Social media is more than just Facebook and Twitter. And these days, having accounts on various social media platforms means nothing without a social media strategy. At the very least, you need to be engaging with your customers.
As the socialsphere continues to evolve and as new platforms make their way onto the scene, business owners and CMOs must decide which outlets actually add value to the brand. Below, nine entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) told us which social mediaplatform is most important to their business now, and why.
Q. What social media platform is most important to your business now and why?
1. Facebook
We love Facebook for the advertising abilities. You can get incredibly specific on exactly the type of person you want to target based on their demographics, interests, and web activities. The traffic tends to be cost effective and it's fairly easy to get approval for ads. Plus, it has a baked-in social proof aspect, where a successful ad can show how many other people also liked it. – Patrick Conley, Automation Heroes
2. BuzzFeed
Although it's not a social network per se, BuzzFeed is the most engaging (and most interesting) place we talk to fans online. Creating listicles and fun feature stories is a great way to help tell ZinePak's brand story and subtly promote our products in a fun, contextual way. Plus, it gives us fun content that's sharable on Twitter and Facebook. – Brittany Hodak, ZinePak
3. Twitter
Twitter is the most important social media platform for our business right now. We have found that an active Twitter presence allows us to maintain a dialogue with industry professionals and organizations as well as with potential and current clients. In addition, live tweeting from conferences has allowed us to build new relationships in person thanks to Twitter interactions. – Angela Harless, AcrobatAnt
4. YouTube
There is nothing better than the power of video. For us, YouTube has been both a search engine and social media platform. We host discussions, post videos, and respond to comments. We use YouTube as the first step in our marketing funnel as an amazing way to find new readers and customers. –Vanessa Van Edwards, Science of People
5. LinkedIn
With LinkedIn, we don't only find potential leads, but also potential employees that will help us grow our business. Personally, I use LinkedIn to promote thought leadership. I post a new article weekly, which allows me to stay top-of-mind with my network of CEOs and business executives. In the long term, this helps our agency gain business exposure and build our brand. – Joe Apfelbaum, Ajax Union
6. Instagram
Being in the beauty industry, the visual focus of Instagram is most valuable for us -- and creates the most engagement. Also, without a character limit, we're able to post complete recipes, makeup how-tos, and beauty hauls, without our fans/followers needing to leave the app. – Alexis Wolfer, The Beauty Bean
7. Reddit
Outside of the usual suspects (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram), Reddit has everything a marketer wants in a social mediaplatform: an engaged audience, the ability to drive lots of traffic, and instantaneous feedback. I'm always blown away by the power of Reddit when a piece of our content begins to trend on the platform. – Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
8. Slack
We use Slack for business collaboration, but we also use it as an internal social media platform. There is a fair amount of YouTube, animated gifs, and emoticons mixed in with business talk. We even have a selfie-only channel. This helps keep our team entertained and our workplace fun. – Henry Balanon, Protean Payment
9. Google+ Local
As a local SEO company, having an optimized Google+ Local page is critical. Ironically, you don't need a website to rank your business on Google -- all you need is a Google+ page. That's why it's never been more critical to optimize your business for Google+. We find that the most important factors to optimize include About Us copy, getting a steady stream of positive reviews, and adding photos. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com
