Social media platforms are a webspace where people find lots of unlimited opportunities. There’s no limit to what you can
do on a social media platform. It’s a space that lets you socialize with users by sharing opinions, pictures, videos, links, and much more. In what are social media platforms I will explore how they can help create a brand and traffic to your website.
These platforms let you keep tabs on what’s happening around the world. It could be on local or foreign news. Thus it’s rare for a social media user to be oblivious of what’s happening in the world.
Before smartphones took over the world of gadgets, people were using their desktop computers to access social media. Social media basically consists of communication tools. These tools use the internet to give users the platform to share things and communicate within the public space.
You can share your thoughts through pictures, videos, and text. You can also share pictures of yourself, loved ones, and friends. In fact, saying social media has limitless opportunities is an understatement.
What is Social Media?
Social media is a space that serves as a medium of interaction. It lets users socialize with one another and share their content with the public. Think of social media as a showplace that displays content for the public to see.
Anyone can get on social media to showcase their various crafts. It doesn’t matter who you are. Social media platforms give everyone a level-playing field to put their voice out there.
So, there’s no discrimination of any sort. Whoever you are, all you need is an internet-enabled gadget and an internet connection.
One special thing you get with social media compared to other media outlets is less scrutiny. You can post whatever you want unlike the TV channels, newspaper, and radio stations. There is little or no vetting of your content on social media and it is broadcast to the world.
How Social Media Works
As I earlier mentioned in this piece, social media is just a public space. It gives users the platform to put their voices out there. Now, there are different platforms through which you can let your voice be heard.
The major ones are the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These three platforms have an enormous user base running into hundreds of millions. There are many more platforms that serve their user’s different purposes. Including Pinterest, Medium, Vocal.media, Warrior and Webtalk, YouTube, and Quora.
The social media platforms are either in form of websites or mobile applications. The website versions are optimized to give users a seamless experience. It’s easy to register on any social media, and having an email address is crucial.
But over time, sitting all day behind a desktop screen to get on social media became tiresome. So, what most of these platforms do now is to make mobile applications available for their users. That way, users get convenience with the portability of mobile phones.
This implies that users can carry their social media in their pockets, bags, and purses and stay in touch easily.
Forms of Social Media
Social media comes in different types, we will be looking at the three major forms in this section. These are different social platforms with a massive user base.
Some platforms are for discussions, while other platforms are particularly for video sharing. Below are the three major social media forms:
Social Networks
The platforms in this category have the largest user base. Social networks help connect people by giving them platforms to interact, socialize and share their opinions.
The most popular platforms in this category are Twitter and Facebook. These two platforms lead the way.
Media Networks
The platforms in this category are specifically for media sharing. Users share content mostly in the form of pictures and videos. It could be live videos or normal video files. The most popular platforms in this category are YouTube and Instagram.
YouTube is a popular platform that specializes in video content. While Instagram is a social platform that lets its users share pictures. Users can interact with one another on these platforms. People can comment and like the videos and pictures you post on these platforms.
Social forums
These are forums for the discussion of ideas and opinions. The platforms in this category bring people together to discuss different topics. The topics can range from romance, politics, technology, arts, and many more.
A user can create topics for fellow users to discuss and share their thoughts and opinions. The leading platforms in this category are Reddit and Quora. These platforms are great for learning and expanding your knowledge.
The Various Social Platforms
For the purpose of this section, we shall be looking at the most common platforms on social media. They are:
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform and a social media platform as well. Over 300 million users post tweets within a month, and more than 120 million users post tweets daily.
Users interact on Twitter by posting short clips of videos, pictures, and their opinions. On Twitter, you send follower requests to add friends.
Facebook
Facebook is a social community with over 1 billion users who make posts daily. More than 2 billion users make posts within a month.
Over 60 million small businesses use Facebook to market their businesses. Over 90 percent of users on Facebook access the platform with mobile devices.
Users interact on this platform by posting content in the form of pictures, videos, opinions, and more. Facebook is a platform that has connected humans like never before.
Instagram is a social platform that Facebook owns. A large percentage of parents on Facebook are friends with their children. This is why there is a large number of youths on Instagram. A large number of people use this platform daily.
There are up to 1 billion users on this platform within a month. It’s a platform where users mainly post content in the form of pictures that they like.
WhatsApp is a platform that Facebook owns. It’s a form of an enhanced text messaging medium where users get to interact mostly by sending texts.
WhatsApp only needs your cell phone number and you’re all set. WhatsApp has over 1.9 billion users and is available in over 173 countries.
Linkedin is a platform that perfectly suits job seekers. Think of this platform as your online resume. Individuals or businesses can connect to other businesses on this platform.
Over 600 million people use Linkedin monthly. It’s the platform that big companies around the world mostly use.
YouTube
This is a platform optimized for viewing and sharing videos. It could be live videos, short clips, or long videos. It can accommodate all video length categories.
Over 1.7 billion people use YouTube within a month. Users share more than 490 hours of video on this platform per minute.
Videos on this platform are in different categories. It could be religion, politics, sport, entertainment, education and so much more.
Social Media and Your Business
For more than a decade now, social media has impacted the internet significantly. As much as you want to explore social media for fun, you can also conduct your business. So then it’s obvious that social media is the future.
As a matter of fact, people do a lot of things online now. This implies that your physical presence will not be required as much in a work situation. The future for all of us will be more and more online.
Why Your Business Needs Social Media
You can also use social media platforms to showcase and market your business. So, what are your reasons for not having your business on these platforms already? Below are the ways social media can benefit your business.
To boost SEO
If you’re in business, you need to drive traffic to your craft by ranking high on search engines. A major lead generator like social media can drive high traffic volume to your website on a constant basis.
