In this session you will discover all about the different types of social media platforms and how each works.

These days, most people are on at least one, and likely more social media networks, small businesses can use social media strategically to build awareness and deepen relationships with customers. The key is to pick the right platforms for your audience, and then create the type of content they can't get anywhere else.

Now, which platforms would you choose?

With over 1.6 billion people, Facebook has redefined the notion of mass media.These days, many companies use Facebook to post updates, advertise, host contests, and publish news. Just remember, Facebook is a pay-to-play platform. Organic posts, that is your regular unpaid updates, don't have the same reach without paid promotion. Use your best judgment on what you think your audience will like. Facebook also offers users the ability to stream live video. That's a good opportunity to showcase a product launch, behind the scenes stories, news, and special events.

Facebook Groups is a great way to interact with like-minded people on Facebook and to acquire new customers based on interests and hobbies.

Instagram, a mobile first app owned by Facebook is a photo sharing site. Keep your images creative and not too salesy, fun behind the scenes shots of the team can work well.
Instagram is great if the business is visual(food or a physical product).

Twitter is a real-time news feed, and can be a good place to interact with customers. Many businesses use it as their primary customer service platform, just remember it's all public, so don't get into a fight online. Adding a photo or video to your tweet gives it more impact because it shows up in the stream as a card and breaks through the noise.

LinkedIn is like the Wall Street Journal of the social media world. It's a place for business people to connect, network, and share updates. If you publish thought leadership pieces on LinkedIn you can promote them through your company LinkedIn page.

YouTube isn't really a social network, but it's a place to showcase your company's videos. Be sure to optimize your channel with your branding, and a description of your video in the more section to help it show up in search. YouTube is owned by Google, which also owns the platform Google Plus, and while fewer people are on Google Plus, posting updates there may not reach your customers, but could boost your SEO.

Vimeo is another open video sharing platform like Youtube where creators and viewers alike can upload, host, sharing, and stream videos in HD and 4K with no ads.

Pinterest is a lot like a scrapbook, a place for aspirational images about fashion, decor, beauty, and entertainment. If you have a lifestyle business, Pinterest might be a good option, as a majority of its users are women. One of the benefits of Pinterest is that the image you use points back to the source, so it can be a good driver of traffic to your website.

Snapchat, another mobile network, is a place where users share disappearing text, images, and videos that are often enhanced by filters and emoji. Everything on Snapchat disappears. If your customers are under 35, you may want to experiment with Snapchat, but you need to be funny, edgy, and speak the language of the platform.

Musical.ly was a social media service started in Shanghai^]on which platform users create and share short videos. Through the app, users could create 15-second to 1 minute lip-syncing music videos and choose sound tracks to accompany them, use different speed options (time-lapse, fast, normal, slow motion, and epic) and add pre-set filters and effects. The app also allowed users to browse popular "musers", content, trending songs, sounds and hashtags, and uniquely interact with their fans.

Musical.ly later was bought by Tik Tok also known as Douyin 抖音 which literally means 'vibrating sound' in Chinese) in China, is a mobile only media app for creating and sharing short videos. First launched as Douyin in China in September 2016 and introduced to the overseas market as TikTok one year later. It is a leading short video platform in Asia, United States, and other parts of the world. In 2018, the application gained popularity and became the most downloaded app in the U.S. in October 2018.

As of 2018, it is available in over 150 markets, and in 75 languages. The application allows users to create short music videos of 3-15 seconds and short looping videos of 3-60 seconds. In July 2018, the app had more than 500 million users globally. What Tik Tok's viral growth can tell us is the increase level of engagement users are seeking from social media platforms, and the ever increase in user's understand and knowledge of content creation.

Quora is a question and answer based community driven site where questions are asked, answered, edited as well as organised by its community of users. Users can collaborate by editing questions to other users’ answers.

Zhihu 知乎 is the Chinese equivalent of Quora, also a question-and-answer website where all kinds of questions are created, answered, edited and organised by the community of its users. The number of registered users of Zhihu had exceeded 10 million by the end of 2013, and reached 17 million as of May 2015 with 250 million monthly page views.

In Classical Chinese, "Zhīhū" (知乎) means "Do (you) know?". Chinese-language internet users nowadays increasingly resort to Zhihu for expert knowledge and insights into various topics. This is a much watch platform if your/your clients' target audience is Chinese and you wish to find out what their pain point/question/struggle is. Zhihu is also a great platform to build brand authority and find ready to buy leads.

Reddit is a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members. This is a great way for you to browse the most viral/voted/liked content across a wide variety of niches.

Social networks are a lot like the stock market, they go up and down, and there's always a hot new one on the horizon. It is extremely important to pick the right one or two for your social media goal and purpose. You can’t be on them all unless you have a huge budget, time and resources. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do it all.