Many websites now come with a suite of social media buttons as part of the design. This means that people can share links to your website on their favourite social media channel which is all good.
However, sometimes these buttons link to your own social media channels. If they’re well maintained and up to date, that’s also good! But if they’re not, then they’re a bit of a waste of time to say the least … and at worst, make you look tardy.
So, if you’re going to use social media, which buttons should you keep? And which should you get rid of?
There is no law that says you have to use it just because it’s there. Give it some thought and you will probably find a natural fit with one or two channels. Think about these things:
Who are you talking to? (business to business, general public, people with an interest in a certain topic)
What are you going to talk about/share? (pictures, short quotes and one liners, lengthy in-depth articles)
What’s your purpose? (strike up conversations/build relationships, raise awareness of an issue or cause, build up knowledge of your range of services/products, establish yourself as a thought leader/expert)
Here’s a quick summary of some of the most popular social media:
- Facebook – suitable for general public, mostly people looking for interesting/funny/entertaining content (not business to business)
- LinkedIn – networking site for business people. Good for connecting to other business people, researching people and organisations, and posting business related articles
- Twitter – fast moving, short messages, very general audience but you can pick and choose who you follow and connect with, and use hashtags to zone in on targeted subjects or events. Can be used for pictures, one-liners and links to articles.
- Instagram – very visual, used a lot by young people, artists, designers to share photos and images
- Pinterest – very visual, online scrapbooking website but can link back to articles on your own website from images that you post. Users mainly browsing lifestyle type images
It might be that you need a combination of different media to do everything you want to, but your objective should be to come up with clear reasons for using each channel. And if you can’t justify it, don’t waste your time on it!