What is the social media network that works the best for you?

[veritasvisions]

Please tell me what you do for business. Mentioning whether you do b2c or b2b is important. Let me know what social media platforms work best for you and maybe give what is working and what is not working.

[Harold Mansfield]

Please tell me what you do for business. Mentioning whether you do b2c or b2b is important. Let me know what social media platforms work best for you and maybe give what is working and what is not working.
I'm not trying to kill the discussion, but there are many threads both old and new asking the same thing over and over again.
One of them was actually started by you.
http://www.small-business-forum.net/social-media/15194-love-hear-social-media-tips-tricks.html

[vaughn31]

It's like a bunch of crickets chirping...

[janefirst]

Facebook, twitter, and google plus are best social media sites that support business nowadays both for paid and free of cost services. You can submit your business location on Google maps and this will useful to locate your business any where in the world. You can share your products, websites, and location on these sites to get your business be successful.

[Owen]

None of the social networks Stacktron is apart of does any good. Probably because we don't really promote it too much, but I doubt it'll do much good if we did anyways. We're not an brand like Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc. that people WANT to follow. Social media is really pointless unless you already have a strong customer following.

[veritasvisions]

yes i agree. It takes consistent effort and time though.

[claritine]

Facebook and google+. They are 2 of the most favourite social networks even by me. Both google and facebook has possibility to share a lot of information about business like opening time, adress with instant navigation etc.

[Olson]

Facebook, Google+ are best for me. But, I don't see any reason to start a social media pages for b2b.

[webfanatic]

I like Google+ and I do both b2b and b2c.


I think you ask this question to give you some ideas on what social networks to concentrate on. I suggest you pick a couple of them to focus on and see if you're getting a lot more traffic with the networks in question. In other words, you'll have to test and see what networks are worth your time and which ones aren't.

[dewalds86]

None of the social networks Stacktron is apart of does any good. Probably because we don't really promote it too much, but I doubt it'll do much good if we did anyways. We're not an brand like Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc. that people WANT to follow. Social media is really pointless unless you already have a strong customer following.

Google + is a must have social media profile for any small business especially if you set up your Google My Business correctly.

Facebook groups is a very powerful tool for promoting anything from service, products to blogs.

[jawal]

Every SMO site is having their own features, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, linkedin, Instagram, according to your business category it works. One thing we can say that Facebook is for multiple business not like other websites suppose If you consider Instagram it works well with photography, designing, Interiors, fashion and diya categories. Linked in is for education, career, jobs and technology related categories. So choose according to your business. :)

[M.Ehrmantraut]

Facebook has worked the best for me by customers spreading my name on various groups - I've had more than several new customers contact me and come to my shop telling me so-and-so referred them to me.

[veritasvisions]

Actually, in many cases it can be more effective because there is less competition.

[veritasvisions]

I like Google+ and I do both b2b and b2c.


I think you ask this question to give you some ideas on what social networks to concentrate on. I suggest you pick a couple of them to focus on and see if you're getting a lot more traffic with the networks in question. In other words, you'll have to test and see what networks are worth your time and which ones aren't.

I agree. I'm seeing a lot of success with linkedin and twitter. Do not take these platforms for granted.

[Ryan@focus]

I agree with Dewald, you have to have a presence these days. If you approach a company and you don't have any social media presence it could reflect poorly on your business. Our model is cold calling, cultivating our own leads but we have people constantly checking us out on Linkedin, Facebook.

[99social]

I think a lot of it depends on your niche.

For most small businesses - Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will cover a large majority of your audience, but if you are clothing or fashion based, Instagram would be a fantastic platform, because you have very visually attractive merchandise to share on a very visual platform.

I have had success in each of the platforms, it was just finding which one best suited my clients and was the easiest to reach their prospective audience.

[seanfalconer]

I'm B2B and by far the best social channels have been LinkedIn and Twitter. If I produce something that's a little more consuming-facing, then Facebook can be good, but it's not consistent.

[cheta]

first i will like to know what you mean by b2b and b2c? secondly, though Facebook and YouTube are my favorites among others like twitter, Google+, Facebook is the surest for me because of its simplicity and its high volume of traffic visitors that have way, converted into sales for me unlike twitter and YouTube. i go with Facebook anytime, any day.

[alyssa.redkite]

I agree with the people here, it really depends on who you're targeting. For the brand I am marketing, we mostly use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and we've built great relationships with our current customers and prospects as well on those sites. In the future though, we'll be experimenting with other social media platforms like Pinterest and the like.

[Pita]

I'm not sure if this is O/T, but yesterday I was called by a firm called Constant Contact. They gave a slick presentation offering to manage all the social network outlets for our business. For example, if we were to upload our menu through their interface they would ensure our latest menu as well as other current information is posted to Yelp, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, Google+, Facebook, etc.

I guess they're selling ease of access to these various sites, saving the business owner time and effort in maintaining their social network presence. I'm sure they also take some money out of the backend by charging those companies for maintaining the accuracy of the data they present. They're on-time-good-deal-special-for-me-only price was $79 a month with no contract. I told them I needed to talk it over with my partner.

