Social media has become a fully integrated and accepted aspect of communication in society regardless of the individual’s choice to participate or not. The major social media platforms have created their individual niches for use, split command of demographics to target, and have developed specific communication and content styles that even non-users recognize. At this point, the public expects to see certain types of communication appear when looking at content from each platform. This expectation can be harnessed by businesses to provide the public with a more diverse array of content without appearing off brand which allows businesses to target dissimilar audiences with less effort and cost.
Social media gives businesses opportunities to create emotional bonds with potential clients through less formal details that would be inappropriate on business websites. These platforms allow businesses an appropriate setting to host less formal content, allowing a place for personality, humor, or art to be incorporated into marketing strategy. Websites can be formatted to be more functional and efficient for readers with short attention spans when social media is used to expand on details shown as distillates on websites and can alleviate verbose but important content.
Unfortunately these benefits can be easily lost when the wrong social media platform is used to target a chosen demographic, or when the manager of the account doesn’t understand the constantly changing behaviors that each platform rewards or punishes. Additionally, it is not enough to have an account – how imagery, messaging, and designs are presented is important, and the use of social media must integrate purposefully with a larger marketing campaign and established branding. Sharing information via social media works best when used as the platform intends, following posting guidelines, complex as they might be, to utilize the power of the audience that it already attracts.