Social media mar­ke­ting = mana­ge­ment of social chan­nels, aimed to help com­pa­nies, public figu­res, pro­fes­sio­nals, asso­cia­tions to be appre­cia­ted by their tar­get audien­ce. 

Each social net­work has spe­ci­fic fea­tu­res and has to be mana­ged pro­per­ly. 

Social media mana­ge­ment may be hel­ped by digi­tal PR: influen­cers boo­st the visi­bi­li­ty of pro­duc­ts, ser­vi­ces, expe­rien­ces, …

Face­book, foun­ded by Mark Zuc­ker­berg in 2004, was ori­gi­nal­ly a uni­ver­si­ty net­work whe­re stu­den­ts could orga­ni­ze par­ties and acti­vi­ties. It has then beco­me world’s lea­ding social net­work. 

It hosts users’ pro­fi­les and companies/public figu­res pages. 

On a mar­keitng point of view, it can be a B2C but also even­tual­ly a B2B chan­nel.

It is any­way essen­tials for any com­pa­ny to be on Face­book, becau­se of its traf­fic volu­me. 

Local shops can count on maps and users’ reviews: Face­book is beco­ming more and more impor­tant in the field of Local SEO/Local Web Mar­ke­ting. 

In 2008, Face­book intro­du­ced Face­book Ads, its adver­ti­sing pro­duct. Sin­ce 2015, they allow com­pa­nies to tar­get Insta­gram as well. 

Both on Insta­gram and Face­book, the tar­ge­ting is based on the users’ inte­rests, socio-demo­gra­phic data and geo­lo­ca­li­za­tion.

Insta­gram is a free app ena­bling users to share ima­ges, albums, videos and Sto­ries (ori­gi­nal­ly, only squa­re pics with retro fil­ters, in an Eighties Pola­roid fashion!). Laun­ched in 2010, Insta­gram was bought by Face­book in 2012.

On a mar­ke­ting point of view, this chan­nel fits bet­ter B2C than B2B indu­stries: life­sty­le, luxu­ry, fashion, tra­vel, sports, … are the same topics loved by Insta­gram, top users, influen­cers with whom com­pa­nies can nego­tia­te pro­fi­ta­ble col­la­bo­ra­tions.

Pin­te­re­st is sin­ce 2010 the pla­ce whe­re peo­ple col­lect Boards of ima­ges of “stuff they love” (pin + inte­re­st). 

This social media is loved in par­ti­cu­lar by women based in anglo­sa­xon Coun­tries. 

Pine­re­st has its most impor­tant cate­go­ries are Food, Bri­co­la­ge and DIY, Womens fashion, Home deco­ra­tion and Tra­vel, and offers of cour­se adver­ti­sing spa­ces.

You­Tu­be, foun­ded in in San José (Cali­for­nia) and acqui­red by Goo­gle in 2006, is worl­d’s lea­ding video sha­ring plat­form. Its search engi­ne is the second most used, after Goo­gle.

On a mar­ke­ting point of view, it fits either B2C and B2B, requi­ring invest­men­ts for

• rea­li­zing high qua­li­ty videos

• SEO opti­mi­za­tion

• SEM cam­pai­gns throu­gh the Goo­gle Ads plat­form.

Lin­ke­dIn is a free­mium social media, main­ly used for pro­fes­sio­nal net­wor­king. It has been acqui­red by Micro­soft in 2016 and had pre­viou­sly bought the sli­de sha­ring plat­form Sli­de­sha­re.

Around 80% of Com­pa­nies in the world uses Lin­ke­din for hiring pur­po­ses.

Employer bran­ding throu­gh Lin­ke­din has beco­me a spe­ci­fic field, a mix of mar­ke­ting and HR!

Lin­ke­din is also more and more used for B2B mar­ke­ting and sales.

Lin­ke­din is also fun­da­men­tal for per­so­nal bran­ding, the­re­fo­re a good visi­bi­li­ty is very impor­tant for any Pro­fes­sio­nal nowa­days, nee­ding to beco­me a “social sel­ling” cham­pion!

Lin­ke­din offers to com­pa­nies Lin­ke­din Ads, that are meant to pro­mo­te pro­duc­ts and ser­vi­ces but also job offers: their tar­ge­ting is based on the infor­ma­tion that peo­ple inclu­de in their pro­fi­le, such as cur­rent posi­tion, lan­gua­ges, past expe­rien­ces, inte­rests, age, …

Moreo­ver, recrui­ters can count on “Hiring Solu­tions” and Sales Mana­gers on the pos­si­bi­li­ty to inte­gra­te Lin­ke­din with their com­pa­ny CRM.

Twit­ter, relea­sed in 2006 in San Fran­ci­sco, is a micro­blog­ging plat­form meant for sha­ring mes­sa­ges up to 140 let­ters – now 280.

On a mar­ke­ting point of view, it fits B2C and B2B. It is hea­vi­ly used by public figu­res, jour­na­lists and com­pa­nies, that can also pro­mo­te them­sel­ves throu­gh Twit­ter Ads.