Business Social Media Sites: An Insider’s Guide to Real Results

There’s one great reason to take a deep dive into the business social media sites available today: time and money invested in your business’s social needs to produce results in return.

The good news? Our social media pros have compiled a simple guide to the social platforms you need to know about. PLUS quick takeaways on making each perform for your business too. 

The digital age has transformed how companies conduct business, interact with consumers, and promote their brands. Crucial to this evolved commercial landscape are social media platforms – tools that present both opportunities and challenges across the realms of marketing, communication and data-driven strategy. Major sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn enable brands to establish influential presences, directly engage diverse audiences, execute targeted advertising, and extract key insights from oceans of rich data.

When strategically leveraged as integrated extensions of broader objectives, business social media sites can drive immense awareness, traffic, leads and customer loyalty. This ever-expanding digital environment calls brands to actively listen, effectively participate, and adeptly adjust approaches to flourish. The following explores vital benefits and best practices for businesses to succeed on key social platforms.

We’ll guide you through the ‘best for business’ options and how to use social for your organisation too.

What Are the Different Types of Business Social Media Sites? 

The first thing to know? ‘Social media’ means much more than people imagine. 

Your first thought for social media might be Facebook or Twitter? But your audience might not agree. 

You may find your customers on some main types of social platform… 

Social sites: Like LinkedIn or Facebook 

Sharing sites: Especially YouTube 

Messaging: The mighty WhatsApp is a likely destination for your audience 

Microblogging: Including Twitter 

Forums and blogs: Such as niche hobby forums 

News–sharing platforms: Do your customers use Reddit? 

Ultimately, going where your potential buyers are found is key. Using audience persona images can help focus the right messages to the right people in the right places. 

Our quick takeaway: Focus your efforts on the places your audience are already spending their time. Don’t put clicks between yourself and possible leads. 

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What is the Most Used Social Media? 

In a way, stats showing the most used social media are irrelevant for your business. The real question is: which social media platform is used by my audience? 

Platform popularity will vary by country, age group and niche interest. 

However, globally, Facebook sits ahead with 2,196m users, with YouTube growing fast at 1,900m. 

WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have 1,500m and 1,300m respectively while Instragram’s strong youth following helps a 1,000m total active users. 

Surprisingly, Twitter sits far below these big-hitters with 336m users while LinkedIn’s userbase sits at 294m. 

Dwarfing many of these is China’s WeChat platform – with 1,040m users – showing the importance of thinking audience over size when it comes to social media. 

Our quick takeaway: Using the audience demographics in your existing social channels, plus Google analytics info for your website, will show where your audience are found. Broad popularity can’t match the value of a well-matched customer segment and the right content to the ideal social platform. How? Read on. 

What Are the Top 10 Social Media Apps? 

Turning away from basic ‘most used’ stats, there are 10 main social media apps to consider for your business. 

These cover traditional social – specifically, Facebook and Linkedin – plus messaging by way of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. 

The mighty YouTube can’t be ignored, while top photo-sharing app Instagram is worthwhile consideration too. 

Some more specialist apps – Pinterest, SnapChat and Tumblr – may be home to your audience. 

Meanwhile, the fast-paced Twitter platform could be a way to reach the people you need quickly and easily.  

We’ll take a closer look at all these platforms below. 

Our quick takeaway: A modern business can look past the ‘most popular’ stats to examine these 10 social platforms as a place to talk with potential buyers. Building a community means putting down foundations where the right audience will grow your brand. 

Best Social Media for Business Marketing 

Let’s examine at the top social media sites for business marketing using the expertise of our in-house social team. 

We’ll include platform-by-platform tips for making your time spend on each count for your business. 

Facebook: It might be losing prominence, but it’s a great platform for reaching customers in a social space. Facebook users are relaxing at home, thinking about holidays or their next car. Talk to them!

Our quick takeaway: Facebook will reward you for using their latest features for your content. Explore Facebook Canvas, use native video and read up on the latest Facebook algorithm to get the best possible reach.

Linkedin: The quality of content may be dipping, with video now overused and quantity overshadowing quality, BUT for B2B LinkedIn holds its own.

