When you lot're thinking about creating a social media strategy for your business organisation, a few leading platforms probably come to mind right away: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and maybe YouTube or Pinterest, depending on your industry.

Yet, there are many types of social media sites out in that location, with new platforms and formats popping up on the regular. Some of them are pretty niche, while others accept the potential to become the next Instagram or TikTok.

One thing that's changed since the early days of social media is that many platforms used to focus on one function, such as social networking or image sharing. Now, most established social media platforms have expanded to incorporate alive streaming, augmented reality, shopping, social sound, and more.

So, instead of giving y'all high level descriptions of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (you lot can discover that anywhere!), we grouped a wide variety of platforms into ix general categories that focus on specific use cases and what businesses can accomplish by using them.

Bonus: Read the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

With the ever-growing number of social media platforms, it tin be overwhelming to constantly wonder whether each of them is worth your time.

To avoid spending too much of your time learning the ropes of every new platform, let your social media marketing strategy guide your decisions, and only join the networks that support your goals.

Follow these iii tips to build your own criteria that will help you evaluate any new social media platform, no thing what it is or how it works.

Know your audience

The first question you should ask before joining a new social media platform is: where is your audience?

It makes more than sense to go where your audience is already hanging out than to join a new platform and concenter your audition to it.

The 2d thing to understand is how your audience is using that platform. What type of content are they looking for? Which types of accounts do they follow? Are they passive consumers or content creators?

For detailed insights into how people use different social media platforms, dive into our Land of Digital 2021 written report.

Facebook leads on use of social platforms as news source

Source: Digital 2021 study

Keep upwardly to engagement with social media statistics

Whenever a new social media platform emerges, it's essential to know the difference betwixt a shiny new object and a fast-growing platform that has the potential to stick.

Although no one can tell the time to come, ane way to know if a platform has staying power is to compare its statistics to established social media platforms.

If yous're not sure where to find recent stats, nosotros've got yous covered:

  • Instagram Statistics
  • Facebook Statistics
  • Twitter Statistics
  • YouTube Statistics
  • Pinterest Statistics
  • TikTok Statistics

Align to your central business goals

Ask yourself: which platforms match my business organisation goals best?

For example, if one of your goals is to increment awareness about a new product or service that could benefit from video tutorials, yous should focus on video-merely platforms (like YouTube and Vimeo) or video formats bachelor on the sites you're already active on (like Instagram Stories and Reels, Facebook Live, etc.).

Types of social media platforms and formats yous should know in 2021

i. Social audio platforms and formats

Examples: Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Spotify

Used for: Listening to live conversations on specific topics.

How your business can use them: New social sound platforms (like Clubhouse) and formats (similar Twitter Spaces) take thrived during COVID-19 lockdowns while people have been at abode with more time to join live conversations.

The well-nigh significant reward of audio social media platforms and formats is the high attending and engagement you're likely to get from opt-in listeners.

Lively, engaging conversations can help you build your image every bit a leader in your niche and innovate your business or products to valuable audiences already interested in topics related to your niche (otherwise, they wouldn't exist tuning in).

Here are some thought starters for using audio social media platforms:

  • Host industry panels.
  • Circulate news and big announcements.
  • Host interactive sessions (such as AMAs) with your audience.
  • Record interviews during a alive Clubhouse/Twitter Spaces chat and upload them as a podcast (instance: The Social Media Geekout show).
  • Build your business' thought leadership through a 30-60 infinitesimal show.

Matt Navarra does a peachy job of combining Twitter Spaces AND podcasts:

ii. Video social media platforms and formats

Examples: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Stories and Reels, Facebook Watch

Used for: Watching videos in short and long formats.

How your concern can use them: Video social media platforms are great for capturing attending, driving brand awareness, and bringing products to life in a way that withal photos can't.

Any video content that you publish should be designed to entertain, educate, and/or inspire your audience. Videos made purely to sell aren't going to engage viewers.

Some of the best examples of businesses using video social media platforms are:

  • Ryanair on TikTok — highly entertaining, testify a practiced understanding of the humor and nuances of TikTok users.
  • Notion on YouTube — creates educational content that'south both helpful and inspiring for its users.
  • Beautiful Destinations on Instagram Reels — provides travel inspiration through brusk, professionally shot clips.

3. Disappearing content formats

Examples: Snapchat, Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, LinkedIn Stories

Used for: Sending ephemeral messages privately and publishing timely, in-the-moment content for all of your followers to view for up to 24 hours.

How your concern can use them: Ephemeral formats like Stories are well-suited for posting timely content, such as announcements, limited edition items, or live events.

Most Stories and Snapchat content as well feels more genuine and less polished due to the 24-60 minutes shelf life. Every bit such, it allows businesses to testify a more human side.

Hither are some ideas for how your business concern can use disappearing content:

  • Polls, voting (using interactive Stories stickers)
  • Teasers/countdowns to production launches
  • Backside-the-scenes content
  • Time-sensitive announcements

A peachy example is from one of my favorite local bakers, who posts their weekly specials on their Instagram Stories.

Instagram Story screenshots showcasing bakery's daily menu

Source: Instagram

four. Discussion forums

Examples: Reddit, Quora

Used for: Request and answering questions, networking, forming communities around niche- and interest-based topics.

How your business tin utilise them: Be genuinely helpful to your customers past lending your business' subject matter expertise and answering questions related to your industry. Bonus points if you can share information almost your make and products in your answers, simply that shouldn't be your primary goal of participating in give-and-take forums.

