I recently wrote a series on different growing social media platforms for Swedish tech publication Internetworld, interviewing social media experts and companies using the services in different ways to support their business.
There are so many different channels out there for a company to choose from today – and it appears more are appearing by the day. This series is an attempt to help companies understand their customers’ behavior, and to learn how to pick platforms that actually makes sense for them to be present on.
To summarize, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube are all still great places to be – if you have a plan for what you are doing there. Overall, companies aren’t really taking full advantage of their YouTube presence though – which we’ll most probably see changing going forward as online video continues to grow.
To reach the younger generations, companies and brands should really start understanding Snapchat. The service is also opening up for more ways for companies to advertise in smart new ways on the app – like creating and sponsoring their own selfie lenses for one – which can prove interesting to brands working with a lot of visual communication.
Medium is a great platform to read cool tech stories and insights from thought leaders. The platform is all text, and all heart. Big in the US, but maybe even slowly catching on in Sweden. We’ll see.
Tubmlr is still a good place to be for anyone wanting to connect with the pop cultural crowd, for a company wanting to but up a less official blog, or for quick campaigns. Ask.fm has seen a lot of harassment among young users, where anonymity is the most likely cause, but ask-and-answer services like Quora and Reddit AMA can still be of interest for companies wanting to position themselves as experts in their field.
Of course there are so many other services out there – Whatsapp, Viber, Blab, WeChat, Ello – the list goes on. Overall – it is key to understand your specific audience and know what platforms they use in their everyday lives, and for what purpose. Maybe a good first step is simply to ask them? Maybe in a newsletter or directly on Facebook. Use traditional social media to understand up-and-coming social media!
Article series for Internetworld (in Swedish)
Snapchat: “Det är lite mer som att leva i nuet” – Snapchat i marknadsföringen
Medium: Medium är plattformen för din berättelse
Tumblr: “Tumblr är lite av ett hipster-nätverk”
Ask.fm: Så kan du använda Ask.fm som kundtjänst
How to pick: Whatsapp, Viber, Blab, Meerkat, Wechat, Ello – hjälp, hur ska vi välja?
