Most businesses now have at least a Facebook page, if not a Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Houzz, etc. depending on your industry. If you don’t have any of these you are missing out. Some people may just search these social networks for your business info, hours, or what have you, and when they come to a page that looks dead that has no activity they could just assume that you are no longer open. Strange to think of it that way, but as younger facebook twitter social mediagenerations grow up they have lived a full life of social networks providing them information, so it isn’t too crazy to think that if your business pages look dead then maybe your business is too.

So make sure to setup your Facebook business page with a professional design, up-to-date information about your business, and continuously stay active by posting industry trending topics as well as your own posts. Don’t be overly promotional about your content or services though, as that will drive people away from liking your page.

What can Facebook do that Twitter can’t?

Facebook uses an algorithm for their news feed (that seems to always be changing), where it takes who you engage with, like, share, talk to, etc. Twitter is completely time based, so if you don’t sign on at just the right time you may miss a tweet that you would’ve liked to see. Whereas Facebook just “knows” what you want to see by trends and other people sharing it along with many other factors.

Both use targeted ads, but with Facebook you can target certain demographics, age, sex, location, etc. while on Twitter it just guarantees your spot at the top for a certain amount of impressions.

Also on Facebook, you can boost certain posts that you want to make it on people’s news feeds. When you think about it, most people rarely ever go to a fan page on a daily basis. Instead, they just scroll through their feed, so while getting on people’s feeds may be hard, it is extremely important to get shares and likes.

Twitter is just better at reaching out to influential people then Facebook is. Personally, (and I think this is a pretty wide standard) I use Facebook for personal use and not really for business. If you aren’t friends with people on Facebook, it can be more difficult to use as a medium to get in touch with them. Whereas on Twitter they don’t have to be following you for you to tweet at them, and hopefully start a conversation or have them retweet your message.

Social tools are everywhere, just don’t get overwhelmed

There is a multitude of social tools out there to use, and the list literally grows everyday it feels like.

  • Hootsuite is great for monitoring several different social accounts.
  • Buffer is great to fill out your queue for all your social networks and easily find more industry related content to share.
  • Commun.it gives you a daily recap of what you’ve done, what’s going on around you, and reminds you to thank or tweet back to anyone that has mentioned.
  • Oktopost is similar to Hootsuite in that you can see so many accounts on one dashboard, and includes a calendar for your content, analytics, among other features.
  • RiteTag Tag Optimizer is a Chrome plug-in lets you know how often your hashtags are used, not used at all, or used too much so that can choose the optimal hashtag to get the best reach…all conveniently color coded inside your tweet as you compose it.

They all have their specialties and can be used for different purposes. Commun.it is great for making sure that you are engaging with someone that has shared your content or tweeted at you, while Buffer is great to easily share content you are finding on the internet and add other trending topics to your queue.

If you’re in business, you need to be active on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has quickly become the B2B social media platform. It’s like going to a conference just to network, shake hands, and get business cards, but without the travel and hassle. It is great for introducing similar connections, gaining new leads, and joining in communities and groups where your industry and audience is. It’s also great for collaborating and sharing ideas and relationships, so connect with me if you’d like to do just that.

They are slowly rolling out features like customizing your page similarly to Facebook and Twitter have it now, as well as allowing applicants to write and publish in-depth articles to share with their networks on LinkedIn. This is important because Google gives presence to in-depth, long articles as well as authoritative sites, so you have a better chance of getting recognition and brand awareness with an in-depth article on LinkedIn.

So everyone should be active on Facebook and all relevant social networks. You don’t want to take the chance of missing out on sales opportunities and leads. Also, build your network on LinkedIn no matter what industry you are in because it never hurts to do a little networking.