One matter to note: On Reddit, information technology'southward highly frowned upon to insert whatever cocky-promotion into answers. If you're posting as a concern, make sure to reply the original question and only add links to your products if they're genuinely helpful. Before posting in a subreddit, check the rules to verify if including links to your own business organisation is allowed.

While Microsoft didn't create the /r/XboxOne subreddit, once they saw how popular it was, they started engaging with Redditors by hosting AMA sessions with game developers.

/r/XboxOne subreddit

Source: Reddit

five. Shoppable social media platforms and features

Examples: Pinterest Product Pins, Facebook Shops, Instagram Shops, TikTok, Shopify, Douyin, Taobao

Used for: Researching and purchasing products from brands directly through social media platforms.

How your business organization can utilise them: Take advantage of built-in mobile-friendly features to allow your audience to buy from yous without having to exit a social media app.

Features like Pinterest Product Pins, Instagram Shops, and TikTok's in-app shopping allow you to connect your product catalog straight to your contour on each app.

Even if your followers don't like to make purchases on social media platforms or have longer buyer journeys, shopping features tin allow yous to tag products, add additional product info and drive traffic to your website.

Some great ways to utilize shopping social media platforms:

  • Limited edition drops, eastward.thousand., announcing an exclusive product launch on social media and linking or tagging the product via your product catalog
  • Social selling
  • E-commerce (many social media platforms accept e-commerce integrations, such equally Shopify, which you can access directly from your Hootsuite dashboard)
  • Retargeting, due east.thou., creating custom audiences based on who has engaged with your Facebook/Instagram Shops

You can also host live shopping events on social media. Livestream shopping has become a huge marketplace in Cathay, encouraging platforms like Instagram to introduce Live Shopping.

Instagram Live shopping

Source: Instagram

6. Social media live streams

Examples: Twitch, YouTube, Instagram Live Rooms, Facebook Live, TikTok

Used for: Dissemination live video to many viewers. Live video streams tin can range from one person showing themselves and what they're doing on their screen to professionally organized panels with multiple speakers.

How your business can use them: Livestreaming's popularity exploded during the pandemic when people were stuck at home during lockdowns with nothing to do.

However, you don't need a global pandemic to go viewers to watch your alive streams. There are many means to make tune-in-worthy streams, from interviewing well-known guests through doing sectional product reveals to hosting AMA sessions with your business executives.

Livestreams as well offering the opportunity for users to interact live with the hosts, so it's vital to monitor and engage with comments during the stream. Read more tips in our guide to social media alive streaming.

When COVID-nineteen put Formula 1 races on agree during 2020, several drivers started streaming themselves playing driving simulators on Twitch, which became hugely pop with fans.

7. Business social media platforms

Examples: LinkedIn, Twitter

Used for: Connecting with professionals in your industry or potential clients.

How your business can use them: Business social media platforms offer many potential uses: recruiting and hiring talent, building B2B relationships, and connecting with professionals in your niche.

Platforms like LinkedIn are platonic for B2B purposes, because they permit brands to connect with new audiences, coming together them where they go to network and practise concern.

But LinkedIn is not the only business concern-forward social media site out in that location. Twitter offers businesses the chance to find relevant conversations, and add to them in meaningful means. A great case of this is Adweek, which hosts a weekly conversation for digital marketers called #AdweekChat.

There are also communities congenital around industry-specific hashtags on Twitter, similar #MarketingTwitter and #FreelanceTwitter.

Pro tip: Set upward a keyword-based column using your industry's hashtag in Hootsuite to monitor for appropriate conversations to participate in.

8. Closed/private community social media platforms

Examples: Discourse, Slack, Facebook Groups

Used for: Creating communities, with the possibility of requiring registration or other screening measures for new members.

How your business can use them: Businesses can utilize private groups to bring members of their community together to bond over shared challenges, assist reply each other's questions, and feel a sense of professional belonging.

Equally the group admin, your business has the correct to fix rules nigh things similar self-promotion. Many groups (especially on Facebook) require members to answer a few questions before joining to screen out spammers, but you tin can also use these fields to ask members to opt-in to your electronic mail marketing list.

A great example is the Instant Pot Facebook Group, started by the brand in 2015 and has grown to over 3 million members who love sharing recipes and product tips.

Instant Pot Facebook Group

Source: Facebook

9. Inspirational social media platforms

Examples: Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, blogs

Used for: Searching for information and finding inspiration for anything from cooking to travel to decorating to shopping and more than.

How your business can employ them: Curate visuals and inspire your target audience with content tailored to their preferences, and weave in your own products where relevant. Use collections, playlists, tags, and guides to grouping your content and create themes that match your audience'southward interests.

Inspirational social media platforms like Pinterest and YouTube are well-optimized for search, which means your posts should include keywords, hashtags, and images that align with what your audience usually searches for.

Travel bloggers often do a great job of optimizing their weblog posts and YouTube videos for searches similar "What to do in [Destination]" and "[Destination] Travel Guide."

Hungry Passport YouTube travel guide

Source: Hungry Passport on YouTube

Whether you're building a community or evaluating new platforms for your business concern to join, in that location are many types of social media you can apply. Some are pretty much mandatory for any business, while others only make sense if they align with your specific niches or use cases.

Any your needs and goals, information technology's a condom bet you'll observe a manner to use social media to benefit your business concern.

Easily manage all your social media profiles using Hootsuite. From a unmarried dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts, engage your followers, monitor relevant conversations, mensurate results, manage your ads, and much more.

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