The most important social media platforms at a glance

Social net­work­ing websites are social media channels that don’t tend to focus on any one specific topic and instead aim to attract a wide spectrum of users. Users com­mu­ni­cate, click, and share different content types that reflect their interests, making the themes on such social networks just as diverse as the users them­selves.

The behavior of some members of social media sites allows their interests to be narrowed down to a par­tic­u­lar category. This is due to the fact that par­tic­u­lar­ly active users often follow certain profiles and channels, like certain content elements, and join or open groups that are related to these interests. Marketers are able to use this in­for­ma­tion to their advantage and can create tailored campaigns that speak to these de­mo­graph­ics.

Click here to download the in­fo­graph­ic on Instagram.

First launched in August 2016, this feature allows users to share pictures and short videos (which can ad­di­tion­al­ly be labeled and drawn upon) that weave together a story when viewed in temporal sequence. What makes this function so special is that these pictorial nar­ra­tives are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly deleted after 24 hours. This latter aspect makes Instagram Stories re­mark­ably similar to Snapchat’s ‘My Story Function’, a sim­i­lar­i­ty that Instagram co-founder and CEO, Kevin Systrom, was ready to recognize. The degree to which this aspect can be used for marketing purposes, however, remains to be seen. One pos­si­bil­i­ty may be to generate attention for products and services and expanding a brand’s reach through creative, target-group focused stories.

Among the social networks mentioned here, Snapchat occupies somewhat of a special role. This platform isn’t so much a tra­di­tion­al social media platform as it is an image messaging app. The mobile app, which is available for both Android as well as iOS, is used to send photos and videos that have been created and edited (often with drawings and animation) on smart­phones or tablets. The trick here is that the sent images and record­ings au­to­mat­i­cal­ly delete them­selves 10 seconds after they’re viewed. It should be noted, though, that there are ways to recover and save these images. This app is par­tic­u­lar­ly popular among teenagers, a fact that can partly be at­trib­uted to host of playful features the program offers.

Snapchat has gone through some major de­vel­op­ments over the last few years. It’s ‘My Story’ function enables users to publish pictures that have been loaded in se­quen­tial order so that they tell a story. These can then be accessed over a 24 hour-period after which they are then au­to­mat­i­cal­ly deleted. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, con­ven­tion­al text messages as well as video calls are also possible.

Marketing with Snapchat: still uncharted territory

Snapchat is quickly growing in pop­u­lar­i­ty among marketing de­part­ments through­out the industry. But social media marketing on Snapchat is still rel­a­tive­ly new terrain for many companies and is still being ex­per­i­ment­ed with. Some companies even run their own accounts, providing relevant content for their target groups. They also often work together with in­flu­encers in order to further make potential customers more aware of their offerings. It’s more difficult for tra­di­tion­al ad­ver­tis­ing clips to gain traction with this app, as only there is only little user data available, making specif­i­cal­ly targeted ad­ver­tise­ments a challenge. What’s more, clips need to be presented in Snapchat’s vertical format, which can’t be used for almost any other format.

The online community for images is among the oldest of its kind. Images taken by both amateurs and pro­fes­sion­als alike can be found on the platform. In addition to images, the platform also allows videos whose length does not exceed three minutes to be uploaded to the site; there, users can also add other in­for­ma­tion and buzzwords to their record­ings. In addition to enabling files to be archived, Flickr also makes it possible for users to view and comment these images, fa­cil­i­tat­ing an exchange of sorts among these. The platform also commonly used by some companies to archive and dis­trib­ute press photos. As of March 2016, though, automatic upload of larger amounts of data is no longer gratis and now requires users to be reg­is­tered ‘pro’ members in order to take advantage of this function. Many experts see this as a chance for platforms like Google Fotos (the successor of the web ap­pli­ca­tion, Picasa), which allows many image files to be uploaded free of charge.  

The origins of platforms like Twitter and Tumblr can be traced back to the blogging scenes. Today, however, they’re often used outside of the bl­o­gos­phere. Twitter in par­tic­u­lar has many accounts that have been set up by companies, or­ga­ni­za­tions, media outlets, celebri­ties, politi­cians, etc. Users of both networks share different types of content (news, links, images, videos). Those who chose to follow a par­tic­u­lar timeline are then presented with news regarding this profile in their time line, just as is the case with Facebook. Users who aren’t reg­is­tered with the account also are able to view all the content that’s posted.

Unlike Twitter, Tumblr is a more tra­di­tion­al blogging platform given that texts here aren’t limited by a minimum number of char­ac­ters. In addition to posts, images can also be published on users’ blog space. And while it may not have the same clout as other, more prominent social media networks, with some 230 million users worldwide, most of which are teens are young adults, the platform is nonethe­less still full of potential for marketers. Tumblr is also a popular social media platform for companies in North America, and, due to the nature of its de­mo­graph­ics, is es­pe­cial­ly well suited for more in­ter­na­tion­al audiences as well as campaigns aimed at younger audiences.

