Social Media for Work and Play

We’re asked to reflect on which social media platforms seem geared towards personal use and which seem to work better for business this week.  I think there are some obvious answers here, like Linked In and other job-related sites are better for business, for example.  However, I think that the answer to this question really depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your marketing and which sites enable you to accomplish it.

My inclination would be to say that Instagram (which I don’t use, so I may be wrong) seems like it would be more for personal use than business use.  However, I have a friend who is a hair stylist and makeup artist and I know she uses it a lot for her business to show the styles she can do and how great her work is.  I can imagine that Instagram would be a very useful tool for other industries that are very aesthetically-oriented, like fashion companies, interior design companies, etc.  So for these companies, Instagram could be very useful.

Facebook seems to be very useful for personal and business purposes.  On the one hand, I can communicate with my friends and family and share photos, and on the other, I can “like” companies which I then get updates from.  I “liked” Women’s Health Magazine, and now I get their tips on all kinds of things.  Since they are the only women’s health magazine I “like,” they are the only one I even know the name of now.  I have grown to think of them as an expert in Women’s Issues, which I think they want.  Plus any time an article looks interesting and I click on it, I am instantly taken to their site which has advertisements that they earn revenue from.  I read a little bit of “Likeable Social Media,” which also explains that you can do some extreme market segmenting and research and advertise through Facebook to very targeted populations, so this is another way that what is geared towards a more personal-user audience is handy as a business tool as well.

Twitter seems like it’s better for business than personal connections, especially when rapid updates are important or when thought leadership is important.  I have added companies on Twitter when I needed or wanted information immediately.  I was on the East Coast when San Diego had the big black out, and SDG&E provided real-time updates all the time.  When I can’t watch the Chargers because I am not in town or it’s not on TV, I get real-time updates from the Chargers on what’s happening during the game.  I don’t like it as much for personal use because friends’ tweets are overwhelmed by the volume of business tweets.  Well, I don’t really like it at all for that reason, there’s just too much content generated all the time, I don’t want to spend the time to keep up, but I will go there when I feel like there’s a good reason to.

Those are the sites I’m most familiar with and my impressions, but I’m interested in learning more!!