{"id":2144,"date":"2011-07-04T12:41:47","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T09:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/?p=2144"},"modified":"2011-07-04T12:41:47","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T09:41:47","slug":"social-media-marketing-how-to-choose-the-right-online-channels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/social-media-marketing-how-to-choose-the-right-online-channels\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Marketing: How to choose the right online channels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/social-media-networking.jpg\" alt=\"social-media-networking\" title=\"social-media-networking\" width=\"600\" height=\"331\" style=\"display:block;margin:0 0 10px 30px;\" \/>One of the most common mistakes that companies make while designing their Social Media Marketing campaigns is that they fail to choose carefully the online channels that suit best their businesses. As a result they end up <strong>investing time<\/strong>, money and effort on networks that can\u2019t help them promote their business and this makes them feel that social media marketing simply does not work for them. The truth though is far from this.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding which of the channels are more appropriate for your industry, company, products\/services and target audience is of utmost importance. Each social network has different features and characteristics and above all different <strong>philosophy<\/strong>. In this article we will present the most popular social networks and we will explain <strong>when<\/strong> and <strong>how<\/strong> they should be used in order to maximize the results of the campaign.<\/p>\n<h2>The most popular Social Media Networks<\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/social-media-channels.jpg\" alt=\"social-media-channels\" title=\"social-media-channels\" width=\"600\" height=\"388\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2155\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/social-media-channels.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/social-media-channels-300x194.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/social-media-channels-463x300.jpg 463w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>There are hundreds of different social media that you can use in order to reach your users. There are <strong>General Purpose<\/strong> vs <strong>Niche<\/strong> networks, <strong>Local<\/strong> vs <strong>Global<\/strong>, <strong>Professional<\/strong> vs <strong>non-Professional<\/strong> media etc. Each of them has different target audiences, characteristics and should be used to achieve different goals.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a list of the most important networks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Facebook:<\/strong> The most popular Friend-Oriented      Social Network. A similar network is <strong>MySpace<\/strong> but over the years it      became less and less popular.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Twitter:<\/strong> A powerful microblogging      network.<\/li>\n<li><strong>LinkedIn:<\/strong> A Professional social network      with millions of users globally. Similar services are the <strong>Xing<\/strong> which is particularly popular in Germany      and the <strong>Viadeo<\/strong> which is very popular in France.<\/li>\n<li><strong>YouTube:<\/strong> The most well known      video-sharing community. Also there are other similar services such as <strong>Vimeo<\/strong>,      <strong>Veoh<\/strong>, <strong>Viddler<\/strong> and <strong>Metacafe<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Foursquare:<\/strong> A location based social      networking website.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Google+:<\/strong> The brand new Social      Networking Service which is introduced the idea of Social Circles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Others:<\/strong> Flickr, Delicious, Digg,      Stumbleupon, Quora      along with SERPd,      Sphinn and other niche networks. Also sometimes people consider as Social      Media the Blogs, the Wikis, the Forums and the other similar communities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Below we will present the most important networks, focusing on their <strong>philosophy<\/strong>, <strong>target audience<\/strong> and unique features and we will explain <strong>how<\/strong> and <strong>when<\/strong> you should use each channel to create more buzz around your brand.<\/p>\n<h2>Facebook<\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/facebook-logo.jpg\" alt=\"facebook-logo\" title=\"facebook-logo\" width=\"600\" height=\"226\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2152\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/facebook-logo.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/facebook-logo-300x113.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/facebook-logo-500x188.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>As we all know, Facebook is a <strong>Friend-Oriented Network<\/strong> which was founded in 2004. More than <strong>640 million<\/strong> users have created a profile on the service and this makes it the largest Social Media Network in the world.