Google +

What Should We Focus On For Social Media?

In the beginning stages of Symmetry 50 we believe that the best way to market ourselves on social media is to choose only one of them. While having a large presence on all of the major social media channels is ideal, focusing on only one while we have a small team will allow us to focus on quality. By not watering ourselves down and trying to be everywhere we can pick what we believe is the very best social media channel today and focus on being as useful as possible for small business owners. Here are the contenders - 

Facebook

The most popular social media company today and of all time. While I believe Facebook could still be a good strategy for a new company that markets to moms I don't believe it's a good fit for a new financial company to focus on. Everyone is on Facebook but I believe it's more of a personal tool now. I have a Facebook account but I rarely go on their site anymore. I like having the account as an easy way to keep track of new or old friends if needed but for the most part whenever I go on the website I regret it and rarely do anymore. My wife and her friends are much different. They are still on Facebook all the time and I believe that moms are really the only group that you could successfully market to on Facebook these days for a new business. If you have a business that sells to moms focus your effort on Facebook, if not that ship has sailed.

YouTube

I would love to focus on YouTube. The third most popular site in the world and the second most used search engine. If you love to read you probably already know that you're in the minority. If you take 10 random people a large majority is going to prefer video to reading. People are short on time and video is easier to digest than reading. The quality on YouTube still isn't that great and there is still plenty of room for high quality channels. Red Bull, Go Pro and Vice are all companies that have great YouTube channels and use it to market their products. If you have a retail product or a media company that could revolve around a YouTube channel I believe you could still achieve explosive growth on YouTube or even Vimeo, but it's probably not a good fit for a new financial company. 

Twitter 

I'm a big fan of Twitter. I like that I can follow my best friend from high school, my favorite small business down the street, the funniest comedians, useful websites and anyone else I want. Following isn't automatic so it's not a big deal I don't follow some of my friends from Facebook. Probably the worst thing about Facebook is the people you would prefer to not follow but have to are usually the most annoying people you know on Facebook. Instead of a simple unfollow on Twitter that goes unnoticed unfriending someone on Facebook could lead to an awkward moment at the next bbq you go to or a weird confrontation at Thanksgiving. Another cool thing about Twitter is if you're a fan of someone that isn't extremely famous the odds of them interacting with you on Twitter are pretty good. My only problem with Twitter is that it's growth has slowed. Most people that are going to be on Twitter are already there and it's probably not the best thing to focus on for a new company. 

Linkedin

The obvious choice. Currently the number one social media site for b2b. I'm going to create a new account and shortly focus on Linkedin. I plan on this being an introduction for friends and family to recommend us to small businesses that might need us. After this initial blast I plan on keeping our Linkedin account open but focusing on a different social media site. I'm not personally a big fan of Linkedin but I can see why it's so popular. After our first 90 days on social media I'll review our analytics and if our Linkedin numbers are doing well the possibility of switching back to Linkedin will be a strong possibility.

Pinterest

The best social media channel for women. Kind of surprising, considering that men are suppose to be the visual ones. If you have any women in your life they probably love Pinterest. They will plan a whole baby shower, even if none of their friends have babies. Women love Pinterest and they are still growing enough that I would feel comfortable focusing on Pinterest if we had a product for women. I also believe that if you had a product for men, targeting them on Pinterest could be a pretty good niche. Pinterest is big enough that the minority of men that are on there are kind of forgotten and focusing on them while you market a new product could be a gold mine. 

Instagram

This is easily the top social media site I use these days and for the last couple years. I love Instagram, it has the best features of Facebook (pics) and Twitter (follow or unfollow anyone) combined into one easy to use app. It also feel like it hasn't caught on yet with the general public and at any moment now Instagram could catch fire and rocket from the 30th most popular site to near the top. If your business can use photography to promote your business I believe that Instagram is the best social media site you can be on right now.

Tumblr

If you want to create a popular following before investing the resources into a website and a business Tumblr could be a great way to find your niche. It's currently the 39th most popular website in the world and the easiest way for you to create a blog. Once you start to gain a large following on Tumblr that should be a good sign that you found something you could create a business with. 

Reddit

Reddit can be quite the catch 22. It can be very useful and a productive use of your time but also a big waste of time if you start going on it too much. Almost anyone can be useful on Reddit and every site should adopt their up-voting system for comments. If you want to focus on one social media site but don't have very much time to spend on it, Reddit is probably your best bet. The Reddit community isn't going to want someone that is on there all day adding too much information but if you spend a little bit of time everyday providing useful information in your specialty the Reddit community can send huge traffic your way. 

Stumbleupon

Stumbleupon can create large amounts of traffic for your blog. Stumbleupon takes your interests and in one click takes you to an article that other users with similar interests like. You can post anything you want on Stumbleupon and if it does well Stumbleupon's audience will visit your site in droves. The biggest problem with Stumbleupon and Reddit is capturing those visitors when they visit your site. Constantly posting high quality information and grabbing their emails is the best way to stay in touch and not have these visitors only visit your site once. 

Meetup

It's easy to get caught up in our modern online world but don't forget about meeting people in your community. Meetup is by far the largest site that actually gets people together. If you have a good idea for a group in your neighborhood it could easily turn into an easy way to make new friends. If you have a great business or product this should easily help grow your business locally and organically with word of mouth. 

Google +

My guess is that Google + is going to be the best fit for our business. While it seems that Google + has been around for a while it's still fairly new and one of the fastest growing social media sites. I believe that Instagram is the only faster growing site. It's starting to find it's groove and it's personally the site that I find myself using more and more. Google hangouts are pretty awesome and I have been using them more recently than Skype or FaceTime. Another option I really like is that it automatically backs up all pictures or videos from my phone. I feel that Google + might be finding it's rhythm and the best part is it's linked to Google's seo algorithm and positively effects your search engine rankings. 

Conclusion

The reason why I created this article was to site the reasons why we would be focusing on Google + as our social media channel. Writing this article changed my mind. I'm still confident Google + will probably be the best fit for our business but I'm going to try all of the social media sites at once, study the analytics and decide based on the numbers. I'll be publishing all of the results as we go. Sign up for our newsletter below to stay updated on the final results.