This week’s episode, “Getting Acquainted with Social Media”, covers what we believe to be the top 5 social media sites (currently) and offers key features as well as prime examples. What follows is a summary:
1. Facebook– The world’s largest social media site
- Cover Photo and Profile Picture – Two locations on your page designated for showcasing photos of your company, logo, products, or services. The cover photo is large and great for displaying a product while the profile picture is smaller and square, perfect for your logo.
- Applications – Custom web applications, such as quizzes or games, are great for getting your customers to interact and allow you to measure engagement.
- Wall Posts – Wall posts are your status updates. These can be anything from questions, facts, and articles, to links or photographs.
- Metrics – You can measure how your site is doing based on your total number of likes as well as comments, shares, and likes on individual wall posts.
Starbucks- Starbucks does a great job with imagery from their coffee mug cover photo to the logo in their profile picture. Most of their wall posts show off original, aesthetically appealing photographs with clever quotes or sayings.
2. Twitter – A real-time, micro-blogging social network
- Tweet and ReTweet – Your status update is called a tweet. When you re-post someone else’s, that is called a ReTweet
- Mention @ - When interacting with others on Twitter, you use their handle (@ symbol and their username). This is called a mention.
- Favorite – When you enjoy a tweet and want to save it (or just express your admiration), you can favorite it.
- Trending Topics # - This section shows the most popular conversations going on right now in certain regions and is signified by a hashtag (#) and the keyword or phrase.
Oreo - Oreo uses the cookie itself as their spokesperson making for a fun and clever account to follow and interact with.
3. LinkedIn – Social networking site focused on connecting the world’s professionals
- Engagement – You can measure how people are interacting with your site through an engagement percentage that compares the ratio of likes, comments, shares, and clicks to impressions (people who saw the post).
- Products/Services – There is a section to easily showcase your products and services.
General Electric- General Electric’s LinkedIn page showcases career opportunities, their products and services and is updated often with relevant articles and engaging questions.
4. Pinterest – Pin-board style site for sharing interests through images
- Pinning - When you create your own original image, you pin it. When you like someone else’s, you can repin it.
- Boards – Boards are the themed sections where you “pin” your images, such as fashion, recipes, holidays, etc.
Mayo Clinic - Mayo Clinic is a great example of a company that isn’t image-centric yet uses Pinterest extremely well. They showcase relevant boards with a mix of imagery, facts, and tips.
5. Instagram –Photo-sharing and editing mobile app
- Follow, like, comment – Instagram allows you to follow others for photo updates, comment on those photos, and like them as well.
- Filters – The best thing about Instagram is the ability to snap a photo on your mobile device, add a “filter”, and upload it in less than a minute. A filter is a quick and easy, editing option which changes the general look, feel, and color of the photograph.
Red Bull - Red Bull is also not very image-centric. However, they do a great job of using their slogan and hashtag, “Red Bull Gives You Wings”, to promote brand awareness. Most of their photographs are of people doing extreme and adventurous activities.
Additional sites that you may or may not have heard of but should definitely check out include:
- Vine – mobile app for sharing 6 second looping videos
- YouTube – social media site for sharing and viewing original videos
- Tumblr – micro-blogging site for sharing video, audio, photo, and text
- Google+ - Google’s social media site which helps with SEO
These are just a few of the social media sites out there and the landscape is constantly changing. Next week we will help you to decide which sites are best for your business goals. It is important that you designate a social media team to take on your campaign. If you do not have the time or resources to manage your company’s social media, a third party social media management team, like Informatics Inc., can assist.
