This question is frequently asked by people who are thinking about getting involved in social media for business, but don’t know much about the different networks. My answer to them is usually “the network that you use”. Let me elaborate on that here.
It makes sense to want to use the most effective network, right? After all, you want to make sure you’re focusing your efforts on the right communication channels. However, the reason there are so many different networks is because people want to share information in different ways. People interested in fashion and interior design are going to want to share photos. That’s what makes Instagram or Pinterest ideal networks for their portfolios. If you’re looking to increase your interaction with actual people online, Instagram and Pinterest are both image-centric social networks, so if you can market your company successfully by sharing images, these are the networks for you.
There are ways to link your social networks so that every time you make a post on one site, it automatically feeds your other accounts and creates posts there. This is a cost-effective way to participate on several networks at once, but it is not a good way to attract interaction with real people. It is easy to tell the difference between people and bots online and nobody wants to feel spammed. So be careful with linking your accounts.
However, sometimes it doesn’t matter if people interact with the links you post. Sometimes the most important factor is posting the link in the first place. There are certain networks that are publicly indexed with search engines like Google and Bing, and your ranking within their search results is likely to increase due to a demonstrated interest in your website on social media. Basically, the fact that your links are being shared means that your website is worth sharing. We believe this is a minor factor in the complicated secret algorithms used by these search engines, which means that using social media isn’t going to guarantee you the number one spot, but it helps!
The number one reason to participate in social media is to share links back to your website, where website traffic will convert into customers. Sharing the right links to content that people want to see is the key. This attracts qualified leads, instead of random internet surfers who aren’t interested in spending money with your company.
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