Week #2A Social Media for Business or Personal use

Social media is a communication medium through which people can share, discuss, modify content that is generated by other users and individual self. There are many different social media tools, some of which work better on personal level and others more towards businesses interested in promoting their company, products, brands, events and any other information pertaining to business development. Social media platforms that are geared towards personal use can be Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Google+. People tend to use Facebook mostly to communicate with friends and relatives who share same interests and tastes. Instagram is created to share and show power of pictures. It is made for smartphones and is easily accessible by people who do not have time to sit at a computer to communicate, it is on the go, where people can convey their likes with one click.  Pinterest is like Instagram only difference between these two are being able to pin category a user is interested in, saved pin’s can be followed by other users like followers on a Facebook. It is mainly used for fashion, cooking and crafts by women between 25 to 35 years age group. Another platform which makes it personal is YouTube, where people can share short videos of friends, relatives or on any topic because a story can be well communicated through a video than a picture. Google+ is very synonymous with Google accounts of which lot of people already have, a circle can be created with all the contacts and you get to decide what conversation to have with whom.

While any social media tools can be used for any purposes, some are more beneficial to businesses. Every business needs its own strategy and an open-minded approach to fit their respective organizational goals and markets, one size fits all approach will not work. Platforms that works well for businesses are Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Four Square, Tumbler, Blogo Sphere, My Space, Flicker and Yelp. These tend to work better because they are reaching business’s customers who are in closest locations, understand consumer behavior, reach specific demographic audience and strengthen relationships. Since social media can be complimentary to traditional marketing, advertising, networking, direct mail and trade shows it has become an integral part of communication with world.

There are certain social media tools that fits both personal and business needs very efficiently. Take Facebook for example, not only can it be used between friends, friends of friends and relatives, it can easily be personalized to promote a company or business through Company pages or Business pages, users can use social plug-ins to link company’s website with Facebook which then reorganizes entire internet around that company’s social graph. Similarly, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube can be customized to company’s goals towards making presence in promoting products or services online. Social media platform is a great way for company’s who listen, are transparent, be responsive and are authentic in telling their stories are more likeable.