<\/p>\n<p>In this network, Companies are not allowed to create Corporate Profiles but instead they are permitted to create Facebook <strong>Pages<\/strong>. Facebook is ideal for the promotion of <strong>B2C<\/strong> companies and products. Usually fun content goes easily <strong>viral<\/strong> while corporate announcements get buried. As a result in order to generate buzz, companies create and share funny and witty ads\/images\/videos, they organize Online Contests (Video\/Photo contests, Voting contests, etc), they develop various useful applications or games and they provide special deals to their fans. As you understand due to its nature and philosophy, Facebook is not very effective for B2B companies and for pushing corporate announcements and press releases.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on how to optimize your Facebook Campaigns read the article \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/facebook-fan-pages-7-dos-and-7-donts\/\">Facebook Fan Pages: 7 Dos and 7 Don\u2019ts for effective Community Development<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Twitter<\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin:10px 0 0 0; text-align:center;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/twitter-logo.jpg\" alt=\"twitter-logo\" title=\"twitter-logo\" width=\"600\" height=\"226\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2151\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/twitter-logo.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/twitter-logo-300x113.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/twitter-logo-500x188.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>Twitter is a <strong>Micro blogging<\/strong> Social Network that allows users send short messages (up to 140 characters long) about what is happening <strong>now<\/strong>. As a result the primary target of the network is to help users share short <strong>fresh<\/strong> content and interesting news. Twitter was launched on July 15<sup>th<\/sup> of 2006 and since then more than <strong>175 million<\/strong> users have registered on the service.<\/p>\n<p>Companies are allowed to create corporate accounts in order to promote their brand and share news. Twitter is ideal for <strong>News<\/strong> websites, <strong>Blogs<\/strong>, <strong>Press Releases<\/strong> and for Opinion Leaders\/<strong>Experts<\/strong>. As a result the service can be used for promoting both B2C and B2B companies. Usually both fun and serious posts can go viral provided that they are unique and interesting.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to learn more on how to design a twitter campaign and increase your followers read the articles \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/12-tips-for-developing-a-successful-twitter-campaign\/\">12 Tips for developing a Successful Twitter Campaign<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/20-ways-to-increase-your-twitter-followers\/\">20 ways to increase the number of your followers on Twitter<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>LinkedIn<\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin:10px 0 0 0; text-align:center;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/linkedin-logo.jpg\" alt=\"linkedin-logo\" title=\"linkedin-logo\" width=\"600\" height=\"226\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2150\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/linkedin-logo.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/linkedin-logo-300x113.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/linkedin-logo-500x188.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>LinkedIn is a Business-Oriented Social Networking website which allows users to publish their profiles, upload their CVs and connect with other Professionals and Companies. LinkedIn was founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. Since then more than <strong>100 million<\/strong> professionals have registered on the service world wide.<\/p>\n<p>Both companies and professionals can create a Profile on the service. LinkedIn is great for <strong>sharing news<\/strong>, business related articles and press releases, for finding and maintaining <strong>Business Contacts<\/strong> and above all for <strong>recruiting<\/strong>. It can be used for promoting B2B companies &amp; services and it gives you the opportunity to share news and interesting articles with other professionals of your industry by posting them on the various Professional Groups.<\/p>\n<p>As we mentioned above there are several other networks like LinkedIn that are very popular in non-English speaking countries, such as <strong>Xing <\/strong>(more than <strong>10 million<\/strong> members, very popular in Germany) and <strong>Viadeo<\/strong> (more than <strong>35 million<\/strong> members, very popular in France).<\/p>\n<h2>YouTube<\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/youtube-logo.jpg\" alt=\"youtube-logo\" title=\"youtube-logo\" width=\"600\" height=\"226\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2149\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/youtube-logo.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/youtube-logo-300x113.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/youtube-logo-500x188.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>As we all know, YouTube is the most popular <strong>video sharing community<\/strong> in the world. It was founded in February 2005 and in November 2006 it was bought by Google for 1.65 billion dollars. Google estimates that YouTube\u2019s reach is <strong>500 million<\/strong> users which is around 32.2% of the Internet. Another interesting statistic that can help us understand the power of YouTube is that every minute more than 24 hours of video are uploaded.