Has anyone else used this kind of service? If so, what did you think of it?

[Tammy Hudgin]

For me, Facebook is the best one BUT I tell my clients that they need to determine who their target markets are first, then figure out which social media site(s) is going to work for them. We don't need to be actively using all social media sites because if you are focusing on selling yourself, then you need to spend time doing that and working all social media sites can become overwhelming.

[Krystsina]

I have a b2c business. The best what works for my business out of all social media platforms is Facebook and Instagram. Facebook works because the biggest amount of our target audience are using this social network. Instagram works because we have products to show, but if you are in service business, it's gonna be too complicated to create interesting visual content.

[alyssa.redkite]

I agree with the aforementioned answers. Google + and Facebook are two of the best social media networks for businesses. Twitter, not so much.
You might want to try LinkedIn as well. It takes a lot of time but I'm gaining a lot of clicks from there. Try LinkedIn Groups.

[dewmyth]

Instead of saying what social platform I like the best for social marketing, I thought I'd provide a little data into what channels social marketers in general love.

First off: 44% of local businesses said they depend on social media to generate brand awareness, and 41% depend on it to drive revenue. So obviously, they're wanting the best channels to use for this.

Facebook:
86% of social marketers regularly use Facebook ads.
There are about 50 million small business pages on Facebook.
55% of marketers say Facebook is their most important platform
Over 95% of marketers say that Facebook offers the best ROI of any platform

Twitter
93% of organizations say that Twitter is one of the platforms they most majorly used for marketing
47% of marketers use Twitter as their most favoured channel for customer engagement
18% of social marketers regularly use Twitter ads
63.5% of marketers voted Twitter as one of the best platforms for ROI

LinkedIn
Marketers that flesh out their Products and Services page have 2x as many company followers
91% of marketers say that LinkedIn is one of the platforms most majorly used for marketing in their organization
40% of B2B marketers say that LinkedIn is the most important platform for them
LinkedIn is the most favored channel for customer engagement for 64% of marketers
94% of B2Bs use LinkedIn for content marketing

Google+
87% of the top 100 brands have a Google+ account, and 50% of them actively post every month
Brand adoption on Google+ has grown 10% in the last year
49% of digital marketers use Google+

Instagram
94% of the top 100 companies have an Instagram account, and 86% of them actively post each month
24% of influencers voted Instagram as the best social platform for influencer marketing
34% of US marketers plan to spend advertising dollars on Instagram for the first time in late 2016, and 16% already use it and plan to increase their spend

[John Blake]

Facebook and Twitter are a must for me. Other platforms need to be adjusted to your customers and the service you offer. It is pointless to have an account on every social media platform, because depending on your needs they will work completely different. Know your customer and goals you want to achieve first, and then choose the platform that will help you achieve the target and reach the client the most effectively.

[idealsolutions]

I like Facebook and Twitter. They tend to be the most useful.....Google+ is great for content also.

[davide]

Hello Guys.

I just wanted to make my first entry in this forum a particularly helpful one.

I used to Manage Social Media for a very long time, and while every business is inherently different in nature, location and target market there are some best practices. I speak out of experience as I have personally helped set up over one thousand social media pages in my past career. Disclaimer: No one in the industry will be so honest and tell you this!

Most Social Media agencies and marketing agency will either:
- Try and sell you in what they are "good" at or;
- Do whatever you say so you're happy.

In reality neither of these approaches will work. The reason is simple, what they may be good at might or what you want might not be what your business needs.

Every business with limited, bad, udnerperforming or no Social Media presence should start with Facebook.

Facebook is the #1 platform for social marketing with 1.8 billion users who spend on average 3 hours a day on it. In our beta we want a very controlled experience focused on one platform to deliver the best results. 90% of consumers and businesses use Social Media to connect with brands they want to associate with. Trust and attention are today's currencies and Facebook is where both are gained. Facebook is the best starting point for any business and other platforms are an added bonus.

There is a specific way to go about it too, meaning the process take s a little time. Please don't buy into people selling you instant results, because if you want real results it does take some time. I have grown Facebook pages well into the 6 digits with minimal expenses in the past, it took me a while, but once they got there they were Making me a lot of money with limited effort.

I hope his will help someone!

Davide

[extramile]

I don't find Instagram or Google+ particularly great. I feel like they are a waste of time. Facebook has been quite solid over the years, and LinkedIn too of course (can it be called a social media network?). But the winner has to go to Twitter. There are just so many active members and it's so quick to respond to customers and the community at large. If you take a look at this guide (https://www.1and1.co.uk/digitalguide/online-marketing/social-media/the-most-important-social-media-platforms/), there is some nice info regarding which social media networks are most useful. This quote from the guide really opened my eyes, even though I've been using Twitter for a while: "there are some 680 million Twitter users. Of these, approximately 305 million are active users."

[twoodal]

Facebook and Instagram are by far my best

[MyBrandBoost]

Depending on the business of course and who their ideal consumer is... my clients have the best results with Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I would say the one with the most room to grow is Instagram. Facebook is actively investing a lot of money into new functionality. It is the fastest growing and has the most engagement.

