Choosing the Right Social Media Platform

This week we covered some basic set up and usage of the most popular social media platforms. My post this week will be an overview of what we have covered and what makes each network unique and how one may work better than others for certain uses.

Facebook

I’ll start with the most well used and known platform; Facebook. According to the Pew Research Centre Facebook has consistently maintained the most active users (over one billion) going back to 2012. The graph below shows the percentages of U.S. adults using various social media sites.

I find Facebook to be the easiest platform to use and see it as the most cohesive platform as it is used for so many things. You start with your personal page where you can share personal or business information with or without graphics.

Some new things I learned this week that I hadn’t known before were some of the options available on my business page. I discovered how to unpublish my page while I work on it. I have a stream of posts where I was updating my cover photo over and over again. Happy to know now how to avoid that in the future.

As well I was introduced to more of the insight features that are available on a Facebook business page. I will definitely be tuning into those stats more often as I create content for my page.

I have also found that recently Facebook has increasingly been advocating the use of groups as a safer way for members to connect. Check out this post for more insight into this trend; How to Create a Facebook Community.

Instagram

For me Instagram would be second on my list of personal favourites for social media networking. This is a site that is heavily visual. It is a great site where stories are told through a host of styles of pictures. I feel that Instagram is best for those who are trying to sell products either as a business or as an influencer. Sales are made through the effective use of photographs.

I have a side hustle as a Virtual Assistant that I started last Fall. You can find my website here: tracymosby.com

Through this I have been trying to build up my business through increased use of social media networks. One area I have been working on, through Instagram, is my grid. This is the top nine pictures in your feed. A recommendation I read in this week’s content was to add a personal picture every nine frames, so yesterday I added one. You can find my business account here Tracy Mosby Virtual Assistant Services.

Twitter

Next on the list is Twitter. I have had an account with Twitter since 2012 and I rarely use it. This week’s content indicated that Twitter is primarily used for breaking news, entertainment and sports. One of the most effective features for me on Twitter is the ability to search a topic then select “latest”. This feature then provides the most recent tweets and links on the topic you searched. It is a fabulous platform for staying up to date on anything breaking in the above categories.

This course has us using Twitter frequently and I am enjoying learning and using it to stay current with my classmates for my Social Media Essentials course.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another platform I have had an account on for quite some time, but again rarely use. This is a great platform for networking with co-workers and acquaintances and is very specifically business-based. You should not use this site as a place to share personal updates.

This week I learned that I should separate my personal page from my business page, another task to add to my ever-growing list of social media updates!

YouTube

YouTube although social, is also a fantastic search engine. I have used it and uploaded a couple of crazy videos in attempt to see if it would be a direction I wanted to take for an online business that I no longer operate. I am nervous and excited to use this platform for our final assignment!

Upon review of my post I see it is quite clear which platform I am the most familiar with and use the most! I look forward to gaining insight from my instructor and classmates on the sites that I do not use as much. Let me know in the comments about your preferred social media sites!