ning
Ning allows you to self-publish blog posts as well as post in groups and share photos.
Are you looking for a platform that has been solely designed for business networking other than LinkedIn? Xing is the answer. With Xing, you’re able to connect with companies as well as with other professionals.
Delicious
Delicious is a bookmarking service that you can use to share and store content found across the web.
StumbleUpon
Are you searching for a search engine that helps you discover information from various industries? Then you should check out StumbleUpon. Not only are you able to discover new things across the internet, you’re also able to share blog posts, videos and photos.
SlideShare
SlideShare is a platform that lets you create infographics, documents and presentations. You can use SlideShare to discover presentations from various categories. Since it’s owned by LinkedIn, SlideShare perfectly complements the social networking giant.
Digg
Digg is a social sharing site that has a focus on news stories. If you’re business is in a niche that creates news content, then Digg should be one of the social media sites that you use to amplify your content.
Path
With Path you’re able to share moments that include everything from music choice to local check-ins.
FourSquare
FourSquare is a site that allows local customers to locate local businesses. Using FourSquare you can easily offer promotions and special offers to potential customers.
Reddit is probably the most popular social media platform in the world. Using Reddit you can contribute your opinions about a particular subject matter on one of their many discussion boards or you can rate other people’s contributions.
Quora
Quora is a forum that follows the question and answer format. How it works is that a user will pose a question and various contributors will offer their answer.
Tout
Tout is a platform that was designed to share video with interested mobile audiences. Tout is perfect for businesses that share sports, entertainment and news.
Scribd
Scribd is a publishing platform where authors can share audio books, ebooks, and comics with audiences that might be interested.
Yelp
Yelp is a review site where past customers rate the kind of experience they had with your business. Using Yelp you can engage with other users using comments and more.
Lefora
This is an online platform that houses discussion groups in different niches/industries. All you need to join is sign up and you can start a discussion in any of their discussion boards.
Xanga
Even though Xanga has lost its luster, you can still use it to host social profiles, photography sites and blogs.
Meetup
Using Meetup you can create a group for people in a particular locality to inform them of meetings or share events.
Ryze
Ryze is a professional site that requires you apply before you can join. You can use Ryze to start a conversation with other business owners.
BuzzNet
Buzznet is perfect for entertainment-focused businesses. You can use it to upload and share different forms of media including text posts, videos, and photos.
Howcast
Howcast is a website that hosts instructional content for businesses. The content can be in text or video format.
DeviantArt
DeviantArt is a website that holds the portfolios of thousands of photographers, artists, illustrators and other kinds of creative entrepreneurs. You can use DeviantArt to showcase your latest work or find a graphic designer for your website etc
Last.fm
This is a music streaming service that allows users to create profiles and engage other listeners. If you’re a musician, you can use Last.fm to share your upcoming events and music.
Ravelry
Are you a knitter or crocheter or is your business in that niche? Ravelry is the perfect social media site for you. Ravelry is the perfect social media channel for yarn sellers as well as other businesses that would benefit from connecting with fiber artists.
Goodreads
Whether you’re a book enthusiast or an author, Goodreads is a great site that will allow you to engage other users as well as leave reviews.
Behance
Behance is similar to DeviantArt in the sense that it hosts thousands of artists portfolio. It’s the perfect site to broadcast your company’s name.
Though included in this list, WhatsApp is more of Dark social than social media. WhatsApp is an instant messaging service that’s owned by Facebook.
WeChat is also an IM which falls under dark social.
Bloglovin’
This is a platform that allows you to create a blog as well as connecting with other users of the platform.
Blogher
This is a social network that allows users to publish their own content as well as connect with other bloggers at networking events and conferences.
I hope that you’ve discovered something new by going through this list.
The post Social Media Channels You Can Use To Market Your Business appeared first on The Texas SEO Company.
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