Top 10 Digital Media Platforms For Connecting With Your Clients

For many people, social media is the first place they go for information about a company or particular subject. With that being said, it is crucial in today’s society to have different social media platforms to keep your business in the forefront of your client or potential client’s minds. Sure, pushing content is great, but how do you differentiate yourself from other businesses and connect with your clients on a more personal level? Each social media platform is different, and have different ways of connecting with your followers. This top ten list of platforms will help you to decide which are appropriate for your business, and how to effectively connect with your clients!

10.)  iTunes

Podcasts are a great way to give content to your viewers and clients. Podcasts are great if you are interviewing an expert in your field, or if you want to push content that might be too much to read. It’s also a great way to shake up the traditional typed social media with some audio, as well as giving your information a voice! Even though it isn’t an actual social media platform, iTunes is a great way to put your podcasts out there, because who hasn’t heard of iTunes? While there are many other platforms for getting your podcasts out into the digital world, iTunes is the most used and well known application.

9.) Vimeo

Vimeo is a similar application to Youtube, and is great if your business is interested in vlogging, or video blogging. Vlogs are a great way to connect with clients since they are seeing a face and hearing a voice instead of simply reading words on a screen. By introducing a face to your content, customers feel more connected on a personal level with your business than with traditional type-based content media.

8.) WordPress

Blogging is a great way to engage with your customers! A blog can be about virtually anything, and however short or long the user would like, which makes for a very open ended list of possibilities. WordPress offers a wide variety of themes, fonts, and layouts for posts, so you are guaranteed a personalized blog post that is fit for your business and your clients’ wants. Because blogging has become a popular way for people to get information, this is a can’t miss strategy!

7.) Hootsuite

For those who do not generally have the time to post on social media on a daily basis, this application is great for you! Social media content has become such a large part of a successful marketing strategy, and not posting on a regular basis may hinder your ability to have a solid perception or gain clients. Hootsuite allows for social media posts to be scheduled for the future, leaving no pressure to log in to the social media platforms every day to post content. Plug it in once, and you’re all set! This allows you to be able to sit down and craft some engaging posts for your clients on your own time, and not have to worry about it for a while.

6.) Google+

The clean interface of Google+ is great for clients who are not as social media savvy and cannot easily navigate through the other platforms, which may cause them to overlook the content that is posted. Google+ is similar to Facebook, just more upfront and easier to use. This is a great way to connect with users of the older generations, or those who simply do not know how to navigate easily on social media but still want to see your content!

5.) LinkedIn

Marketed as a professional social media site, LinkedIn is a great tool to connect with fellow professionals in your field, as well as clients who may not use Facebook, Twitter, or any of the other more “social” social media platforms. LinkedIn has similar features to Facebook and Google+ including being able to tag other people in your posts, sharing posts, and messaging followers, among others. Whereas posts on Facebook may be a little bit more informal, these posts can be tailored to fit the more professional audience.

4.) Snapchat

Snapchat is an application for smartphones in which a video or image is sent for a certain amount of seconds before disappearing. Because of this, it began with the reputation of being a “sexting app” for young people. However, since the launch of this application it has grown to be used by companies to market themselves and any events they may have to many people at once. By using snapchat, you will be able to post pictures and videos to your “story,” which is able to be seen by anyone who follows you, to display information and content that you may not be able to on traditional social media platforms that are text-based. Snapchat is a great way to get a little more informal with your posts, so your followers can put a personality to your business.

3.) Instagram

Similar to Snapchat, this application allows the user to post pictures and videos for their followers to see. However, unlike Snapchat, Instagram is similar to Facebook and Twitter in that the images and videos do not disappear, but remain on a timeline and your profile for your followers to view at their leisure. This is another great way to post visual content for your clients to see, and makes for a great personal flair to your social media routine! The posts are also able to be linked to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Flickr accounts.

2.) Twitter

It is no surprise that Twitter would make the top 10 list, since it has grown to be a wildly popular social media platform since its start in 2006. Because Twitter has a more fast-paced timeline and more content being put up at a given time, this platform makes it more acceptable to post more content in a day. Additionally, because it is more informal, there is much more room for personality to shine through in the posts! One way to utilize Twitter to connect with your clients is to do Twitter chats, or to engage your clients in conversation. Twitter chats have grown in popularity over the years, and provide an excellent form of two-way communication in which your clients can ask questions that they may not get the chance to normally.

And of course…

1.) Facebook

Facebook is the original social media platform, and is still utilized by many people. When you think of social media, Facebook is typically one of the first applications that comes to mind. This application is well known by most people, and is great for getting your content to a lot of people at the same time. The saying rings true, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. To engage your followers, Facebook polls can be used if applicable, as well as sharing posts of other professionals in your field to encourage credibility and third-party recognition.

By using these ten applications, you will be more than equipped to give your followers and client base what they are looking for; information and personality. Giving your clients the ability to gather information through the different types of posts, like audio, visual, and textual, they will no longer see you as a business, but as people. Remember, client relationships count!

Emily Pease is a Junior Social Media Associate at Flackable, a national public relations and digital marketing agency supporting the communications needs of registered investment advisors (RIA’s) and other forward-thinking financial services firms. To learn more about Flackable, please visit www.flackable.com.