1. Facebook
Everyone has heard of Facebook. Some love it, some hate it, but is it right for your business? It's not the ideal medium for some of our clients' businesses but to set up a business page and post to it occasionally costs nothing (other than a few minutes of someone's time).On the other hand, some of our clients enjoy a significant amount of business via their Facebook pages. These are usually B2C: personal or home-related products or services, such as gifts, driving lessons, home improvements, etc.. If this may be the case for you, it's worth investing the time to include Facebook in your plans.
2. Instagram
Part of the Facebook family and the same rules will generally apply. Instagram is more focussed on images shared via its mobile app. Nevertheless, it has been the fastest growing social media during the past couple of years and it's easy to gain a following.3. Twitter
In essence, a little more 'newsy' and opinionated but often better for certain types of businesses than Facebook. Again, it's free to set up and takes up very little time to post and react to other posts.4. LinkedIn
The business person's 'Facebook'. People who meet in a business capacity are happy to use LinkedIn because relationships remain on a business footing and members' family and social lives are left alone.As with Facebook, LinkedIn enables company pages and job posts. It also encourages articles, such as would be posted to a blog, though these are rarely written.
5. Google
There are many aspects of Google social media: Blogger, YouTube, Google My Business to name just three.-
Blogging
Unless you make a living from blogging or it's a hobby, independent blogs have fallen in popularity since their heyday in 2012/2013. With the inclusion of easy-to-update News blogs within websites (primarily WordPress), companies rarely feel the need for an independent blogging site. Popular blogging services are WordPress and Tumblr (not sure about Google). - YouTube
There is some competition from Vimeo but YouTube is, by far, the most popular medium for uploading and sharing videos (hence the plethora of 'YouTubers'). You can embed a YouTube video into your website - and often by-pass YouTube to upload direct to your website - but, by hosting your video on YouTube and spending a few minutes adding some SEO keywords, it's another way for customers to find your products. One of our Clients has had 50,000 views of their products on YouTube. - Google My Business
It's impossible to cover this topic adequately in a couple of paragraphs. I feel that Google sees which other services are becoming popular and jumps on the bandwagon with its own version - because it's Google.
Google my Business now combines Google services under one management account, including Google Local, Google Places and Google+ (now defunct). Yes, it's a minefield.
You can manage your own Social Media (always good!) but if you don't have the time or inclination, it can be managed with you (also good) or for you (better than nothing). The BPc will advise and assist with your Social Media Management.
