Moving your Small Business online - Part 2: Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

Continuing with our tips for moving your business into the online space, let's look at what businesses should consider having a Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram account. 

Twitter

Twitter has been heavily adopted by users across the globe. It is a great tool to obtain global reach for your messages, so long as you know how to market your tweets successfully.

There are roughly 1.6 million Twitter accounts in Australian and 45-54 year olds are the biggest segment.

Twitter in a nutshell:

• Update posts frequently, of no more than 140 characters or 117 if you include a link. 
• Follow other users, other users follow you. 
• Tap into a live newsfeed of posts of those you follow, or search key words collated by #hashtags to find posts which have used that post. 
• Using #hashtags will give your tweets broader reach and therefore more visibility in the twittersphere which encourages a growth in followers. For more information on #hashtags see our post here.
• You can brand your Twitter page. 
• Largely used to get news, fast. 

Businesses who should use Twitter: News sources, tabloids, journalists or bloggers, businesses wanting global reach.

Pinterest

There are 630,000 activeAustralian Pinterest users at last count. The demographic skew is 57% female, 43% male who are affluent or have high disposable income. It is an aspirational social media platform.

Pinterest in a nutshell:

• An online pinboard collection, where users pin images to different pin boards they collate on different subjects. 
• Like, comment and repin others posts. 
• Visual medium, heavy in beautiful photography, retail items, aspirational quotes, links to blog articles and DIY tutorials. 

Businesses who should use Pinterest: Retailers, bloggers, visual businesses such as photography studios, event planners, any businesses who are able to generate great imagery, often.

Instagram

Instagram is fantastic for businesses that are on the go, travelling, at events or involve process. Use Instagram to unite employees with outcomes, to share insider information about new products, events, photography shoots etc.

Instagram in a nutshell:

• A smart phone application recently purchased by Facebook. 
• Integrates with Facebook in that you can auto-push posts to your Facebook page. 
• Take pictures with your smartphone, upload them to Instagram which allows you to sharpen or blur, adjust colours through various “filters”, tag other Instagram users or tie the photographs to keyword newsfeeds based on #hashtags. 
• Follow other users. 
• Other users can follow you. 

Businesses who should use Instagram: Retailers, businesses who travel a lot or are “onsite” a lot, any business who works in the community, who creates structures or visual outcomes. These businesses should always be able to take photographs which are meaningful to their business easily, and frequently.

Stay-tuned for Part 3 which covers Meet-up, LinkedIn, and Email Marketing.

Caitlin Davey

Director of Communications

Piggieback