LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram are three social media sites that can be helpful for businesses.
These past few weeks I’ve been going over how to use social media for your business. Last week I shared general tips and tricks for Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, but there are three more social media sites worth taking a look at: LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram.
This social media platform is similar to Facebook and Google+, but it’s for professional use. What does this mean? Write updates as if you were talking to a business contact. Always use full sentences and correct grammar. Also, this is not the platform for hashtags, so avoid them completely.
Here’s another helpful tidbit for LinkedIn: make your update a little bit longer than on the other social media sites. Although you don’t want a wall of text, longer updates actually perform better than shorter ones on this platform, so feel free to write 3-4 sentences.
If you’re not familiar with this social media platform, it’s like a collection of virtual bulletin boards where users digitally hoard DIY tricks, inspirational quotes, places they want to go, beautiful photos, wedding & home improvement ideas, etc. This is one place where visuals are vital to your success!
On Pinterest, you have the option to “repin” someone else’s post or create your own original pin (or update). In addition to repinning others’ content, don’t be afraid to pin an article from another website. When you add a pin to Pinterest, they’re actually attached to the website you found the content on, so it automatically links back to the original source. Of course, you can also pin articles or products from your own site, just make sure you include plenty of content from other sources as well.
When it comes to writing the pin descriptions, think about it like you would a standard update on the other social media sites. Share a little bit about what the pin is and why you like it, use full sentences and correct grammar and slip in a few words you think users might be searching for to be more visible in the search results. Also, adding a few hashtags into the description never hurts, either!
Like Pinterest, this social media platform is all about visuals! In fact, every single update you post needs to have an image with it. It’s best to take pictures yourself and upload them, but if you find one online (that you have the rights to share!), feel free to use them as well. As a courtesy, remember to give credit to the original photographer, too.
Hashtags are great for Instagram; in fact, they’re one of the most important social media sites to use them on (second to Twitter). In addition to jumping on trends like Throwback Thursday (#TBT), hashtags are a great way to make your photos more visible in search results.
It’s also worth noting that at this point you can only upload photos to Instagram from your phone. That might change, though – the social media network has announced changes are coming soon!
There you have it, an overview of social media and six of the most popular social media sites. Want to know more? We’re happy to go into greater detail, including how to use social media for your business specifically, during a complimentary 30-minute consultation. Contact us to set one up or leave any questions you have in the comments below!
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Photo Credit: Erin Kelly, mkhmarketing and José Moutinho