Each social network has its place in a social media marketing plan, therefore not every social network is appropriate for all business social campaigns. In the table below we’ve organized six major social networks and separated a few core purposes in launching a social media marketing campaign.
The social networks from left to right are as follows:
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Blog (like the one you are reading now), Foursquare
News: Post new products and services your company is offering.
Reputation Management: Keep track of negative and positive reviews of your business.
Targeted Marketing: Advertise to people based on their demographics or specific information in their profile.
Tutorials: Post a lengthy discussion about your product and services.
Coupons: Distribute coupons and specials.
Hiring: Post the latest job openings at your company.
B2B: Advertise directly to other businesses.
Updates: Post short updates about your business’s activities and events.
Branding: Make your brand recognizable and familiar through repetitive impressions.
Product Discussion: Explain a complicated product or service, give details and in-depth features.
Local Marketing: Advertise to people based on their location.
Outreach: Advertise to people that might be interested in your business’s product and services, based on their activity.
Please note that these are network generalizations. For example, YouTube does have a way to post short text updates on their site, but we don’t see that YouTube is as good a network to post updates as Facebook. If you disagree is our table please let us know about it in the comments.