Copyright: Pixaby
Recently, I was reading about an organization gaining support using Twitter, Facebook “and other social media.” I’m sure you’ve noticed the array of icons at the bottom of articles and blogs suggesting the multiple ways you can share the content. Do you just skim over them? Are the others worth your time? Millions of users think so. If you’re just using Facebook and Twitter, you haven’t maximized your social media reach. Here is a snapshot of a few of the most commonly used social media platforms in 2011 in the “and other social media” category.
Ning:
Ning is a social site geared towards businesses and organizations that allows you to create unique networks for people with a specific interest or common goal. People have used Ning to help gain support for a cause, share information, raise funds, collaborate and more. This is not a free platform; prices start at $20 per year.
A few features:
Pick your own features
Create discussion forums
Build your own member profile questions
Freedom to create unique visual style
What I like: Each Ning feels like its own website.
Meetup:
Meetup allows groups and individuals to post events for people with specific interests in specific geographic areas. As an event organizer, there is a small fee which runs at about $19 per month; there is no cost to searching for events.
A few features:
Shows event trends in specific areas
Keeps track of attendees
Allows users to offer member perks
Shares events on Twitter and Facebook for more event visibility
Allows for review of events
What I like: Meetup is very easy to use.
Bebo:
Bebo is a platform similar to Facebook that allows users to create profiles to share content, especially videos, music and blogs. You can use it like you use Facebook. It is very popular in the UK and is gaining popularity in the US.
A few features:
Easy to share videos and music
Blogging tools
Open media platform allows businesses to easily distribute content
Create your own quizzes to gather feedback
Widgets, or tools, available to customize pages
What I like: It’s an excellent way to share digital content.
By now, you might be thinking, how would I possibly keep up with all those platforms; I hardly have time for Facebook? This is where a social media dashboard comes in. This is a place you can monitor many of your social media platforms in one place. Hootsuite does this, as does Postling, but like social media platforms, there are many different ones to choose from.
Using multiple social media networks will give you the potential to reach a much wider audience. Find platforms that work for you based on what is important to your business and the type of content you are creating. Are you using something I didn’t mention? I’d love to hear about it.
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