[Mannatsandhu]

Facebook is the best social media to promote any kind of Business. I have create my business page on facebook and share it in various groups. By this process, i get large amount of traffic from facebook.

[Bookmemate]

We're currently trying out a link ad on Reddit so will report back in a few days if our link ad has been a success. After the link ad we're going to experiment with some text ads and will share our findings there as well. Has anyone else any recent experience with Reddit ads?

[MyBrandBoost]

We're currently trying out a link ad on Reddit so will report back in a few days if our link ad has been a success. After the link ad we're going to experiment with some text ads and will share our findings there as well. Has anyone else any recent experience with Reddit ads?

I have not done much advertising on Reddit. I did find this somewhat recent case study, with examples included that might be helpful to you during your testing. Not the same industry as you, but you may find some value you in it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfserve/comments/49dxiw/case_study_how_one_reddit_advertiser_tested_his/

[Bookmemate]

I have not done much advertising on Reddit. I did find this somewhat recent case study, with examples included that might be helpful to you during your testing. Not the same industry as you, but you may find some value you in it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfserve/comments/49dxiw/case_study_how_one_reddit_advertiser_tested_his/

Excellent, thanks I hadn't come across that one before.

[smartkpis]

I think we can use all social media to our benefit, whether it is facebook, twitter, instagram, Google+, etc. They are there to be used to our advantage and to our company. However, since Facebook and Twitter are two of the most popular social media sites being used today. I think we can use them to their best potential. You should also keep in mind some KPIs that will help you and your company make use of whether your customers engage more or a certain social media.

For facebook and twitter, for example, some KPIs that you can use and keep track of are:
# Daily active users (DAUs)
# Monthly active users (MAUs)
$ Revenues from advertising
$ Revenues from payments and other fees

A quote that I have taken from our great website (which you can access and read free of charge - the link below):

According to a benchmarking study performed by B2B Marketing, entitled “The state of the B2B social media in 2013″, the most popular platform is Twitter (85%), followed closely by LinkedIn (82%), YouTube (77%) and Facebook (71%). Given the tight competition, building trust between the company and public is essential.

Consider these facts and hope you can develop your social media network and revenues.

[Bookmemate]

Just to update on the reddit ads... didn't crack it this time. Our CTR was 1.2% with an average session time of 36 seconds. It's not bad but we've had much better results from our Linkedin ad campaigns so far. That said we are still tweaking both platforms (and exploring others) to find what works best for our target market.

One of the things we've noticed about our 'organic' reddit traffic (where we are engaging in meaningful discussion in sub-reddits and drop a link) is that the traffic we get is highly engaged. For our paid link ad we targeted some fairly specific niche sub-reddits hoping to get similar levels of engagement but didn't pull it off this time.

I'll report back as we continue our social media marketing experiments. I really like the reddit platform personally so will be spending some time trying to 'crack' it, at least for our target markets of small business owners & sole traders.

Would love to hear feedback from anyone else who has experience advertising on reddit.

[Harold Mansfield]

Just to update on the reddit ads... didn't crack it this time. Our CTR was 1.2% with an average session time of 36 seconds. It's not bad but we've had much better results from our Linkedin ad campaigns so far. That said we are still tweaking both platforms (and exploring others) to find what works best for our target market.

One of the things we've noticed about our 'organic' reddit traffic (where we are engaging in meaningful discussion in sub-reddits and drop a link) is that the traffic we get is highly engaged. For our paid link ad we targeted some fairly specific niche sub-reddits hoping to get similar levels of engagement but didn't pull it off this time.

I'll report back as we continue our social media marketing experiments. I really like the reddit platform personally so will be spending some time trying to 'crack' it, at least for our target markets of small business owners & sole traders.

Would love to hear feedback from anyone else who has experience advertising on reddit.

Never even thought about advertising in Reddit. Very interested in hearing more about any successes.

[Darcie-amber]

I think the answer to that is it depends on who your audience or niche is. If your audience are mostly millennials then - Instagram is the way to go. It gives you a high engagement better than most social networks.
If your prospects are businesses you could use LinkedIn and Twitter. If you're into recipes and how to’s you can create visually appealing infographics and upload them to Pinterest. I am of the opinion that Facebook should always be there in every social media marketing strategy because of its large pool of users.

[gracewilson]

I am using Facebook and Twitter for B2B. Especially facebook group helps in driving more traffic to my website.

[knamaky]

I think the answer to that is it depends on who your audience or niche is.

A simple and yet perfect response. It all depends on your target customer. Go where your audience is.

And, if you haven't gotten very specific on who your target customer is, then that's actually your immediate next step.

[sahib1989]

For me, Facebook has been working great. I am getting a majority of my social media traffic from Facebook. I share my content on other sites like Twitter, Linked, Google + but all their traffic combined has nothing on Facebook's traffic.

[JuanMunoz]

I'm a manager at a restaurant and also responsible for promotions activities. So basically, we actively promoting on FB and instagram, sometimes using different blogs

[MariDari]

We are promoting through facebook mainly and blogs