There are literally thousands of social media platforms out there to date. You just don't have enough time for each and every one of them. Even trying to be active on the top 10 would be a challenge, one that you'd only be able to face if you had a huge budget! Instead, focus on the social media platforms that will work best for you business. We've looked at the top 9 social media platforms and measured their pros and cons to help you decide what will work best for your business!

1. Which Social Media Platform is Best for Your Business?

2. Being active on social media is really important for businesses

3. But There are THOUSANDSof social media platforms…

4. Fighting For YourAttention!!!

5. But…ain’tNobody Got Time For That

6. Because Timeis Money

7. Sospendit wisely...

8. On social media platforms that see a decent return on investment

9. The Top 8 Social Media Platforms for Businesses
Pinterest
Facebook
Foursquare/Yelp
Twitter
Linkedin
Google+
Instagram
Youtube

10. Facebook
There are 1.23 billion Monthly Active Users on Facebook
.
4.5 billion “likes”
every day
945 million mobile users
757 milliondaily users

11. Pros
Facebook is the behemothof social media, and it’s where many businesses have made a name for themselves. It’s a place where you can “talk” directly to your customers, and they can talk back to you.
52% of marketers found a customer on Facebook in 2013.
42% of marketers state that Facebook is extremely important to their business

12. Cons
Facebook is a pretty busy marketplace, and businesses can find it hard to be heard.
Facebook is an open forum, and users can write on your wall any time they choose. This means that you need to constantly monitor your page for inappropriate or defamatory comments.
Facebook’s algorithm means that not all of your posts get to all of your followers.

13. Twitter
Twitter has been described as “texting for the internet”
Twitter is a social network or “micro-blogging” site.
People can only send 140 character text messages, also known as “tweets”.
Photos & videos can be shared too, but not as popular.

14. Pros

15. Cons

16. Linkedin
LinkedIn is a social platform dedicated to professional people.
The platform connects businesses with potential employees and partners by providing a people with the opportunity to make a “professional profile”.
It is also extremely valuable as a professional networking online platform.

17. Pros
There are 300 million people using LinkedIn: 50/50 with regarding gender.
75% of users use their LinkedIn 4 hours or less per week.
Once you upload something onto LinkedIn, anyone can access it – even if they’re not a connection!
It’s rich in content and information –including company’s information and detailed individual professional profiles.
43% of marketers said they found a customer on LinkedIn.

18. Cons
It’s a very niche market, so before you spend time creating a profile and sharing content, make sure that it’s the right platform for your business.
It can take a lot of time to set up, to get connections and to get conversations flowing.
You have to ask to be connected to other businesses and profiles, which can be time-consuming and frustrating.
Brick-and-mortar businesses might find LinkedIn difficult to utilize, but for people who are in industries such as technology, finance, marketing etc. LinkedIn can prove to be very useful.

19. Pinterest

20. Pros
Pinterest gets more
referral traffic than Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and Google+ combined.

21. Cons
If your target audience isn’t female-centred, it’s not great. With the exception of the UK where 56% of Pinterest users are male.

22. Instagram
Instagram is owned by Facebook.
It’s a photo and video sharing platform that allows users to share their photos with other users.
37% of all users are 18 –29.
68% are female.
5 million US. Internet users access it at least once a month
It is a predominantly mobile app.

23. Pros
Instagram allows people who are interested in your brand to follow your business and see what you’re up to. This adds a bit of a personal touch.
Like Pinterest, Instagram puts a face to a brand.
Instagram uses hashtags, which makes content easy to search.
Visual representation of your business = Transparency = Trust.
Instagram has an insane amount of user engagement –up to 10 times what Twitter and Facebook generate.

24. Cons
Like Pinterest, if you don’t have an physical productto sell and take a photo of, it might not be the easiest platform to use.
It’s a very young network, with 90% of users under the age of 35, so if this isn’t your target audience then using Instagram might be a lot of time and effort for very little customer engagement.

25. Google+
Professionals such as students, technology industry professionals, bloggers and photographers.
Google+ is Google’s social platform. There are a few extra features, such as Communities and Circles that increase interaction with people and topics that interest you.
It’s mostly
men on it so far

26. Pros
Because it’s owned by Google, using Google+ can have positive effect on SEO.
Google hangouts is a great place to start talking with people and many businesses use it to keep in contact with employees as well as customers.
Google integration with Gmail & Youtube (and all things Google!)

27. Cons
People see it as being quite similar to Facebook so there’s always the temptation to share identical content on both platforms.
Google+ only helps out your SEO ranking if the person is logged on or if they don’t have your page in their circle.
No contests or promotions are permitted on G+ according to their policy.

28. YouTube
Youtube is a video-sharing social media platform. It was founded in 2005 and was quickly bought over by Google in 2006.
Youtube allows users to upload, share and view videos. The content varies from individual user content to business user content, featuring TV clips, personal videos, Video logs (or “Vlogs”), music videos etcetc.
Users who are registered can upload and share their videos, unregistered users can still view the videos but can’t upload them.
Youtube is the second largest search engine. (After Google, of course)

29. Pros
Youtube is the third most popular site, behind Google and Facebook.
90% of customers of online retailers say that they find videos useful in making purchasing decisions.
Videos is another way to show off you industry expertise.
Videos have a really wide reach, you don’t have to be a connection to see your videos.
Because YouTube is owned by Google, it’s super SEO friendly.
Videos make a business accessible. People like to see a face behind the product.

30. Cons
“Related videos” on the site often draw attention to your competition and distract customers from your message.
Creating interesting videos can be very time consuming and expensive.

31. Foursquare and Yelp are relatively similar: They’re both location-based social media platforms where you can search businesses.
Yelp is all about reviews and recommendations.
Foursquare is all about checking-in at locations to gain points and sometimes “badges”. The user that checks in most to a particular venue becomes the “mayor”.
Foursquare/Yelp

32. Who Uses Them?
100 million monthly visitors
53% users are male
62% between the ages 18 – 43
20 million users
60% users are male
82% between the ages 18 – 43

33. Brick-and-mortar outlets can benefit the most from these social media platforms.
Easy to use platforms that will generate business with very little updating and daily maintenance on your behalf.
Foursquare have a great “campaigns” option that helps to generate new customers or to reward loyal ones!
Word-of-mouth is one of the best ways to advertise your business, with 77% of people saying that they’d buy a product after it being recommended to them by friends or family. This is what Foursquare and Yelp encourages people to do.
Pros

34. If you don’t have a location based business, these probably aren’t the right platforms for you.
You’re relying on customers to give you fair and accurate reviews.
While Yelp has a pretty good filtering system that tries to ensure that reviews are all legitimate, many businesses have complained that Yelp’s filter is actually biased.
Cons

35. Every social media
platform has its pros & cons. Think carefully about which platforms will work best with your business & …
Don’t waste your time on the others!

36. For more useful information for start-ups & small businesses, head over to www.getspokal.com/blog