According to Tumblr founder and CEO, David Karp, the pub­lish­ing platform was never intended to be a social network; however, this is exactly the route that the platform has taken over the past few years. Following this, Tumblr listened to its users’ wishes and in­tro­duced an instant messaging function, which enabled reg­is­tered members to com­mu­ni­cate with one another. As a user, one of the site’s main focuses is to share the entries of other Tumblr bloggers.

Another aspect Tumblr has in common with more con­ven­tion­al social media platforms is the fact that content and topics can also be labeled with hashtags, making these relevant posts easier to find. This feature makes it easier to spread high-quality content and increase the chances that an entry will go viral. In order to build up a network and publish target-group specific content, it’s first necessary, however, to acquire your own following of sorts. This can be done by posting relevant content, following users similar to the target group that you’re trying to reach as well as by sharing and com­mu­ni­cat­ing others’ content. The trick here is to come off as authentic and genuine as you can. This allows you to more quickly gain the trust and attention of other users.

➔    While not as prolific as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr enable companies to reach younger, more media savvy audiences.

Most experts agree that, at least as social media is concerned, that it’s best to maintain a healthy barrier between your work life and private life. For this reasons, many companies advise their employees to avoid com­mu­ni­cat­ing with business contacts via networks like Facebook. Pro­fes­sion­al networks like LinkedIn, however, have created them­selves a niche market by catering ex­plic­it­ly to a more pro­fes­sion­al en­vi­ron­ment. This platform model fa­cil­i­tates an exchange between business partners, employees as well as ap­pli­cants and companies to occur. They aim to offer all of the ad­van­tages that sites like Facebook have in terms of com­mu­ni­ca­tion but in a more pro­fes­sion­al setting.

The file hosting service, SlideShare, which is owned by LinkedIn, contains pre­sen­ta­tions, documents, and videos on topics from a wide spectrum of oc­cu­pa­tions and pro­fes­sion­al dis­ci­plines. Users are able to upload content them­selves or simply access other files that have already been uploaded.
The primary focus here is to share in­for­ma­tion, rather to build up or expand a network.

What Instagram or Flickr offer for images, SlideShare offers for pre­sen­ta­tions: SlideShare allows you to publish and archive company or job-related content online, which un­reg­is­tered users are also able to access. In addition to pre­sen­ta­tions, documents, in­fo­graph­ics, webinares, and videos can also be uploaded. And when these are also labeled with the right keywords, then they can also be found in the Google search results. Those who publish in­for­ma­tion about their company, industry, product, or service also have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to receive feedback from users in the form of eval­u­a­tions and comments, which can then be shared in your social networks. Renowned or­ga­ni­za­tions and busi­ness­es like the White House, NASA, IBM, and Hewlett Packard all use the platform for their content. LinkedIn rec­og­nized the potential of this service and ended up acquiring it in 2012.  

Net­work­ing and main­tain­ing an image

LinkedIn is first and foremost about making new contacts and staying in touch with former col­leagues and as­so­ciates. But it would be a mistake to think that the network is set up ex­clu­sive­ly for business-to-business topics. People who are active on a pro­fes­sion­al network are also potential customers of the companies in their contact lists. LinkedIn also serves as a job portal where both potential employees and employers are able to find out more about one another before further steps of the em­ploy­ment process are taken. Current or former col­leagues have the option of rating each other. It’s important to note that on LinkedIn, companies are judged by their merits as employers, rather than the quality of their products or services.

Things look a bit different when it comes to SlideShare. Here, companies can demon­strate their expert knowledge, in addition to other their products, services, or in­no­va­tions. The content published on this platform should always be pro­fes­sion­al in terms of its ap­pear­ance and structure and should further include ap­pro­pri­ate keywords so that these pre­sen­ta­tions can also be found in search engines.

➔    LinkedIn is the best platform for con­nect­ing with business contacts. As a part of a broader social media strategy, this pro­fes­sion­al network enables companies to strength­en their own image, scout talent, and share pro­fes­sion­al com­pe­ten­cies.

Vimeo is es­pe­cial­ly in­ter­est­ing for those looking to promote more tech­ni­cal­ly advanced videos that put a greater emphasis on looks. Not only does the website appeal to more refined and pro­fes­sion­al audiences with its looks, its content also reflects this aesthetic: wobbly smart­phone videos can’t be found on this platform. What users will encounter are pro­fes­sion­al, high-quality film pro­duc­tions, many of which that are of a more artistic and creative nature.

Vimeo is set up in a similar way to YouTube — anyone can watch the videos, but only community members are allowed to evaluate and comment on these. But the two portals differ in the way they deal with the topic of mem­ber­ship: those wishing to upload more than 500 MB of video material per week have to switch to a fee-based scheme. Companies wishing to post videos con­tain­ing ad­ver­tise­ments or content com­mer­cial nature are forced to sign up for a paid mem­ber­ship option. In­de­pen­dent pro­duc­tion companies, char­i­ta­ble or­ga­ni­za­tions, and artists are all exempted from this rule. A paid account may be worth it for companies; this is es­pe­cial­ly the the case for those wishing to engage with a more artistic or creative target audience.