“Social media is a web-based community. It is a foundation of communication for modern society. People of every age group use social media either in the direct or indirect way.”

Trending 2018 Social Media Platforms are:

Facebook lets you connect with known and unknown people.

Twitter lets you can share your opinion in limited words.

LinkedIn profiles act as a professional portfolio and help you to network with entrepreneurs.

Instagram lets you share your captured moments with the world.

Pinterest lets you connect with like-minded people and fetches result of your interest from world wide web.

The link between Social Media Users and Social Branding:

Over 70% of the smartphone users have minimum 3 active Social Profiles. Facts say each smartphone user, logins to their social profile at least twice a day. Social Platform we often confuse with Facebook or Twitter but a work-related search on HubSpot, Yelp, GlassDoor or Slack can be considered as Social Media Usage. To generate followers and brand awareness you need to find your target audience. To reach the target audience, you need to create a profile on a specific social platform which has like-minded users.

For Instance, If you're a musician, then your participation on Spotify, SoundCloud, Vine, GigRev, ReverbNation and such social platforms can help you to engage with music lovers. Dedicated Social Platform lets you generate followers, audiences and Brand Recognition.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing:

Social Marketing has a proven record of instant lead generation if done at its best. The best of social media marketing is:

It saves time and delivers the optimal result.

It improves the existing product.

Direct reach to the target audience or the audience of your choice.

The flexibility of targeting particular Age-Group, Location, Gender etc.

Everyday interaction with social site users.

Everyday interaction lets you create a special bond with followers.

Connection with Audience from around the world.

#Hashtag Marketing lets you engage with people of specific interest or location.

Leverage of gaining loyal customers/followers.

Increases website traffic.

Builds Brand Social Awareness.

Social Media Pages create a long-term relationship.

Social Media Pages defines authentication of the company.

Possibility for AB Testing.

Top 10 social media platforms in Trends

In this Tech Savvy world, Social Media can help you to reach millions of individuals within seconds. It's important to choose the right medium of communication with your audience. Once you decide on a particular social platform to use as a medium. You can attract unlimited users and introduce them to your brand and its services/ products.

Here is a list of social platforms with exclusive facts so you can also choose your medium to connect with target audiences:

Reddit:

It has 250 million active monthly users.

Reddit is on the list of Top 5 most popular website in the US.

It generates 8 billion monthly page views.

It is popular as social news broadcasting platform.

You can post content in links, texts, and images format.

Redditors get rewarded with Karma Points.

Karma Points can be earned by comment and Link Posts.

Quora:

It is a question-answer based online community.

Quora users post their questions and subject experts share their knowledge and experiences.

It has 190 million monthly active users.

Active Participation on Quora lets you understand the ground zero reality.

You can seek free of cost expert advice from the gurus and SMEs.

Blogger:

It is online community owned by Google.

Lets you share content in image, text and videos format.

The Blog Post you shared gets hosted on google's subdomain which is blogspot.com

Blogging lets you building relevant and strong backlinks to your website.

Blogger.com lets you connect with the targeted audience via content marketing.

Pinterest:

It is online images hosting community.

It has 150 million worldwide active monthly users.

The image you host on Pinterest calls “pins” and the category of the image as board.

The platform lets you pin your photos group it into similar interest boards. For Instance, All the Pins of Oil-Painting will get shared in Painting Board.

You can link the Images shared by you to your website and generate viewers or sales.

Facebook:

It has 2.07 billion monthly active users thus global reach.

You're Individual / Organisation, FB has customised solution for all.

Engagement with customers is easy and completely free.

An exclusive feature of Re-Marketing is ideal for product based owners.

Tumblr:

It is microblogging and social community platform.

You can publish short content, images, quotes, links, video, audio and chats.

Tumblr users share around 341 million blog posts monthly.

You can earn direct traffic to your website, products or services by posting on Tumblr.

#Hashtag marketing lets you target a specific group of people.

It lets you attract instant attention to the #Hashtag Tumblr Community in case of strategic post.

Twitter:

It has 330 million monthly active users.

Users produce about 500 million tweets every day.

Drive targeted traffic by using #Hashtags and crafting creative content.

Tweet Marketing improves Search Engine Ranking.

Google consider tweet as potential backlinks.

Website URLs improves website's global ranking on Search Engine Result Page.

LinkedIn:

It has 500 million professional users from 200 plus countries.

LinkedIn Marketing lets you target large to small Businesses within seconds.

You can establish connections with Top level Management and Influencers.

You can learn, and discuss the real-time business case-studies with world-class professionals.

Instagram:

It has 500 million daily active users.

It promotes photos, videos, advertisements and creative ideas.

You can use up to 30 #hashtags to attract the audience.

Creative Art and Product based businesses are more popular on Instagram.

YouTube:

It has 1.5 Billion monthly active users.

It is only a video sharing platform.

To promote your content, story, business, or Information you can only share it in video format.

It's super easy to turn your videos into effective ads.

Thanks to Billions of YouTubers there's huge customer conversion potential.

Checklist for a Perfect Social Branding Post:

Brand Logo/Brand Name must always be included in every social post.

The logo must be used in PNG format only.

Images/Video must HD Quality.

Every company post must contain Brand Name Hashtag.

Make sure to use Popular Hashtags only.

The post must be published on the official Company Page only.

The caption of the Post should be within 8-10 words.

Typos and Grammatical Errors must be double check before sharing content.

Always give Credit to the source of Image/Video.

Copyright content must be used with permission and make sure to credit the content owner.

Business Page Post must have:

The post must have a complete description of the Product/Services.

In case of Product based post, make sure to put the link of the functional Page so the user can visit the website to seek full Information.

Publish relevant and Informational Posts.

The post should not contain any false /misleading Information.

Make sure to share HD and Clear images which do not violate the Social media policies.

Videos shared must have relevant content with HD quality.

Always respond to the notification of tags, comments, share, and likes.

Do not forget to mention the username while replying back.

Engage your audience by tagging, sharing and commenting on their posts.

Always use positive and polite language to communicate with fellow platform users.

Always use popular #Hashtags to attract a larger audience.

Summary:

Social Media Branding is not just about having followers. It's about more about the brand activity in the real time. There are tons of opportunities on social media to promote, share, endorse and feature. You can achieve your sales target, improve brand image, increase brand awareness and go global within few clicks without spending a single penny. The rule of Social Marketing is to be authentic, simple and transparent. One must follow all the above-mentioned set of strategies while posting content and should always follow the policies of the respected social platforms to achieve the target followers.