With the evolution of the core social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn, it can be quite daunting to keep on top of each one to make sure that what you are sharing is relevant, if it will get seen and if it fits into each sites specifications. So you should ask yourself, which social media platform is best for my business?

Just because you may have more followers on an existing company page, it may not be the best for you. You may have less followers elsewhere but could be attracting more interaction because of the quality of your followers. It is better to have Quality over Quantity. Let’s look at the major players and see what is the best suited platform for your industry and how you should be focusing your energy and budget to get the most benefit.

Facebook – This is the obvious choice for most businesses. Industries that flourish in this environment are transactional businesses such as retail and hospitality – businesses where people can buy on impulse and emotion. These industries can create simple campaigns like discounts for likes or check ins. This simple interaction with your followers will encourage Facebook to feature your business more in their news feed due to how they have set out their algorithms for business pages, which results in easy recall of your company/brand.

LinkedIn – For b2b it is quite different. Businesses rely on trust and experience and it is harder to gain this through Facebook without investing a lot of time and money to build your credibility. LinkedIn is great for this, as you can target your connections and educate them with useful information that you find. You don’t need to advertise a lot, if at all, and you can still reach the people you want, not worrying about fake accounts and like-farms. People are on LinkedIn for a professional reason so they are more inclined to listen and if you are saying the right things to your audience you build instant credibility. People are instantly accessible, there is no gatekeeper and you can get direct access to key decision makers.

Twitter – This platform is great for quick and easy communication and can be done utilising free time during the day, be it at lunch or on the bus or train commuting to work. There is constant information flowing in the twitter-verse, and there are no algorithm filters to judge who sees your content. It is all dependent on time of day and when people are online as to who sees your posts.

Instagram and Pinterest – I have included these together as they are very visual and great for retail products, food and drink images, as well as creative people who best express themselves visually. As they say “a picture says 1000 words”. You can also add a small price tag to your image to display that the item can be purchased.

Google+ – Consider it a cross between Facebook and LinkedIn. It is a great tool to assist you with your SEO if you are running on a limited budget. As long as you set up the page correctly with all of your business information and use keywords in your summaries with links to your website, then all of the content you post via this portal is considered fresh and helps boost your organic SEO.

By determining which platform is best for your business and focusing your time and energy on that platform, you should see an increase in web traffic or customers. Once you are comfortable using the best outlet for your business, then branch out and try the rest.