The Only 3 Social Media Sites To Market With

Social Sites To Begin Marketing Your Business

The Only Social Media Sites You Ever Need To Advertise On

Social media and networking sites have a firm grip on millions of people who use the internet everyday.  Much of the time spent online these days are on social sites like Facebook where people share messages, links, pictures, and videos.  User are more likely to trust these messages because of the personal nature of the interaction.  Marketing and advertising using social media outlets are powerful avenues to stand out among your competitiors.
(I know this list is probrably obvious to most but the point of this article is to highlight the top 3 social media sites along with demonstrating their potential to businesses worldwide.)

#1. Facebook (Alexa 2, PR 9)

Facebook is prevalent in everyday life.  Over 200 million people in the US alone have active Facebook accounts.  Facebook has become an amazing social media service where people share messages, videos, and links all the time.  Smart phone users have to abliity to use Facebook mobile allowing them to stay connected anywhere they go.  Facebook collects vital statistical information from users establishing demographics that are customized for your products and services.  Users let their guard down on Facebook and are more likely to follow a link or read an advertisement if they are presented by one of their Facebook friends.  For many Facebook users, seeing your message posted by a friend on their feed is as if that person recommened it directly to them.
Business fanpages created on Facebook can serve as a mini website representing the company.  These fanpages allow business owners to post important information such as locations, hours, and contact as well as status updates to everyone who likes the page and become a fan.  Be sure not to use your personal profile as a company fanpage as this is against Facebook terms and will get you reported and banned.  It is important to keep your fans updated with useful updates and avoid blasting them with lots of ads.  As in other aspects of business, you want to create value to your customer and sell only once that value is established.

#2. YouTube (Alexa 3, PR 9)

While Facebook engages the users personal home space, YouTube takes it to another level by engaging users visual through video sharing.  While other social media sites allow video sharing, YouTube is unique in that users come to and search for video only content.  YouTube has grown rampantly from it’s early days and has been the favorite and most used video sharing site since 2007.
A YouTube channel for your business lets you communicate directly to your demographic and people consume video much more readily than text or images much in the same way that TV advertisements trump radio and print ads.  Subscribers to your channel are updated when you post new content.

#3. Twitter (Alexa 10, PR 9)

Twitter is the newcomer of the group but is as widely used as the top 2 social media services. Twitter serves as a fast and user friendly way of broadcasting messages to your followers. Again, this service shouldn’t be used to spam advertisements but short messages with links to valuable or entertaining resources like your business blog.

Why Use Social Media Sites For Marketing?

Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are potent vehicles to increase your web presence and market your products or services to millions of people.  Over 800 million people and counting use Facebook.  That’s almost the number of people that use Google search.  93% of US residents under the age of 30 have Facebook.  Looking at Alexa rankings, Facebook and YouTube rank 2 and 3 behind #1 Google and Twitter comes in at 10 making them the most used social media sites.  As indicated by thier higher rankings, each of these sites carries alot of authority and are used daily to share personal media.  The personal nature of social media translates into word of mouth marketing (long considered the most effective form of marketing) and gives immense value to these websites.
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube recieve the lion’s share of the market much like Google search does.  Each of the services are unique enough that direct competition can only imitate and niche competition has a very limited user base.  It is important that any marketing be focused to these three social media services to have an effective marketing campaign.