Mine is now LinkedIn! Obviously, it very much depends on your business which one is most useful but here are my reasons for liking or disliking each one plus a useful tip, feel free to add yours on this thread.
Facebook - or Fakebook as I like to call it due to the way people represent their lives on there (among other things!) It can be a great platform for your business, you can use paid for advertising by boosting posts (something I have always failed to get any work from even when I get responses). Some people do incredibly well, I use it for reviews and interaction in networking groups and as a presence for my business. I have had some leads but never found the adverts work, this may be my type of business or my poor targeting.
Top Tip - Groups are what Facebook likes at the moment according to the algorithm rumours - if they are busy and full of interaction - so get an interesting group up and running or join a good one and that is where you will get best visibility.
Twitter - Best for networking and interaction, people generally hate being sold to on Twitter so I wouldn't even try if I was you. The Twitter community likes a rant and rave about controversial subjects so you can jump on board if you have the gumption or perhaps amuse everyone with the gifs, as they are always a winner. Use it to make contacts and share information and ideas with local businesses or others in the same sector as you. It is a great place to make friends and we all do better business with people we get on with, so play the long game.
Top Tip - Find a local networking hour and tweet in it every week, I am in #covhour and it is brilliant (Thursday 8-9pm). If there isn't one, set one up! Bonus tip: Don't use scheduled tweets and automated DMs, people hate them..
LinkedIn - Always known as the professional place to network and has a reputation for being dull and boring. This is changing rapidly, and there is much debate on whether it is becoming too much like Facebook as some people hate that! I think it is a great place to talk to fellow business owners and experts and a font of really high-quality advice and information.
Top Tip – Connect to people you think will be of benefit to you or who you can benefit, don’t just add people randomly. If you build up a reputation as someone who can be trusted and who is an expert in your field, you can do really well on here. I am working on it!
Instagram – I see it as one for the kids, but it really is used by many businesses to great effect. Visuals work and you may have to think creatively if your business doesn’t lend itself to visuals, but it can be a great way to reach a lot of people, if you build up a following. This takes time and funny or quality content though, it is very competitive.
Top Tip – Link it to your Facebook page then you can b posting in both places at the same time.
Google+ - Don’t bother they are scrapping it!!
Overall, be yourself on social media as people buy people! They need to like you first, and if you are genuine then it comes across and it will work. Also, use hashtags, it works across all the platforms mentioned, people search for things by hashtag, so it is silly to miss out.
What tips and experiences do you have?
