There are numerous social media platforms, and the number is growing and changing on the daily. We are often asked by our clients what the difference is between each platform and which platform is the best one to be on. The differences between each platform are easier to explain, but as for which one is the best, that’s a different story. Before we open the “which platform is best” can of worms, let’s break down the specifics of each.
- Instagram
- Type of content: high-quality images
- Useful for: connecting with other brands or people in the industry and getting in front of other audiences
- Cool: The Story feature—it’s like Snapchat, except you don’t have to build followers on a separate platform
- Facebook:
- Type of content: longer, more informational content
- Useful for: building relationships and getting information to followers
- Cool: This is the platform with the most generations exposed to it
- Twitter:
- Type of content: 140 characters or less
- Useful for: customer service representation, answering questions, responding to reviews, sharing other industry-related content
- Cool: The last two years have seen a 250% increase in customer service conversations on Twitter
- Pinterest:
- Type of content: photos and graphics called “pins” that provide inspiration for home décor, fashion, recipes and more
- Useful for: images linking directly back to your website, sharing blog posts
- Cool: “buy now” button that allows your consumers to buy your products from Pinterest
- Google+:
- Type of content: reposting blogs posts and content from your website
- Useful for: increasing website rankings on Google
- Cool: You can add a virtual 360-degree tour to your page (like this)
- Snapchat:
- Type of content: short pictures and videos that users can see for a specified amount of time
- Useful for: behind-the-scenes clips and informal content
- Cool: most largely used platform currently
Now to answer the question “What is the most valuable social media platform?” The right platform for you really varies with each business, brand and product. If you’re wondering which is best for you, look at the list above, and identify which fits your business goals. Keep in mind that it may not be best for your specific organization to be on every platform. Strive to build a consistent presence on all the platforms that fit within your goals to eliminate the opportunity for conversation about your business (whether that’s good or bad!) to be happening without your knowledge. It is also important to keep your handles—the name you go by on a social media platform—as similar as possible across all social sites to remain brand consistent and familiar to your audience and customers. For example, if your flooring business is known as FloorKing1 on Twitter, it’s a good idea to have the same, or a similar, handle on Snapchat.
Whether this is your first time testing the massive waters of social media marketing or you are an avid Snapchat director, the rise of business and brand use for the technology is only going to continue to increase over time. It can seem overwhelmingly daunting to try to keep up with all the new rollouts and updates, but by staying consistent and in tune with your customers and audience, you will continue to grow with the trends. And if social media is really not your thing, we have a team right here at Snap that gets excited about creating the next viral Facebook Live video.