A: This will solely depend on the platform that your customers and target audience frequent the most. However, Facebook has become known as the social media platform that every business can utilize so that’s a good place to start. From there, add other social media platforms to your list only if they make sense for your business. For example, Pinterest or Instagram are great platforms for creative industries like home builders. If you are a home builder, creating a Pinterest or Instagram profile might be beneficial for posting before and after images that will be shared with the masses and increase your marketing reach. 

A: The main purpose of having business social media pages is to provide information and engage with your followers. While you can still engage with your followers by reposting content from other brands, you’re only helping their digital marketing efforts. To help with your company’s branding, follow the 80/20 rule. This involves posting your own branded content 80% of the time and curated content the other 20% of the time. This helps you provide fresh content to your audience while still leaving you some time to create it.

Answer: No.

Here’s why: As tempting as it is to increase your visibility by jumping on every social network, a lot of times it’s too much to take on. Instead of creating accounts just for the sake having a profile, get strategic with the networks you choose.

An easy way to figure out which social networks to be on is by simply asking where’s my audience’s attention? If they’re not on Pinterest, there’s no need to spend a bunch of time and energy there. 

Another good litmus test for which networks to choose is by asking yourself what value you can bring to tyour audience

For instance, if you have the time and resources to make outstanding videos, then you should definitely have a presence on YouTube so you can share those videos across the networks your audience loves most. If you don’t have the bandwidth for video production, get off of YouTube and don’t feel guilty about not being there.

Remember, you don’t have to take on everything at once. One of the biggest mistakes people commit is to post just for the sake of posting and that is the fastest way to sink your brand.

Answer: It depends.

Here’s why: Your posting frequency depends on your resources and audience. Your goal is to get quality content that your audience will love in front of as many eyes as possible. Never sacrifice quality for quantity.

It’s better to put nothing out there than to publish content that’s rubbish. If that means you can only post on Facebook three times per week—but they are three really good posts that get a lot of engagement—that’s perfectly acceptable. Just find a consistent schedule that you can maintain.

If you’re struggling to publish on a consistent basis, you can always repurpose content. For instance, if you made a YouTube video, take 30-second segments of it and post them on Instagram. Old blog posts can be Retweeted with new phrasing and imagery.

In fact, you can set a strategy in which every blog post gets shared across every network on day one, a repeat on Twitter on day three, a repeat on Facebook on day eight and so on.

If you share the same content across networks, each post should be phrased differently. For example, LinkedIn doesn’t use hashtags, so you wouldn’t want to copy and paste something from Twitter. An infographic might perform better on Pinterest than on Facebook.

You’ll have to track what kind of content and format does best on each network . Take that data into consideration when publishing on each platform.

Answer: Yes.

Here’s why: Social media isn’t just reserved for athletes, fashion brands and retailers. When it comes to marketing, your goal is to reach your target audience where they’re paying the most attention. And for the past 10+ years, that has been social media. As of 2018 a whopping 85% of Europeans and 95% have an online presense, so there’s a strong chance your target customers are on at least one of the major networks.

Remember, social media isn’t an advertising platform for you to shout your message as loudly as possible. Instead, use it as a platform to educate and entertain your audience.