Which Social Media should you use?

The answer to this question is unfortunately not that easy. It depends on a range of factors, as well as their combination and the correlations between them. Different Social Media platforms and applications have different uses. Here is a range of objectives that need to be examined in order to develop the right Social Media strategy. So actually, a more appropriate question is

Which factors determine which Social Media you should use?

Your agenda – what do you want to communicate?
You have to look at the content and topics that you want to communicate: Is it about yourself, your company’s values, your products and services, your vision, your day-to-day operation, a means to improve teambuilding…
Your “audience” – who do you want to communicate with?
Who are the people that you want to interact with? Are they using Social Media already? If not, are they likely to adapt them? Are they your friends or associates, your customers or clients, your investors, your employees, representatives of industry, opinion leaders…
Your goals – what do you want to achieve with your communication?
Your use of Social Media in your communication mix depends on your overall goals as well as on your aims in regards to Social Media themselves. Do you want them to complement or partly replace traditional ways of marketing, advertising and Public Relations? Do you want to boost your credibility? Do you want to improve customer relation management? Do you want to use Social Media for branding? Do you want to improve dialogue with your peers?…
Your time frame – how fast do you want to reach how many people?
Basically, you need to determine how much time you allocate to reach a certain audience. Further questions you’ll want to ask here are: Which impact do you want to have? Which content – text, audio, video, photo – do you want to use for your communication?
Your Corporate Culture – how do you do things “at home”?
Are you open in your communication and processes? Are your employees encouraged to share ideas? Are your executives approachable for employees and customers?
Your individual style – how do you express yourself?
Are your messages best communicated in text, photos, audio or video files? How important is the look and feel of your content to you?

By analyzing these aspects and their correlations it can be determined which Social Media platforms and channels are suitable for your organization. Sorry to disappoint you by not giving you a simple answer on which Social Media are right for you, but as you’ve already noticed: there is no simple formula to Social Media. It requires a lot of research, inside knowledge on Social Media platforms, their use and trends, and a holistic view on your communication to develop the right strategy. But maybe this list of things to consider provides you with some insight on what needs to be looked at in order to find out the appropriate Social Media for you.

Next time in this Mini Series: What happens if you choose to ignore Social Media altogether?