Our quick takeaway: Invest time and money in great content to stand out from the white noise.

WhatsApp: Chances are, your customers are already there. Go where they want to be found.

Our quick takeaway: Find out more about WhatsApp Business, before your competitors.

Facebook Messenger: A powerful tool for talking with your audience in a relaxed, immediate setting.

Our quick takeaway: Find our more about Facebook Messenger chatbots to discover a way to answer customer enquiries rapidly, at any time of day and no matter how busy you are.

YouTube: Simpy redefines online video-sharing, that’s why your younger customers may be spending much of their time here.

Our quick takeaway: Think…useful, quality, timeless and on-brand content to impress and engage.

Instagram:An open goal for younger or artsy audiences and for tactile, lifestyle products. Brings your brand to life visually.

Our quick takeaway: Show the real life behind your brand and your people to really reach others.

Pinterest: Find a niche to make it yours using high-quality photography.

Our quick takeaway: Go niche, go niche, go niche. Quality traffic and engagement is worth every minute spent.

SnapChat: If your potential customers are there, go there too.

Our quick takeaway: Explore features like filters and make SnapChat part of brand events to let people get involved.

Tumblr:  An ideal place to blog with visuals, if you can segment, present and maintain your offer in the right way.

Our quick takeaway: Make it interesting, make it suitable and make it visual to gain a following here.

Twitter: Think of it as a micro-blog, where fast-paced and snappy content can gain traction very very fast.

Our quick takeaway: Work on your clear, sharp, easy tone to stand a chance of content spreading like wildfire.

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What is the Best Social Media for Small Businesses? 

A short answer: it depends on your customers. 

For ‘desire’ products in a social setting – like selling cars to a broad age group – Facebook remains popular. Recent algorithm changes mean Facebook makes you work harder to be seen, but quality and relevance will still gain traction. 

Facebook is also used for brand-building and sales/ lead generating as features like Canvas adverts make products look great and conversions easy. 

For B2B awareness, LinkedIn is a great place to start conversations and show thought leadership in your specialist sector.  

LinkedIn’s Powerhouse Impact on B2B Brand Awareness:

LinkedIn holds a unique position in the B2B landscape, acting as a potent catalyst for amplifying brand awareness. Here’s how:

1. Hyper-Targeted Reach:

Unlike broad-cast platforms, LinkedIn allows you to laser-focus your outreach on specific professionals, decision-makers, and influencers within your target market. Precise filters based on job titles, companies, industries, and even education levels ensure your message reaches the right eyes, maximizing its impact.

2. Credibility and Expertise:

LinkedIn is a professional network, making it an ideal platform to showcase your company’s expertise and build trust. Sharing insightful articles, industry reports, or white papers positions you as a thought leader in your field, attracting potential customers eager for valuable knowledge.

3. Building Relationships:

Unlike cold-calling or generic social media interactions, LinkedIn facilitates genuine relationship building. Engaging in relevant groups, connecting with individual professionals, and participating in industry discussions allow you to establish meaningful connections that can blossom into long-term partnerships.

4. Content Amplification:

LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes valuable content, giving organic reach a significant boost. By consistently sharing high-quality, informative content tailored to your target audience, you can attract a wider audience, gain followers, and increase brand visibility within your industry.

5. Employee Advocacy:

Employees are your brand ambassadors. Encouraging them to share company updates, participate in discussions, and endorse each other’s skills on LinkedIn leverages their professional networks to reach a broader audience and amplify your brand’s reach organically.

6. Lead Generation:

Brand awareness is just the first step. LinkedIn offers sophisticated lead generation tools like sponsored content, lead forms, and conversion tracking. By targeting your content accurately and providing valuable resources, you can attract qualified leads, nurture them through the sales funnel, and ultimately convert them into customers.

7. Competitor Insights:

LinkedIn is a treasure trove of industry insights. Monitoring your competitors’ activities, tracking their content engagement, and identifying their target audience strategies can provide valuable intelligence to inform your own brand awareness initiatives.

