There’s an amazing array of social media sites out there isn’t there! They range from the “giants” like Facebook to small, niche-oriented sites you could hardly find if you didn’t know them. Whether you are an individual, a charity or a small business it’s almost impossible to create and effectively manage a profile on every site on which your target market might be found. Instead, what I would suggest you look at is choosing the most effective and most active social media networks for connecting with your customers.
Different Types of Social Media
Social media sites come in all shapes and sizes. The first step is to identify what kinds would work best to communicate your marketing messages. I have linked to some of the sites which I think are the most useful and where I haven’t provided a link and you think that it might meet your needs then they are easy to find! The main categories include:
General Sites – These are sites like Facebook and Google+ that are meant for people to hang out and connect with friends.
Microblogging – The most popular microblogging sites are Twitter and Tumblr. These sites allow you to make short posts in real-time.
Blogs – Blogs are a form of social media on which a business or individual can write posts and readers can comment. You can host your blog yourself as I do here or use a platform like Blogger or WordPress.
Video Sites – These are sites for sharing videos. The most popular is YouTube, but there are many others as well.
Coupon and Check-in Sites – Another important type of social media site is one where businesses allow users to check in to offline locations, write reviews, and get coupons. These include Groupon, Yelp, CityPages, and Foursquare.
Visually Oriented Social Media –These include image-oriented sites like Pinterest, Tumblr, and Flickr.
Music and Entertainment Sites – Some sites are excellent tools for bands and recording artists, such as MySpace and BandCamp. They’re specially designed for posting and sharing audio files.
Professional Networking Sites – Sites such as LinkedIn are primarily B2B sites for professional networking or recruiting.
Finally, there are niche-specific social media sites based around the common interests of a specific group.