Business Social Media: Use Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?

Facebook LinkedIn TwitterEach social media has their own strengths and weakness: knowing the difference and using the right one in any given circumstance will help boost your message and make sure you’re spending your money in the most effective way. While you might have a presence on multible platforms, which ones should you focus on, and when does it make sense to use one over the other? Today I go over the three titans of social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and if they are a good fit for your market and message.

Facebook: The People’s Social Network

Illustration of crowd of peopleFacebook is massive. Over 1.18 billion people daily use this social media, from all walks of life and across the globe. This scope is both good and bad for your company, depending on your focus. Businesses that thrive here are ones that have as large of a scope as their audience and produces good or services that are interesting to people, not businesses or organizations.

  • Pros: Largest social media platform, world-wide demographic-wide audience, great engagement on a personal and emotional level.
  • Cons: Due to personal nature, not a B2B platform. Content that does not inspire emotional responses will have little impact.

Businesses That Succeed on Facebook

While all businesses should have a Facebook page, the ones that get the most mileage are the ones that can tap into emotional responses, global audiences, or both. Companies that provide global services or products, or local ones that have broad emotional appeal like restaurants, succeed the most here, especially if they can tap both audiences.

Handshake on LinkedInLinkedIn: Playground for Big Business

LinkedIn is probably the least developed of the three as a social media platform. For many this is a place they go to produce an online resume and maybe hunt for a job. Social media isn’t the end on LinkedIn, but a starting point to establish connections between businesses and the staff of those businesses. LinkedIn is as much about B2B sales as it is about being social: a positive as much as it is a negative.

  • Pros: Great B2B potential, a good platform for your sales team, premium applications that help enhance B2B. Good place for showcasing your company and head-hunting.
  • Cons: Inflexible social media options, an audience of primarily businesses – not consumers, low and slow audience engagement and following even with paid promotions.

Businesses That Succeed on LinkedIn

When used correctly, LinkedIn can be a great asset to a company for B2B products and services, staff hiring, and as a place to show off your company. Companies that focus on other companies and organizations in terms of sales, require skilled staff, and have a large focus in the business world will get the most mileage out of this social media.

Hand holding a megaphone Twitter: News and Events Hot Off the Presses

Twitter is a social media platform that has struggled with its identity and purpose. From my working with it in the past, Twitter works the best as a news service. Hashtags are at the core of this platform, and having the right hashtags at the right time can get a lot of engagement with users. However, the hashtag system can be a benefit or a burden depending on how it is used.

  • Pros: Companies that attend events can get attention using that event’s hashtag. News related to trending hashtags gives you reach. Following companies in your field can help you track trends.
  • Cons: Hashtags are important to gaining followers so thorough research needs to be done when using hashtags. Content that is not timely (current events or news) gets less traction. Follow-follower/Pay-for-follower schemes mean less real fans.

Businesses That Succeed on Twitter

Companies that attend a lot of events, produce newsworthy content, or can tap into one of the large hashtag groups will be able to use Twitter to its fullest. It can also be a good medium to research trends on Twitter and the larger world to help your company adapt and strike at the right time for statuses or even new produce unveilings.

Want to learn more about how the various social media platforms can be a help to your company? Drop us an email or give us a call. We can talk about what you’ll need to be successful, and what you’ll need to do on your end to make it work.

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About the author : Alex Geyer

Alex wears many hats, and not just because he’s bald. A writer by his background, Alex writes “social media content” for Vision – anything from social media statuses to blogs to whitepapers and beyond. In addition, he builds and maintains all search engine advertising for Vision’s clients, along with social media advertising for others. In his free time, he starts and stops writing novels, compiles tabletop roleplaying system conversions, and cooks a mean Chicken and Dumplings avec Peas. A videogame enthusiast, he is also developing his first video game with the startup game studio, Pretty Weird. He is terrible with plants*.