8. Building a Company Page:

Think of your LinkedIn company page as a virtual storefront. Optimize it with engaging content, relevant keywords, and compelling visuals to attract visitors, showcase your brand’s offerings, and establish your presence within your industry.

If you receive customer enquiries, exploring 24/7 chatbot availability on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger can put you one step ahead of your competitors. 

For promoting products and sharing useful content, YouTube is unbeatable; especially for some younger age groups. 

Lifestyle products and ‘behind the scenes’ photos look great on Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and Tumblr. We’d recommend Instragram as a great place to start. 

And Twitter is somewhere you might find local customers PLUS other businesses nearby if you are a B2B organisation. 

Our quick takeaway:   The best social media for small business? Adapt your efforts depending on your type of business (B2c or B2B), your product and geographic spread. 

Delving Deeper into the Benefits of Strategic Social Media for Businesses:

When carefully planned and implemented, social media sites aren’t just trendy platforms – they become potent tools for driving business growth. Let’s dive into the details of those four key benefits you mentioned:

1. Amplified Brand Awareness & Reach:

Imagine throwing a massive party every day, where millions can attend and learn about your brand. That’s the magic of social media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter offer unparalleled reach, allowing you to connect with diverse audiences you might never have found before. By consistently posting engaging content, running targeted ads, and participating in relevant online communities, you can:

• Increase brand visibility: Every post, share, and comment expands your reach and puts your brand front and center for new potential customers.
• Go global: Break geographical barriers and tap into international markets with ease.
• Target specific demographics: Tailor your content and outreach to relevant age groups, interests, and locations for maximized impact.
• Become a thought leader: Share valuable insights, industry news, and expert opinions to establish your brand as a trusted authority in your field.

The more people see your brand online, the more likely they are to remember it and consider using your products or services.

2. Enhanced Customer Engagement:

Social media isn’t just about broadcasting your message – it’s about creating a two-way dialogue. These platforms provide invaluable opportunities to build meaningful relationships with your audience. Here’s how:

• Respond to comments and messages promptly: Show your audience you care about their feedback and questions. This personalized approach fosters trust and loyalty.
• Run polls and surveys: Get direct feedback on your products, services, and brand perception. This helps you tailor your offerings to better meet customer needs.
• Host live Q&A sessions: Connect with your audience in real-time and build a sense of community around your brand.
• Run contests and giveaways: Generate excitement and attract new followers while rewarding existing customers.

Remember, people connect with brands they feel they can relate to. Social media gives you a platform to showcase your brand personality, share your values, and humanize your business. This authenticity fosters genuine connections that drive long-term success.

3. Cost-Effective Promotions & Advertising:

Forget expensive billboards and TV commercials – social media offers highly targeted and budget-friendly advertising options. You can:

• Run targeted ads: Reach specific demographics, interests, and online behaviors with laser precision, maximizing your ad spend.
• Leverage organic reach: Share valuable content that people want to see and share themselves, organically expanding your reach without paid advertising.
• Partner with influencers: Collaborate with individuals in your niche to tap into their established audience and gain their endorsement.
• Run social media contests and campaigns: Generate buzz and engagement around your brand without breaking the bank.

Compared to traditional marketing channels, social media offers a significantly higher return on investment and allows you to track your results in real-time, making it a powerful tool for growing your business on a budget.

4. Invaluable Insight Mining & Market Research:

Social media isn’t just a one-way street – it’s a goldmine of customer insights. By monitoring conversations, analyzing engagement metrics, and tracking industry trends, you can gain invaluable knowledge about your target audience and their preferences. Here’s how:

• Track brand mentions and sentiment: Learn how people perceive your brand and identify areas for improvement.
• Analyze competitor activity: Stay ahead of the curve by understanding your competitors’ strategies and target audiences.
• Discover trending topics and hashtags: Leverage popular conversations to create relevant content and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
• Gather feedback through polls and surveys: Get direct input from your customers to inform product development, marketing strategies, and customer service initiatives.

How to Use Social Media for Business 

There’s more to life on social than simple ‘likes’. 

Really making social platforms pay their way means a keen sense of customer segment PLUS working using a clear customer journey on social. 

