Social media can connect your organisation to a wider audience, both internal and external and share web communications, news, commentary or other share like-minded posts. Whilst the popularity of public-facing social media has waned, customers, partners, clients or staff, can still engage with posts with good copy.
What social media platforms are good for digital communications?
Digital communication professionals should consider any of the following online social media platforms to create and grow their audiences as part of their digital communication strategy.
Possibly the easiest social media channel to publish content to, Twitter uses short-form posts or tweets of 280 characters. Your scrollable feed will contain anyone you follow plus Twitter also includes any subjects you have shown interest in to help expand your feed and followers. Hashtags can be used to make the search for other users and posts mentioning similar subject matter within your own business or sector. Multimedia like photos, videos and GIFs can also be attached to each tweet. To build up your audience, find others and follow them, and they may follow you. Engaging with others too can persuade your potential audience members to follow so use Twitter’s Reply, Like and Retweet functions.
For anyone wishing to represent themselves in their professional field, a LinkedIn profile is the social media equivalent of a CV. This is where organisations can really engage with current, past and future audiences. As well as being a linked entry in a person’s education or employment history, organisations can share news, jobs or any posts for their own promotion. Engagement in posts is expressed using likes, shares and replies.
Whilst LinkedIn is working 9-5 representation, Facebook represents the friendship and family network of an individual. As one of the oldest social networks out there it developed what other social media platforms have copied in terms of how to increase engagement with digital content and learn from its accounts’ behaviour, interests, beliefs and more.
Originally a photo-based social media, Instagram now features short-form videos and is ideally suited to mobile users. Owned by Meta, the same company behind Facebook, it offers social media advertising or paid advertising. Many accounts publishing photos and videos have become ‘influencers’ and, therefore, are considered digital communication professionals in their field of experience.
YouTube
The original video platform where accounts can have followers and engagement through comments and like. With the increase in popularity of TikTok, YouTube has introduced short-form-video with new editing tools.