Use of Social Media: Should a Company Be on All Platforms?

The use of social media is widespread among businesses today. From small freelancers to large corporations, all companies know that having an online presence through their own social media profiles can be very beneficial for their business.

In this post, we will look at benefits, disadvantages, and other issues you should know if you are considering opening social media profiles for your company.

Benefits of Using Social Media for Your Business

Among the benefits of using social media for a business, we can highlight the following:

Message Dissemination

Through its profile on a social network, a company can disseminate messages that enhance branding and improve brand recognition. Sharing content on social media humanizes the brand and makes it appear closer to its customers and/or users. Likewise, this helps to improve online reputation and thereby enhance conversion while gaining “authority” in its market niche.

Connecting with Customers

Through social media, companies can connect with their customers in both one-way and two-way communication. You can communicate with them by launching promotions, campaigns, and discounts, as well as informing them about news of interest.

No less important is receiving feedback through their comments and opinions, which can be very helpful in better understanding their needs and making improvements to your product or service offerings.

The possibility of establishing direct communication is very interesting, and many users prefer to contact the company through social media rather than sending an email or making a phone call.

Expanding the Audience

By using social media, a company can increase its user base located at different stages of the sales funnel.

By expanding the audience, it is possible to attract a larger amount of traffic thanks to quality content on social media that can be complemented with content to enhance SEO on the website.

Social media can also help to increase the number of subscribers in the company’s newsletter database.

Increase in Sales

Although it may not be the primary goal of using social media at the business level, it is true that they can become another sales channel.

Many companies sell directly through social media, while others use them to redirect followers to their website, where the sale occurs. It is also a favorable medium to connect with influencers who can help reach the target audience and increase sales.

Disadvantages of Using Social Media

Although the use of social media can be very positive for companies, we must also highlight some disadvantages that can be significant, such as the following:

Resource Consumption

Using social media at the business level requires a investment of time and money. Although the use of social media itself is usually free, creating the necessary content to keep them updated is not. We are talking about visual and text content that must be created by professionals.

Need for Monitoring

Maintaining a company’s social media profile requires constant monitoring to ensure everything is going well and to avoid potential problems and reputation crises. Additionally, as they become another communication channel, they cannot be neglected, as it is necessary to interact with users who contact the company.

Potential Reputation Crises

Behind the maintenance of a company’s profile on a social network, there is always a person who can make mistakes in their posts and comments, which can damage the company’s image and provoke a reputation crisis.

Negative Feedback

One of the risks of having a profile on social media is that potential customers or dissatisfied users may publicly post negative comments and reviews that damage the company’s image and hinder its growth among potential new customers. It is important to moderate comments to prevent negative feedback from affecting the company’s online presence.

Should a Company Be on All Social Media Platforms?

The answer to this question is a resounding NO. Companies do not have to create profiles on all social media platforms just for the sake of being present. They must choose wisely where to create a profile and which platforms do not fit into their strategy. An inactive profile on a social network can be more harmful than helpful, so it is essential to study the investment carefully.

It is important to consider various factors when choosing which social media to use. For this, it is essential to analyze the most common user profile on each social network, the degree of penetration in society, the type of content that needs to be created, or the presence or absence of competing companies on it.

A social network can be a lever that fosters the growth of a business, but one must know where to be present and why.

How to Choose the Ideal Social Network for Your Business

To choose the most advisable social network for your business, it is essential to consider factors such as the following:

Know Your Audience

You must know where your target audience is active and through which networks your message will reach them best. To do this, you should define your ideal buyer persona based on various criteria and focus on this main target. You cannot go after everyone, so choose wisely what type of audience you want to target to know which network is most appropriate.

Analyze Your Own Company

It is important to analyze your own company and what type of business you have to know which types of networks are most appropriate for having a visual presence on them. It is not the same to have a B2C company as a B2B company, which will have a different target audience and will require different ways of expressing and communicating.

Type of Content

Depending on the type of content you want to create, you will have a greater preference for one social network over another. If it is more visual, with more or less text, or if video content is better, this is something you should ask yourself. Analyze what you want to teach and through which method it is best to do so, and that will help you find the answer.

Research the Sector

It is important to analyze what other companies in your sector are doing. Select a sample of direct competitors and review what they are doing regarding this, which networks they use and which they do not, where they have more followers, or where they receive a greater number of interactions. You can learn from their mistakes to avoid making them in your business.

Marketing Objectives

Analyze what your marketing objectives are: sharing content, promoting products, receiving feedback, interacting with users… and, from there, choose which social network may be the most suitable to achieve those objectives. For this, it is essential that you understand how the different platforms work beforehand.

Your Own Resources

You must consider the resources you have, both in terms of time and money. You need to monitor, create and update content, interact with users… and, for this, you need to prioritize among those networks that provide you with the best results with the least resource investment possible. You can always experiment and evaluate costs and performance to then stick with those that offer you the best results.

In this podcast, you will find much more information about the use of social media for businesses:

Which Social Networks to Choose: List and Strengths

To help you decide, we will show you some very popular social networks so you can know their strengths and see which ones are more interesting for your business.

• LinkedIn: ideal for B2B businesses and professionals. Very useful for collaborations and networking and for informing about the company’s work.
• Twitter: ideal for sharing quick and immediate ideas that connect with your target audience. Messages limited to 280 characters with relatively easy-to-create content.
• Facebook: ideal for companies with a more senior target audience or those looking to create loyal communities around the brand. Very useful for creating hyper-segmented ads.
• Instagram: focused on very visual mobile content that includes images and live videos. Presence of a predominantly young audience. Ideal for generating leads and sales around a theme.
• TikTok: social network for short and direct video content. It registers rapid growth and has a predominantly young audience. Allows for gaining a lot of visibility in less time compared to other social networks.
• YouTube: the leading video platform. It is the second most important search engine today and is perfect for creating content due to the high conversion rate of videos. Requires a greater investment in content production.
• Google Business: very important for local businesses. Allows creating content for customers, as well as responding to their reviews on the Google Business Profile. It is focused on sales and allows having leads at a more advanced stage of the purchase.

Beyond these social networks, we find two others that have an impact but are used less in Spain:

• Pinterest: especially for some sectors. Based mainly on images. Can drive a lot of traffic if used well due to visibility on the platform.
• Snapchat: images and short videos, filters, and augmented reality. Young audience and ephemeral content.

Now you know the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating social media into your business's online presence. You just need to analyze which ones are most convenient for your company's growth and outline a content strategy to reach your target audience.