This means customers interested in your product can find support with: 

Awareness: A customer just discovering your product doesn’t want demands to ‘buy this NOW’ pushed onto their page. Quality, useful content with an introduction to your brand is what’s needed. 

Interest: Product information, deeper discovery or your brand – vitally – enagement with your business happens here. 

Evaluation: Comparison, assessment of your business and consideration of customer testimonals etc will happen during the evaluation stage. 

Decision: Are you placing barriers between the customer and a purchase? Is ordering/ making an enquiry simple and inviting?  

Retention: Using great content, help your customer to become an advocate of your brand with content designed to help with their produce AND be part of your customer community. 

Social media is a community for potential buyers and brand advocates, somewhere they can find the information they need and convert when they need to convert. 

Our quick takeaway: Think about what segment of your customers are on which platform, when and why. Use customer journey mapping to make sure they have the content and path-to-purchase they need. And aren’t being pushed to buy at the wrong time. 

FAQ

What are the top business social media platforms?

The most utilized platforms are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok. Each has distinct strengths for business uses – Facebook and Instagram for visual branding and promotions, Twitter for engagement and market real-time data, LinkedIn for professional contacts and job marketing, and YouTube and TikTok for video content.

What types of content best connect with audiences?

Visually engaging posts with infographics, videos, live streams as well as conversational tone and narrative posts that transparently engage users tend to see highest genuine interest and sharing. Offering exclusives, contests, company insights also attract followers.

How much time should companies spend on social media?

Most experts recommend allotting 1-2 hours daily for platforms with the largest established audiences and strategic value. This enables regular monitoring, engaging with mentions, posting unique content, and analyzing performance. Teams can divide responsibilities across accounts.

How do you calculate social media ROI?

Platform analytics provide data like web clicks, post reach/impressions, viewership, conversions, and engagement rates. These can be used, along with sales/lead figures, to calculate ROI. Set targets for awareness, traffic, and leads to consistently align efforts and spending to tangible returns.

Summary: Work Smarter on Social to Unlock ROI 

A common problem with business social media use happens when organisations simply ‘do’ social media. 

Being present on a social platform isn’t enough. Posting the same thing, sporadically, across every platform isn’t enough. Constantly using social to ‘hard sell’ your audience isn’t enough. 

Creating a useful, enaging community for your segmented audience, with a clear customer journey-to-purchase, requires a sense of the pros and cons of each platform. 

Our guide outlines the right audience for the right social media too, and more, meaning a great starting point for your results-driven social media strategy. 

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The ProfileTree team includes web design, development, SEO, video and content writing specialists who love two things: exploring new methods to benefit from the latest digital changes, and making real results happen. So, the benefits of a Freelance SEO Consultant with the bonus of a expert and varied team. 

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While others stop there, our specialisms in SEO and marketing mean your customers won’t just see engaging, quality video but can find and interact with your videos and your messaging. 

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Content Marketing: If you haven’t already seen the power of content marketing, we’ll show you why there’s a goldmine of audience engagement waiting for your brand. 

That’s because a new generation of customers are prepared to give unprecedented loyalty to your business if you’ve used time and skill to maintain a worthwhile conversion. The good news? We can help. 

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This way, a customised website with its roots in the needs of your business can work hard, and react fast, for the benefit of your brand. 

Artificial Intelligence:  Staying ahead of the latest technology online means being ready when your customers change how they want to engage with your brand.  

Not only do we help understand how tech like chatbots and voice search can boost your business, we’ll continue to translate the big changes into results. 

Digital Strategy: Making sure your brand meets your customers online in the right way – with the results your needed for your business – means making all the elements of your online world work with each other towards your goals.  

A piecemeal approach, without clear outcomes and your audience firmly in mine, is a world of missed opportunity. We’ll help you grow online instead. 

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We’ll even show you LIVE results from our own trials of our techniques. Ready to grow? 

Social Media Services: While your competitors are simply ‘doing’ social media, your business could be wowing customers with content that truly engages and creates lasting relationships.  

By unlocking the power of your audience being able to see – and react – the right message on the right channel, the reward of customer loyalty and even creating brand ambassadors awaits. We’ll show you how. 

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