Choice Channels: The Platforms that Matter in Social Media Marketing Services

In an increasingly “social” world, having the right communication channel for your company is more important than ever, and the list of social media platforms grows longer. The choices seem endless: Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube. These are just some of the channels dominating social media marketing services. But which ones should you choose? While any social media channel will be an extremely useful tool in your company's inbound marketing strategy, there are a few broad trends you should be aware of. The type of social media solutions your company will want to use depends on the depth of your brand messaging and the demographics of the group being targeted. The latter can be a bit tricky, so analyzing the age, interests, and other characteristics of a company's target market is an important first step in determining which social media channel to use. A young, hip student is likely to spend more time checking out new content on Tumblr or Pinterest, and exploring predetermined pages on YouTube or Facebook. A more mature audience, however, is likely to be found on LinkedIn Groups and Google+ Communities. Online publishing platforms like Blogger or Wordpress work particularly well for B2B businesses. They allow companies to highlight their own expertise and knowledge, establishing credibility and exclusivity of content. A firm's insight into the world of financial investment, for example, is communicated much more effectively through a whole blog post than in 140 characters on Twitter. If a B2B business wants to utilize Twitter, they would be better off using this particular social media solution to promote blog posts or news, rather than communicating entire company ideals. Twitter, though fast becoming part of the suite of B2B social media marketing services, is really more of a B2C communication channel. B2C firms that seek to communicate directly with customers often find many advantages to platforms that allow them to monitor customers’ reactions real-time, the way Twitter does. Twitter also offers companies the opportunity to reply directly to potential or returning customers, without having to search for contact information or sales data. Establishing a corporate Twitter account has the advantage of being extremely quick and easy to update. Instead of spending weeks creating advertisements and sending them out via e-mail marketing and the like, companies can now update customers on promotions and sales within minutes, spreading the business's message farther and more quickly. If your company is social media savvy, YouTube is also among the top social media solutions for content marketing. While compelling YouTube videos require more work, they are more effective in capturing the attention of a broader audience. Now what if you’re all for social media, but don’t have the bandwidth to take them on? Like with any other business process, outsourcing this type of marketing is a cost-effective way of ensuring you receive premium social media solutions. Knowing which channel to use and how to use them requires expertise and experience – why not leave your company's social media venture in the capable hands of professionals? Subcontracting social media marketing services doesn’t mean a company is disowning its brand. An article on outsourcing, published just recently, explains why outsourcing actually enhances the brand experience. In the end, finding the right social media solutions for your business is tricky and time-consuming, but the work will be all worth it, because when done right, social media marketing gives great rewards.