You also boost the SEO of your site through social platforms. Search engines tend to pay a lot of attention to social platforms.
To improve your sales
By default, social media gives you a platform with a massive number of audiences. Think of it as though you are standing in front of an auditorium full of people. They want to listen to you and hear what you have to say.
It even gets better when you tell them ways they can benefit from what you have to say. That way you can get their attention faster.
To showcase your brand
Social media gives you the opportunity to put your brand out there and let people know what it’s about. You also get to build relationships and drive sales through the various marketing channels on the platforms.
To cut costs on marketing
By default, an individual owns an internet-enabled Smartphone. Marketing your business on social media is so affordable that all you need is a computer and invested time.
Apart from affordability, social media also trumps many traditional channels in terms of reaching a large audience.
Improve customer service
When you render your services to customers and they are satisfied with the quality, they will recommend you. Now, this is a great way to expand your business and dominance. People read reviews about you and your product before buying.
This makes people trust you and your brand and not just that, you also get to build relationships.
Content for Business Needs
Putting out the right content goes a long way in expanding your customer base. You get your business in front of a larger audience, especially when you’re in the good books of search engines.
Here are some tips to help you create content that your business can benefit from.
- Focus on what you know you can do very well. A lot of people get distracted along the way because there are diverse opportunities on social media. So, they end up trying to have their hands in every pie.
- This can disorganize your plan because it makes you compromise quality in your bid to be a jack of all trades. The moment you compromise quality, your brand becomes untrustworthy. So, focus on a particular thing, learn the ropes, and master that craft. Write quality content every time.
- Let the messages you put out for people specify what you do in very clear terms. Describe what you do and let the message tell who you are. Avoid vagueness in your messages.
Be Inspirational
- Endeavor to put out pieces of content that are inspirational. This works well because it gives people insight into your thought process and makes them want to identify with you. It shows your human side and that’s something people love to see.
- Another content to put out is educational content. This is because you have to enlighten people on what you do and also tell them why you’re doing it. You can then take it a step further by letting your audiences know how they can benefit from what you do. Always remember that the reason your business is on social media is that you want to sell. But then, you have to sell yourself first to convince people.
- This next point is usually underrated because most people think being in business is all about selling products. Well, that’s not true. As I said, you have to sell yourself to people first. It could be in terms of your conduct, how you relate with your customers, and more. It’s no secret that a bad character can have a negative impact on people’s choices.
- Always factor in the supply and demand rule. This rule expects you (the seller) to put out the products that are in high demand. This implies that it doesn’t matter what you want but what the customer wants. You might not like a particular product, but all that should matter is if it sells. Sell what people want.
Conclusion
Social media usage has become one of the most popular online activities. As of 2020, the number of users on social media
was estimated at over 3.3 billion. Social media has come to stay and is the future.
The amazing thing is there is no cost for registration and no cost for advertising. You get to showcase your craft to hundreds of millions of users for nothing but your time.
So jump in and become engaged, you’ll be amazed at how well it can work for you. Let me know how you are finding the journey.
I hope this has answered your questions, please leave a comment, like, and share. Thank you
LILY
Along the years I have found so much peace and a sense of comfort when it comes to social media. That is because I have found people there that are into the same things as me, people who understand my struggles and always have a helping hand. When I started to expand my business to social media, I had so much support from people I know and from strangers. One of the great things about social media is that you make connections and when you do that your content reaches out to way more people than what you anticipated. It is important to have a social media presence.
It is great to know that you have had so much support from your social media groups and now you are transitioning to your business and getting support there too. Social media is such a key element of our promotion and it looks like it really works for you.
I was in my 20s when I opened a facebook account that was probably almost ten years ago. Over time I grew bored with the platform. I would also utilize sites like Twitter.
Now that I have an online business using these SM platforms comes in handy. I especially love Instagram.
That’s great to hear JC. It’s wonderful that you have had so much experience with Facebook and Twitter. This will definitely come in handy now that you are promoting your new website.
Hi Lily, it’s incredible how many social media platforms we have nowadays. You listed a few. I saw one list with over 30 social media platforms and was like my goodness how is this possible lol
You can advertise your business now everywhere you go. And yes, traditional marketing is losing its way as digital marketing actually is taking over. However, for all the online entrepreneurs, the website has always been and will always be THE MOST IMPORTANT place online.
Hi Sunny, you really have hit the nail on the head and wow, 30 social media platforms, I’d like to see that list. But you are correct it is an open field to be able to promote what we are doing and enjoy great communication in the online world. Free for everyone.
Hi, I’m pleased to meet you once again. We have been on different social media, and I agree with you a hundred percent that social media is a space that serves as a medium of interaction, and it can be thought of as showplace that displays content for the public to see. It’s indeed amazing that there’s no cost for registration and advertising on social media.
You are so correct Kokontala that we are fortunate that chatting on social media is free and it’s fun. The sooner we start using this to promote our business and reach out to people the more traffic will come to our website.
I’ll start off by saying how clean your website looks. Because it looks professional and the navigation is quite seamless. The way your content flows on this page is well done, especially with the embedded links along with the small pictures. The bolded text you have throughout the article makes it so if someone is skimming through, they can easily find what they are looking for.
You have excellent facts in your article and I found some real gems to use in promoting on social media.
I wish you the best of luck with your site, as everything I’ve seen thus far has been promising 🙂
Thanks for your kind comments, Thomas. I love hearing back from people about my content and website design. I will be looking at it with fresh eyes and seeing how I can make it even better. I’m so pleased that you found some pointers to help with your social media.