<\/p>\n<p>YouTube allows both users and companies to create <strong>channels<\/strong> and upload their videos. Since video marketing is ideal for promoting almost everything, YouTube can be used both by <strong>B2B<\/strong> and by <strong>B2C<\/strong> companies. It is ideal for creating and sharing Funny\/Witty Videos, posting Advertising Messages, Music, Online Contests, News and How-to Videos. Another similar video sharing network is <strong>Vimeo<\/strong> which has more than <strong>3 million<\/strong> registered members.<\/p>\n<p>You can read more on how to build effective Video Campaigns on the articles \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/10-tips-for-optimizing-your-youtube-videos\/\">10 Tips for Optimizing your YouTube Videos<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/the-10-commandments-of-video-marketing\/\">The 10 commandments of Video Marketing<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Foursquare<\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin:10px 0 0 0; text-align:center;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/foursquare-logotype.jpg\" alt=\"foursquare-logotype\" title=\"foursquare-logotype\" width=\"600\" height=\"226\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2148\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/foursquare-logotype.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/foursquare-logotype-300x113.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/foursquare-logotype-500x188.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>Foursquare is a <strong>Location-Based Social Network<\/strong> targeting primarily on Mobile Devices. It was launched in 2009 and currently it has more that <strong>8 million<\/strong> registered members. Both users and Local Businesses are allowed to create accounts. It is ideal for promoting <strong>B2C<\/strong> <strong>local<\/strong> businesses, for increasing brand awareness and for identifying, rewarding and increasing the number of <strong>loyal customers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to learn more on how to use Foursquare in order to promote your local business read the article \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/6-ways-to-optimize-your-business-with-foursquare\/\">6 ways to optimize your business with Foursquare<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Google+<\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin:10px 0 0 0; text-align:center;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/googleplus-logo.jpg\" alt=\"googleplus-logo\" title=\"googleplus-logo\" width=\"623\" height=\"251\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2147\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/googleplus-logo.jpg 623w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/googleplus-logo-300x120.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/googleplus-logo-500x201.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 623px) 100vw, 623px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>Google+ is Google\u2019s new Social Networking service which was launched on June 28<sup>th<\/sup>, 2011. For quite a long time Google was trying to develop a Social Network that would help them compete directly with Facebook and enter the Social Networking business. This new service integrates the various social services that Google launched over the years (Google Profiles, Google Buzz, +1 button) and it introduces several new features such as the social <strong>Circles<\/strong>, Sparks, Hangouts and Huddles. The service is accessible not only via desktop computers but also via Tablets and Mobiles (both Android and iOS).<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<object style=\"height: 390px; width: 640px\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/xwnJ5Bl4kLI?version=3\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\"><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/xwnJ5Bl4kLI?version=3\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowScriptAccess=\"always\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\"><\/embed><\/param><\/object>\n<\/div>\n<p>The network allows users to add their contacts into groups, to organize group video chats, to upload video, photos, posts etc and to share interesting content. Even though the access and the registration are limited at the moment, we can expect that on the near future this network might become an additional promotional channel on the hands of Online Marketers.<\/p>\n<div style=\"height:10px\"><\/div>\n<p>In order to select the social networks that will help you promote your business, you have to understand the <strong>philosophy<\/strong> behind each service, the unique features and <strong>characteristics<\/strong> that it offers, evaluate the <strong>target audience<\/strong> of your company and the one of the network and select the Social Media that can help you achieve your goals. Above all remember that you should experiment by using different approaches and techniques and by trying all the available channels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common mistakes that companies make while designing their Social Media Marketing campaigns is that they fail to choose carefully the online channels that suit best their businesses. As a result they end up investing time, money &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/social-media-marketing-how-to-choose-the-right-online-channels\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}