Many business owners want to get involved on social media, but don’t know where to start. The answer is simple, but it depends on whether you are a B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Consumer) marketer.
Business to Business marketers should start with LinkedIn. The reasons are simple. For B2B marketers (consultants, business lawyers, accounting firms, technology and manufacturing companies), LinkedIn is the number one social media platform with 200 million users. Over 90 percent of corporations use LinkedIn to search for skilled workers. It is safe because people have to request connections on LinkedIn, and they can’t comment, post photos, or otherwise contact you on LinkedIn without your permission. LinkedIn has personal profiles and company profiles.
Business to Consumer marketers should start with Facebook. For business marketing to consumers (real estate, family and estate planning law, doctors and other professionals, retailers, churches, charities), Facebook has the greatest adoption with over – well, wait a minute now, according to the Huffington Post – not the publicly stated “over 1 billion users,” but due to Facebook user identity fraud, it’s somewhere well under 1 billion users. See the post, Facebook’s Fake Numbers: ‘One Billion Users’ May Be Less Than 500 Million.
I recommend that B2B marketers set up a Facebook page and B2C marketers have a presence on LinkedIn. So there is no “either or” in my opinion – the more presence you have online the better. Both can be on Twitter, Google + and others such as YouTube, Pinterest, Slideshare, Scribd, Instagram and more.
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