Not just small businesses, but governments, universities and big corporations select only social media channels that connect to their audience. Are you struggling to work out which Social Media platforms will bring the biggest benefits to your business? Trying to cover Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Vimeo – all at once, yet not very well?

How does social media impact SEO and how can you make the two work together?

Read on to find out how you can make a few simple decisions, which will focus your efforts and help your business get social savvy.

1. All about YOU

It’s easy with Social Media to compare yourself or your business to everyone else around you. There’s so much out there in terms of content that you start to feel if you’re not producing posts, photos, tweets and blogs too then you’ll be left behind.

However, have a brainstorm about your business needs – say for example, that you’re a brisbane roofing contractor, you’d need to consider the following:

• Think about who you want to target and how regularly you want to communicate with them. What’s right for your business? If you have hourly updates then you may require a different platform for a company who may prefer a once daily or bi weekly approach
• Do you want to invest money into Social Media? If you’ve got a budget, you may want to look into advertising on certain platforms which will streamline your focus further
• What content best portrays your business? Some products or services are best explained or represented with pictures, others by words, and others by video.

2. What are you aiming for?

With Social Media, it’s easy to get carried away posting witty comments and taking beautiful photographs. It’s important however to set clear objectives about what you want to achieve as this will also help you work out which platform will work best for you.

• Interacting with customers is often something that businesses use Social Media for, so have a think about how you want this to be – consider everything from the way you want to represent your business to the tone of voice you’ll use in your content.
• Interacting with other businesses might be of interest to you when developing your Social Media so do your research around what other businesses or your own competitors are using and getting good results from.
• Reaching people is one of the biggest benefits of Social Media but take some time to think who you are trying to reach – experienced Social Media users, newcomers to technology, or those simply using it to gain information.

3. Every Platform is different

New Social Media platforms are emerging everyday, however with businesses it’s usually best to opt for one that is already fairly established. This will mean you gain access to a larger number of people and possibly a wider demographic. Each of the current established platforms has its own identity including the three below:

Facebook: the trailblazer for Social Media, it still has the largest audience of all the platforms. It’s versatile, easy to use and if you want to advertise on it you can set your budgets and be off.

Youtube: Depending on the product or service that your business provides, photos and words may struggle to do it justice. Short, well made videos are a great way of connecting with and catching the attention of potential customers.
Twitter: using only 140 characters, messages are short and to the point. It’s a great way to interact with other companies and customers alike.