Weigh the Pros & Cons of Your Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has come a long way from updates in the third-person and telling Twitter what you had for dinner. Now that the winners are established and the also-rans fading away, most marketers know that they must establish a social presence to make their business more memorable online.

In social media terms, the question for owners and marketers has shifted from "why?" to "where and how?" 

To get the best blend for your business, you'll need to know the strengths and weaknesses of each social media site that might make sense for your business. Local or national, diverse or niche interest, you want to know the pros and cons before you commit time and resources to setting up that social camp.

When you customize your content specifically for the site in question, it's more likely that your posts will stand out from the crowd, be shared across networks and spoken about between friends.

A Look at the Major Players

You'll likely know the names by now, but you might not have considered how the use of each affects your decision to be in business there. Here's a quick rundown of each major platform and how they're used:

• Facebook is primarily a place for fun, so your content needs to entertain more than anything else. Eye-catching images, amusing observations and playful pictures of your daily work are all great places to start. Study some of the top brands on Facebook to see what you can learn.

• We've talked about Twitter before, and how your business can benefit from tweeting on the micro-blogging site, but it's always tough to know what to tweet. Public conversation is the main consideration, because you can interact with pretty much anyone and everyone there. Tweet fresh news that starts a discussion, get involved with hashtags relevant to your business, or simply ask a question of your followers.

• Pinterest and Instagram are both all about the images. Although each has its own way of working that angle, the objective is the same: your pictures need to leap from the screen and into the minds of your followers.Take photos that show off your business in a creative way, look around your workplace for visually striking shots, or venture out into your local area for inspiration (and be sure to tag the location if you do).

• Linkedin is an excellent place to present your professionalism. The main focus should be to demonstrate the expertise of your employees and experience of the company as a whole. Linkedin offers many ways to share professional advice, so add presentations, research, and case studies.

• Google+ also aids the professional side, giving you a place to establish authority on the words for which you need to rank well across search engines. Focus on sharing tips and tricks that mention your top keywords, as well as setting up author profiles for your most prodigious writers to explain away the ins and outs of your industry.

The most effective way to play to the positives of a certain social network is to consider how you yourself use it. Customize the content that you share there to the type of stuff you'd like to see.

Your customers will thank you, not only for helping or entertaining them, but for taking the time to give them the best of your business. And you're encouraged to share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.