Still wondering how to get on board with Social Media?

Every day it seems people are still saying they are too busy to get involved with the social medias. Really? Surely not. There are some simple ways you can get involved to help your online profile and this article explains 7 Social Media Platforms you should consider and how to use them – or rather when and when you shouldn’t. It explains the demographics (people) you will find on each one with a few tips.

Remember when you are using any or all of the social media platforms:

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities” ―Stephen R. Covey

Take that thought with you online and you will understand how to use each to your own benefit and gain.

Facebook: The Births Deaths and Marriages of our time. If you want to reach a broad community based audience, get on it. Make sure you have the right business name updated in your personal profile’s “About Me” (if you are lucky to be employed – help your boss out and promote the business you work for too). If you are a business owner, make sure you have a page your employees are proud to promote and share! Facebook is where your brothers, aunties, cousins, friends, mothers and business associates hang. Remember that. Be real – but be careful.

Google+: An interesting community that you will either “love or hate”. Generally more depth in the conversations started. Not that you can’t have in depth conversations on Facebook – but Google+ does have a different feel to it. Can be hard to navigate which is possibly why Facebook lovers don’t like it. Get your business listed on the new Google Business Pages regardless and use Google+ to share links and watch your SEO improve. Literally. Other than that, it just happens to be a good search tool that interfaces with Facebook and YouTube. Aaaah the webs it weaves.

Instagram: Where the cool kids hang and share visions of their world. Hashtagging is the language, so if this is something you “just don’t get”, don’t go there. A great tool to generate images for use on other social media platforms like Facebook it has to be said! The filters work wonders when you are a novice photographer.

LinkedIn: Your online CV. Your business world. Treat it as such. Meet colleagues and network gently. Be business minded always.

Pinterest: If you have a women’s centred business focus, get on it. Share products, tips and most importantly – recipes. If you are female, get on it. You will LOVE the images and ideas you find. Men can too of course – but it is highly female orientated in it’s content.

Twitter: Feed everything into this. It’s a news feed. Use your hashtags when you post items to help people find your content. Now, unless you are a Twitter “nerd” (online chat room freak) don’t fuss to much about engagement. It’s a time waster and sucks (precious business) energy trying to keep up. **Charlie uses it to find good articles etc via the search functions… Of course if someone contacts you – reply!

YouTube: Or any video platform is good. Even the Instagram video or Tout. Use the end video product to make your websites more interactive (embed them). Use videos to explain what your do and then share those links everywhere.

An easy summary. If there are any other social media platforms you’d like to know about – please ask, or email me at charliehelenrobinson@gmail.com