Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
TikTok
LinkedIn
Pinterest
YouTube
Vimeo
These are the 8 most important social media channels for your company:
What are the most important social media channels for businesses in 2023? Where should companies and startups position themselves particularly strongly? And what are the specific characteristics of the different social media channels? The central feature of all platforms is interaction. Creating your own content is usually quick and easy and can be shared with all contacts. However, depending on the nature of the content and its design, different social media channels are suitable. Therefore, it is important to adapt communication to each platform individually. The following channels differ in terms of communication preparation and thus offer various possibilities.
The mother of all social media is still considered the most used network worldwide and counts billions of users per month. This platform offers good opportunities for a wide reach and is now one of the standard channels for every company. Those who do not jump on board here are missing an important portal to reach their customers.
In addition, Facebook offers the advantage of being able to build communication in different ways as desired. Texts, images, and videos allow for variation in posts. Users can respond in the comments section or via messages if it should not be public.
Whether customers, partners or the public, almost every target group is reached here. It is important to note that the posts are designed to provide added value for users. Thus, Facebook can score as a suitable communication platform for any company due to its user-friendliness and exchange possibilities.
The social media platform Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook, gained a large number of users last year. The platform is growing rapidly and is becoming increasingly interesting for companies as the second-largest network.
Communication is through images, short text descriptions, and time-limited videos. In addition to these options, communication can be done through Stories. With this special function, the communicator can record a video that is deleted after 24 hours.
This creates a fleeting character that gives the communication through the Stories function an exclusivity. Users may check in more often to avoid missing out. The type of content, therefore, appears much more personal and intimate, in a way that looks "behind the scenes".
If you decide to communicate on this platform, you should definitely use this feature. Authenticity and credibility are highly valued here.
The microblogging service Twitter is also one of the most popular social media channels worldwide and is the platform with the third-highest number of users. Each user of this channel can send out so-called tweets in a maximum of 280 characters. Until the end of 2017, it was even only 140 characters - Twitter's trademark for a long time. The idea behind Twitter: communication in real-time. Fast, direct, and live. Therefore, tweets should be sent out multiple times a day, each providing added value for the reader. Hashtags are particularly important as they allow for networking on the platform and increase reach.
Therefore, individual communication that is specifically tailored to this channel is of high importance. Although Twitter has many users, the platform is not among the most widely used in Germany.
Here, companies have not really recognized the power of short tweets yet. However, it is precisely through these short messages that companies can expand their information service, address customers quickly and directly, and thus increase customer loyalty.
TIKTOK
The rising star in recent times is TikTok, especially among the younger generation. There is currently no better way to reach this audience than with TikTok. Simply put, this platform works just like Instagram, but with music clips instead of photos.
Users upload their own videos with filters, special effects, and the ability to lip-sync to music, or they consume videos posted by other users. With well-placed advertising, TikTok can be integrated into any marketing strategy as a social media channel.
But producing your own videos should also be considered, for example, in collaboration with influencers. Using hashtags encourages the community to create videos with similar content.
This not only creates direct interaction between the company and its customers, but also the opportunity to generate high reach with a good campaign and connect users with the brand of the company.
LinkedIn is a social media platform that can boast about as many users as Twitter and is considered one of the most important business networks in the world. Here, content of all kinds is visible to all contacts. However, communication on this social media channel is primarily aimed at business partners or employees. This platform offers users the opportunity to build their own network, use it for professional orientation or as a news and knowledge exchange service.
The more intensively the platform is used, the more worthwhile it is to invest in the functions of a premium account. For the continuous development of the company image, content should be created regularly. However, just as TikTok and Snapchat are oriented towards a younger generation, LinkedIn reaches older or working people more. This fact should therefore be taken into account in the content orientation of communication.
This platform differs significantly from the functionality of other social media channels. Pinterest serves, simplistically put, as a very large pinboard on which users can pin other users' pins. This interactive pinboard is used by many as a source of inspiration and ideas. Users can also create their own pins and share them. The posts can be found under different categories and are displayed on the user's own pinboard. Thus, this social media channel enables companies to use appealingly designed pins to engage users who like the posts as multipliers and brand ambassadors. Because saved posts are visible to everyone on the user's private pinboard, they serve as showcases for the company. If successful, Pinterest can be used as an appropriate channel to strengthen customer loyalty and the company's brand.
YOUTUBE
The video platform YouTube is already well known to most companies. This interactive platform allows for the uploading of your own videos and the consumption and commenting on other videos. The platform is particularly well-suited for building a video-based marketing strategy because uploading content is easy and quick.
Companies use this platform to expand their audiovisual corporate presence. Since moving images reach many more people and also convey information much better, utilizing this channel can bring significant advantages to some companies and is therefore one of the most important social media channels of today.
VIMEO
Vimeo is also a video platform that your company can use for online marketing. The focus here is on professional and high-quality video material that exudes creativity. Essentially, it offers an alternative to YouTube, but if you want to publish more than a prescribed maximum amount of content, you have to pay. In return, the platform looks more high-end and serious, which may convey a similarly higher image of the company to the customer. The social media channel's features are the same as those on YouTube. Therefore, the choice of platform depends significantly on the effort required to prepare the content.
It is important for companies not to try to communicate on every channel. Instead, they should focus on a few platforms so that communication on each channel is individually tailored. It is important to note that it is more significant for customers to receive good quality posts with added value, rather than being swarmed on multiple platforms with mediocre content. Therefore, the most important rule for social media communication is that users are addressed with high-quality and regular posts that match the company's target audience.
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