Social Media: Mixing Business with Pleasure

When thinking about what social media platforms work best for personal use and which are geared more toward business, I would say that LinkedIn would be the one of the better social media platform for the latter as it is essentially an online resume with built in recommendations and references. Also, I know that it is used often to manage customer relationships, with users being able to gauge potential customers’/clients’ behaviors and preferences. [I have to be honest here: I have been using LinkedIn for about a year now and never thought of it as a social media platform. I only joined it because I wanted to get in contact with a previous employer, and that was the only way I was able to find her. To me it was, and still is to some extent, nothing more than a public online resume. I can’t imagine utilizing it for personal use.]

Foursquare is another good business tool, if you can get existing clients to buy into it and “check-in” at your place of business (discounts and freebies always help). More and more, people are turning to social media to receive information about brands and businesses. Clearly, this works best, if you have an actual storefront where clients can physically be at and check-in. This seems to be the newest form of word-of-mouth referral. The fact that “checking-in” can also be done on other platforms probably does not bode well for this particular platform, but nonetheless, the concept is one that works well for business.

Facebook is by far the largest and most successful social media platform out there. With nearly a billion users, Facebook can be a goldmine for the right business. The friend or family that is not on Facebook is looked upon in bewilderment and almost shunned, so the possibilities for exposure are endless. That being said, I would venture to say that most people on Facebook are there for personal social networking, i.e. to keep up with family or to find old friends with whom they’ve lost contact. Most people do not want to sift through ads in their news feed. For this reason, I would say that Facebook works much better for personal use. I would say the same of Twitter. To me, Twitter is essentially a groupie’s paradise. It exploits Americans’ desire to be connected with celebrities and feel like an insider. I think it would work best to grow already well-established businesses rather than getting one off the ground. As with Facebook, unless your business tweets are extremely clever and interesting, they are going to get lost in the shuffle.

Google+, which is Facebook’s biggest competitor, seems to me to be actually a completely different creature. Google+ works great for making connections outside of friends and family, which lends well to business, because it’s all about getting new faces in the door (or on the site). You can utilize Google+’s Communities or Hangouts to reach your target audience. Also, it is my understanding that every public post on Google+ is indexed by their search engine, which helps improve your rankings in Google for your website, meaning you are easier to find when people perform a Google search for the services you offer. That is something no other social networking platform can offer.

Although it’s mostly utilized for personal use, I can see how Instagram could be used for brand relationships. The benefit here is actually in its simplicity. Although there is a space for a caption, posts here capture the visual interest of users. It is much easier to scroll through an array of pictures than it is with long textual posts. You can share your company’s accomplishments or values with a simple picture, creating a positive image for your company or brand. Once followers are established, engaging them with a photo contest or photo scavenger hunt with hashtags can create a more personal relationship with customers and spark the interest of potential customers.

Ultimately, I think any platform can work for business if it’s the right type of business, and if thought and creativity are utilized. Again, I’m looking forward to seeing my classmates’ posts. I may change my mind about a few of these after reading them.

Happy Blogging, classmates.