Social Media Platforms; Descriptions and Features for Brands and Creators.
One of the first things I learnt as a social media manager, is that some platforms are more suitable for certain tasks than others. Though social media platforms have the same main purposes; networking, connection and content sharing, they have different features and characteristics that are unique to them. These characteristics make a platform more suitable for a particular role than the other.
I'll be describing the relevant features of leading social media platforms that can be useful for brands or creators. So grab a pen and paper, we're getting into serious stuff today. Before we dive in, have you followed us here yet? How about subscribing for our newsletter too?
1. Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing platform that can be used for networking and connecting with your audience. With roughly 1 billion active users monthly, it is one of the largest social media platforms. It is a very visual platform so it's very good for showing a brand in a visually appealing light. I like to think of Instagram as a fancy storefront for brands. It can be used for sharing beautiful and enticing pictures of brands and/or products. For example, a restaurant could share appetizing pictures of different dishes on their Instagram page or a creator could post pictures of his or her art.
The platform is also good for short form video content. With the introduction of reels in 2020, brands and creators have been nudged to join the video marketing train. The algorithm also favors video content, so if you're looking for where to post both short form video content and pictures then Instagram is for you.
The con about this though, is that it doesn't allow you post links in captions like other social media platforms such as Pinterest and Twitter. That makes it harder to drive organic traffic to your link when compared to other social media platforms.
Instagram also offers a way to connect with your audience on a more personal level through stories. Because stories are only available for a short period of time, it is perfect for sharing unedited and personalized content such as snippets of live events, employees going about their daily activities, etc.
Another amazing feature of Instagram is guides. This allows you to categorize posts, including your own. This makes it easier for your audience to find what they're looking for when they come to your page. For example, if you're a visual artist, you could create a guide called "oil paintings" to categorize all your oil paintings and a guide called "water colour paintings" to categorize all water colour paintings. For brands who need to share visuals, Instagram is a choice platform for you. Instagram also allows paid promotion through advertising. It it is a good platform for businesses and creators alike as as it offers creator monetization features and business promotion features.
2. Meta (Facebook)
Meta has one of the biggest population of any social media platform. The platform boasts of over 2 billion active users every month. It is a choice platform for reaching a very broad group of people, networking, connecting with people, and creating communities. The platform allows photo and video sharing and also allows you create pages which can be followed or liked. As a business owner or creator, you could create a Facebook page for your brand and upload updates on it for your audience to view. Facebook now has business features for business pages such as reviews and call to action buttons. It also allows you to create and manage communities with it's group feature. Groups could be private to show exclusivity and closed community or public to show that everyone is welcome. There are buying and selling groups, cooking groups, art groups, fashion groups etc.
Another impressive feature of Meta, is Meta adverts. So far, Meta is among the top 3 platforms for advertising due to its large audience and data collection and categorization (On Facebook, you can target individuals with facts as specific as how old their kids are).
Facebook is majorly made up of older and less techy audiences, so it's good for promoting products/services to people in that category.
3. Pinterest
Pinterest is a photo and video sharing platform just like Instagram but the difference is that a lot of the content on Instagram were inspired by content on Pinterest. People use Pinterest to get inspiration ranging from cooking to web development. One advantage of Pinterest over Instagram is that it's optimised for search. Users can very easily find pins just by searching for it.
Another advantage of using Pinterest is that you can add links to caption or description thereby directing traffic to your shopping website, blog, or even other social media channels. Shoppable pins allow users to be taken directly to a product website just by clicking the visit button on the post. Pinterest also allows advertising.
4. Twitter
Twitter is a blogging and social networking platform. Even though the platform has expanded to include photo and video sharing, it is still predominantly for sharing written content. If you want your brand to focus on written message rather than visuals then Twitter is for you. Twitter is very good at getting organic reach and engagement, a feature that is currently lacking a bit on Facebook and Instagram. This and the fact that Twitter allows users to post links in tweets makes it a choice platform for many brands.
Twitter is also very good at driving traffic to your preferred online destination. Twitter also allows advertising, story sharing and It also has monetisation features. It is also great for social listening since it's users are quite vocal and you can easily monitor conversation about your brand through mentions or hashtags. It also boasts of Twitter spaces where people can come together to discuss a topic they're passionate about. This is very useful for brand who want active engagement in real time.
5. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a career focused social media platform. It is very good for B2B (business to business) networking. Want to find job opportunities matching your skill set ? LinkedIn is the place to be. The platform allows you to put in details of your work and qualifications and then it emails you job opportunities relating to your job title. And yes! You can also advertise on LinkedIn.
6. Snapchat
Snapchat is a social media platform used for messaging. It is used mostly to share videos, pictures, filters, etc. It's users are predominantly made up of Gen Zs and millennials so it is good for reaching younger audiences. I wouldn't recommend Snapchat for businesses because it has limited communication features. However, it's spotlight and discover features may favour creators.
It also has location and audience based advertising features. An example of a brand that's using Snapchat for promotions is the Kuda bank. Because it's a banking app built for young people, it's promoting their services on Snapchat, a platform mostly used by Gen Z and millennials.
7. Clubhouse
Clubhouse is an audio only social media platform that gained popularity during COVID-19 period. This platform allows users to host audio meetings or events. It is very similar to Twitter spaces, a key difference being that it has a much larger hosting capacity. Creators such as stand up comedians could use this to entertain their audience and brands could host interactive and engaging meetings and events on the platform.
These are 7 main social media platforms with features that can be used for businesses and creators. In my next post, I'll be sharing how to know which of these platforms is the right fit for you so stay tuned for more.
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