Güd Marketing

With All of This Social Media, What’s What?

by Griffin Decker on May 10, 2022 • 5 -minute read
To say that social media has eclipsed the digital marketing industry would be an understatement — and an outdated one at that. A strategic and deliberate social media approach is crucial to the success of any modern digital marketing plan.
My name is Griffin, and I’m a digital marketing specialist at Güd Marketing, where we offer full campaign services, including social media content and training! I’ve composed this high-level overview of social media for small businesses or organizations that are considering either expanding or beginning their social media efforts. Social media can seem overwhelming at times. This blog contains the ins and outs of major platforms and how they fit into marketing strategies.
When looking at the ever-evolving world that is social media, it can be hard to keep up on what’s what. Well, fear not. Consider this your very own high-level guide to social media platforms and what the kids are using them for these days.

Instagram — This visual platform owned by Meta hit the scene in 2010. Since then, it has rolled out hundreds of features and changes to its user interface. Photos, videos and graphics are the focus of this platform, not captions or text. Posts on this platform can be on a permanent feed or a temporary “story.” Users can like, comment, send and even repost original posts. The homepage of this platform is a typical vertical scrolling format, displaying accounts and their posts. There are also features such as “discover,” where users can see new content and find other similar users. Behind the scenes, Instagram has a very comprehensive and user-friendly analytics interface, which is available only on mobile.

Is Instagram for you? Instagram is especially great if you have a way to connect your business or product to visuals that would be interesting to your audience. For example, breweries post pictures of their new cans and fitness centers post pictures of their facilities. It would be hard to create a list of businesses for which Instagram is suitable. A great way to see if your business is fit for Instagram is to check out leaders in your industry or even your competitors. If these companies or individuals have accounts, maybe your organization should too!

Facebook — The world’s most popular platform with the highest number of DAUs (daily active users), Facebook predates Instagram by six years. On top of being able to share videos, graphics and pictures, Facebook users can share plain text as well as links from the internet. It is easy to reshare posts onto a user’s feed as well. Facebook features many other capabilities, including a live platform for streaming, sharing to specific groups of interest and event hosting. There is a news page, a gaming page, a marketplace page and more. Members can even contact each other directly with a separate but integrated app called Messenger. Here, users can direct-message, privately share Facebook pages and even create groups! Facebook has the broadest offerings in terms of its capabilities. You could refer to Facebook as the all-inclusive resort of social platforms.

Is Facebook for you? Given Facebook’s versatility and popularity, it is hard not to suggest it. This platform can play different roles, depending on how you choose to use it. Restaurants tend to post weekly specials and keep an updated menu on their Facebook page. Some businesses rely on Facebook to act as their entire customer-facing website — businesses can live-message with customers, provide hours and phone numbers, and much more. The first step is to determine a goal — what do you want to get out of the platform?

Twitter — This trending platform debuted shortly after Facebook in Silicon Valley, in 2006. Twitter is a faster-moving platform because of its character limit. Twitter posts are limited to 280 characters, including spaces and punctuation. Because of that, posts tend to be short and quick, and users typically scroll faster than on other platforms. Posts can include links, images, videos and GIFs. Users can create threads that string together multiple tweets; this is often done to circumvent the character limitation of a single tweet. Twitter has pages like most social media platforms — a search page, a direct messaging page, a profile page and a notifications page.

Is Twitter for you? Twitter has a wide audience, similar to Facebook, but fewer capabilities. Without being able to include several details about your business (e.g., a phone number or operating hours), you may not find Twitter a viable option. However, if you think your audience is on Twitter, why wait? Develop goals and a strategy for communicating with your audience and go from there.

TikTok — The fastest-growing platform, TikTok has taken the world by storm since its introduction in 2016. TikTok consists completely of video content and allows users to create and edit their own videos directly in the app. Users can like, save, share and even “duet” with someone else’s content to add their own flair. This platform is just as fast-paced as Twitter. Users spend only seconds deciding whether they will watch a complete video. Users can navigate between an algorithm-based “For You Page” and a page consisting of accounts they follow. There are also pages for messaging other users directly, profile pages and notification pages. Although seen as a relatively more informal platform, this has not stopped brands from joining and hopping on trends to increase their overall brand.

Is TikTok for you? Many businesses are finding unique ways to integrate TikTok into their communication efforts. Businesses from just about every industry are trying to create viral posts by joining the trends and creating videos. If your organization has the capabilities to create videos, I highly recommend joining TikTok.

Griffin Decker

Owned Digital Marketing Specialist
Outdoor enthusiast, Northwood Soccer Alumni, just shy of figuring things out!