Social media marketing has been one of the most dynamic, diverse and profitable forms of marketing in the last five years. Rising from what seemed like an overnight boom, businesses are benefiting from the abundance of marketing opportunities these platforms offer. However, in recent times, we’ve heard businesses say their marketing efforts are failing online, with the individual platforms to blame. What we’ve learned is that businesses don’t completely understand what each social media platform is really for, and in this article, we explain how best to use the three most popular platforms for your online marketing. Facebook Now one of the most established social media platforms, Facebook has developed beyond a socialising network. For businesses, Facebook has the opportunity to reach customers through paid advertising, with the capability of tailoring ad placement based on the user’s social media activity. Facebook has two features that businesses can leverage off easily to market to potential customers. Facebook Pages are the best way to officially brand yourself and interact with customers, while the use of Groups, the new online forum, helps build relationships with your customer, form trust, and promote sales. Facebook is best for businesses with website driven marketing; if you have a website or blog, adding your links to your Facebook posts create instant opportunities for customers to visit your website, furthering your traffic, SEO and sales. Instagram Much like Facebook, Instagram allows you target users through paid advertising using user data to target your potential customers. What Instagram has done well in recent times is offer an interactive shopping experience for eCommerce businesses. By the use of product tagging, customers can shop Instagram photos directly from the app, promoting higher sales and easier shopping experience. Instagram is a highly visual and interactive platform, and businesses that can embrace this, that can create highly alluring content, and want to socialise with their users, will greatly benefit from it. Pinterest Easily the most discounted social media platforms for business, Pinterest is one of the greatest evergreen marketing platforms, that benefits bloggers, eCommerce businesses, and service-based industries. What Pinterest does better than any other platform is the ability to convert users from just the initial exposure to the business. Thanks to the visual nature of Pinterest, and the fact the content is never removed, users are more likely to buy from a business from only a singular encounter on Pinterest. Pinterest users don’t need repeat exposure or interaction with a business to buy from them, it can happen instantly. If understanding the capabilities of social media marketing for your business interests you, contact us today to discuss how this style of marketing can impact your sales and overall marketing efforts.