Social Media Platforms- How to Choose

Social Media platforms are a great way to connect with potential clients without creating an email list. Don’t get me wrong- email lists are very important to your online marketing strategy. And, choosing the right social media platform for your business/blog/organization is an important decision for online marketing strategy. This post has 3 major components:

1. An overview of my 3 favorite platforms
2. Creating and Scheduling Content
3. The limits of writing captions and ways to bypass that with visual media and hashtags.

**Disclosure: this post contains affiliated links on behalf of my primary blog, The Tiny Twenty-Something; this means that I may earn a commission from these products if you buy them using these links at no additional cost to you. Read full disclosure here.There are so many more offers and advice related to content writing there.

My Favorite Social Media Platforms

My favorite social media platforms are Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn because they are the easiest and offer the most diversity (Stories, posts, Videos, Action buttons).

Facebook & Instagram

Facebook and Instagram are almost one and the same- there are many key features that link the two platforms including but not limited to forwarding posts from Instagram to Facebook, utilizing Action buttons like Visit Profile, Donate, Shop, Learn More, etc. Use both platforms so that you can maximize who finds you- some people are not on both accounts. Instagram and Facebook is a great platform for just about every business. And almost every business needs a Facebook page, it’s one of the easiest ways for Google to find you!

LinkedIn

The way I see it, LinkedIn is the professional version of Facebook. As a personal user, you create an account, upload a resume, (or create a version of one) include links to portfolios and connect with others to create professional relationships. You share posts that are relevant to your profession and overall, you present yourself in a very specific way. As a business owner, you are sharing about your business and how you can best help others in need of your service. Occasionally- or frequently- you should create your own posts. If you are a business that should definitely have a LinkedIn profile, you don’t need to create your own posts that often and they don’t have to be long. But they do have to be valuable and persuasive.

Choose LinkedIn as Your Social Media Profile if you are….

1. A consultant in your field: share key features about your field
2. A supplier: post condensed articles about how your product will help others as links and social media captions. I recommend creating your own posts 1-2 times each month. 

Organizing these Platforms and Your Content

Frequency of Posting to Social Media

Who you are or what your business is about determines how often you should post on your social media platforms. If your business is a dentist office, for example, you do not need to be posting to Instagram/Facebook every day and you certainly don’t need a LinkedIn account. If you have a personal blog, definitely post when you have written a new article, have an exciting announcement, when you have a product about to come out, and/or post catchy quotes related to your niche. If you’re the latter type of online writer/ business, Tailwind recommends that you post at least once a day.

Scheduling Posts

I have content scheduled almost every day for my blog The Tiny Twenty-Something and I schedule these posts in advance! Tailwind and the Publishing Tools on Facebook are an absolute lifesaver! I spend a few days creating and scheduling content, and then I don’t need to worry about anything the rest of the month. If you’re doing this yourself, you could spend a few days going on Tailwind (to schedule Instagram or Pinterest) and do months in advance for yourself! 

Which Social Media Platform is Best for You?

Instagram	Best for personal bloggers, nonprofit organizations, businesses that sell products, freelancers, personable businesses (this one is my favorite!)
Facebook	Best for personal bloggers, nonprofit organizations, businesses that sell products, freelancers
LinkedIn	Professional profiles, businesses that are more professional than personable- I see this as the Professional Facebook

Writing for Social Media Platforms

Social Media Character Limits

All good things have their limits and the same goes for social media posts. Twitter allows up to 160 characters, and Instagram and Facebook have their own limits before “…” and “Read more” disrupts your message. Instagram cuts you off after around 125 characters and Facebook interrupts your post after around 280 characters with a “Read more” action. I suspect that the length of your username also has an influence on Instagram’s cut-off spot….don’t quote me on that though.

The most vital components of your messages should be in the first 100-200 characters (200 characters for Facebook). And if there is a lot of text that needs to be included in your posts, I suggest you include them in your graphics. The hard truth is that not everyone is going to click on the “See More” option in your post. I know that there are some posts that I don’t do that, unless it looks like something very important is coming up. 

We can’t all be David Foster Wallace and include total novellas and plays in the footnotes section of a book, and mess with grammar in such a way that you could almost make your own grammar rules, and write sentences that are so long that they take up an entire page… 😉 or can we? #nerdalert #davidfosterwallacereference #wecantallbedavidfosterwallace

Keywords & Hashtags

Another way to get noticed online is by using the best words possible for your market and hashtags that are relevant to your niche! Sometimes people on Instagram fall down the rabbit hole by searching for some hashtags- your posts might just catch their eye if you’re using hashtags like #airbnb #successforwomen #bossbabe #education #blogging #VRBO #crockpotrecipes

Before/After you write up a blog post or think up a marketing campaign, take the time to identify keywords that you should include in your work and posts. Use them carefully and often in your material and you’ll create a way for people. Once you have a list of those words, choose some to be used as hashtags! If you use Tailwind, you can create a Hashtag List and never have to type out or copy/paste your list ever again! Plus Tailwind offers relevant hashtag suggestions that can reach the most people!

Final Thoughts on Choosing Social Media Platforms

As I say over and over, it’s all about taking the time to sit down and carefully consider all these components to Online Marketing and Writing. Taking the time now will save you time in the future so that you can spend more time creating and less on mapping out who you are as a business/organization in the Digital Sphere. You don’t need to be on every single social media platform, but doing research and debating where you is definitely worth your time.