The Social Media Cheat Sheet for Business

social media cheat sheet

Nobody likes a cheater. But that doesn’t mean we can’t cheat just a little bit. The infographic below is a fairly simple high-level look at the top 9 social networks for your business, judging them by time investment, quality, and fun. It also includes some tips on how to use them to benefit your business.

To expand upon the content in the graphic, I’ll add a little more detail for each:

1. Twitter

According to the infographic, Twitter involves little time commitment. Hmmm, I disagree. Especially for business use, where you need to use it not only to gain a following, spread your brand and content – but you have to really be on the ball to respond to customers (practically speaking this is a 24/7 endeavor). If you really want to use Twitter for business, you need to use tools to improve your productivity.

Good examples are Buffer and Hootsuite. They let you manage multiple accounts, have multiple users and allow you to schedule tweets (to automate your content sharing over the course of the day). Some people think this isn’t a very authentic way to work, but when you’re super busy (as any good business is) then it’s really helpful. And if you keep a Twitter live search tab open in your browser, you’ll be able to jump into any conversations that develop.

2. Facebook

Facebook can be great. Or it can be an epic fail. The route to success is twofold:

  1. Be very active: A stale account will turn people off and stop them from coming back.
  2. Use it for the right aspect of your brand: Each social network should be used for it’s most appropriate purpose. Twitter is a great place to market your inbound marketing content (blog posts etc.), whereas Facebook is much better for creating a fun look at your business’s internal cultural. Tip: show photos of your employees doing fun things, and ask regular questions to keep the engagement level high. It’s good to understand what type of questions you should be asking (or more importantly, how you should phrase your Facebook questions).

3. LinkedIn

Should’ve started with this one. LinkedIn is definitely the best network for business. Especially if you’re doing B2B advertising. The targeting and segmentation is really granular, letting you target people with roles exactly in line with your target market.

Business tip: To establish yourself as a thought leader, go to the ‘Answers’ section and answer people’s questions (and ask some of your own). This lets people know that you know what you are talking about. It’s a soft form of lead gen or inbound marketing. There are also business groups that you can join and share your content and start discussions about your industry. Be careful in groups though, don’t be salesy or push yourself too hard. Be useful and people will respect you and hopefully start to wonder about what your business/product does.

4. Pinterest

Instead of discussing how good or relevant Pinterest is to your business, just check out this list of 20 Pinteresting stats.

Business tip: If you have great images on your page (like an infographic), add the Pin It button above and below them. But make sure you do this after your blog’s RSS has gone out. Reason being that the button can crash Outlook (don’t know why) – so adding it after let’s people pin it, while not annoying your customers.

5. YouTube

YouTube is massive and very good for search engine results if you use it to host your videos. But is it the best for business? Here’s an article that sums up the pros and cons of YouTube vs. Vimeo for business.

6. Google+

Google+ “should” be the nest best thing for business. It has Hangouts where you can host a video conference with a bunch of people (re: potential or existing customers) – and the newly added communities which let you step up your engagement. For an example of a community (shameless plug), you should go visit (and join) the Conversion Heroes community.

For some extra deets on Google+, look at these 7 Google+ infographics for business, each with it’s own lesson.

7. Instagram

Instagram is massive right now (recently acquired by Facebook for $1 billion), but many see it as just a fun phone app for taking and sharing photos with your friends. Here’s the skinny on how to use Instagram for business.

8. Tumblr

Tumblr is a simple blogging platform, that you can use to make really quick updates if you’re maintaining several content hubs apart from your main blog (such as product specific or culture based blogs that would normally interfere or turn people off your business blog’s content).

9. FourSquare

FourSquare breeds loyalty and competitive retention, most often for brick and mortar businesses where people can ‘check in’ to your location. The competitive nature comes when someone becomes a ‘Mayor’ by being a frequent visitor. This creates a power struggle between customers vying for control – and maintain their ‘badge’ of honor. It’s a fun way to reward your most faithful customers for expressing their loyalty to you.

Business tip: Go the extra mile by throwing out a Tweet about whoever has become the Mayor to make they feel special. (It will also fuel the competition and boost the number of people coming to visit your business). Want more tips on how to use Foursquare for your business? The Next Web recently posted this great article covering just that: How to use Foursquare to market your business & reach a new audience.

Enjoy the infographic.

social-networks-for-business
Infographic by SDLSM2 – Click for full size image.

Tweetables

One tip for each social media network in the infographic. Share these tips with your followers. And don’t worry, you can change the tweet text before it goes out.

— Oli Gardner


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About Oli Gardner
Unbounce co-founder Oli Gardner has seen more landing pages than anyone on the planet. He’s obsessed with identifying and reversing bad marketing practices, and his disdain for marketers who send campaign traffic to their homepage is legendary, resulting in landing page rants that can peel paint off an unpainted wall. A prolific international keynote speaker, Oli is on a mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike. He was recently named the "The 2018 Marketer to Watch," in the under 46 category, by his mother.
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