The use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest has grown rapidly over the last decade and is showing no sign of slowing down. Facebook alone is approaching two billion active profiles, while Twitter has over half-a-billion active accounts. More and more, people are finding and sharing information—product reviews, news articles, educational information, etc.—through social media.

Embracing the age of social media and using it to your benefit

Social media “sharing” is not only free advertising, but it is the best kind of free advertising—it is the digital form of word-of-mouth advertising. It has become so widely used for sharing information that it is often a significant disadvantage for a company to not integrate social media tools into their website as it makes it more difficult for existing and potential customers to share their experiences with your product or company.

When someone visits your website to learn about, say, a product or an upcoming event and they find the information they are seeking, if they were to “Like” the website on Facebook, anyone who is a friend of theirs is likely to see the “Like.” Since people trust product recommendations from their friends more than from paid advertising on television or radio, they are more likely to also visit your website to also learn about your product or service.

Twitter and Pinterest work similarly. If someone visits your page to review a product, they can then “Tweet” a link to your website along with a short message about what they learned or they can “Pin” it to their profile of interests so that all of their followers can see it.

Choosing the right platforms

With so many social media platforms available, which ones should you use? The platforms are not all born equal and the different features will benefit you in different ways.

It is worth experimenting with all of the available platforms, and deciding which two or three your company can use most effectively.

Facebook is appropriate for most companies and organisations because of how widely it is used and because of its versatility in sharing pictures, news articles, links, and company information. It is also easy for people to discuss the shared content in comment sections. However, recently there have been complaints from users about their content not reaching all of their followers unless they pay to ‘increase reach’, which is turning many companies off.

Twitter is a valuable platform for any company that either depends on or produces frequent news stories. It represents an efficient tool for sending and receiving news quickly. If your company wants to ‘join the conversation’, become an authority in the niche, or can benefit heavily from networking with other professionals, then Twitter is a good choice.

Pinterest allows your supporters to share their interest in your product and related products on a personalised profile. Your profile on Pinterest will be made up of ‘boards’ which you fill with images. This makes Pinterest a great tool for particularly visual companies, such as products brands or anything related to fashion and design.

LinkedIn is a great platform for professional networking and sharing information about events. Often B2B products and services benefit from having their content shared on Twitter.

And finally Instagram is becoming more and more popular with E-commerce stores and visual brands. You are only able to post images, and the platform is mobile based. You are able to use hashtags to get right in front of your target audience, so this platform is ideal for B2C businesses trying to build a visual identity.

Making your content shareable

In most cases, you will have the option—either through your website designer, or through your content management system—to incorporate prominently visible buttons on your webpage that allow visitors to instantly share content through one or more social media outlets.

It is essential to make these tools easy to find and use so that your loyal customers and supporters can share your products or messages with their networks.
You’ll find that in fact many people are looking for content to share to increase their own reputation and personal / company brand, so not getting the share buttons upfront and visible could turn out to be a big mistake on your part.