One of the things I hear as an Account Rep from many of my clients is that they want to be plugged in to social media, which I think is fantastic. Being tied in to everything social media has to offer is a great idea for many reasons, most of all brand recognition and search optimization. However there are a couple of key questions that come up when my clients start looking at getting involved in social media and adding those connections to their new Showcase website:

1.What social media is the best?:

This question can be hard to answer because in reality, there isn’t one choice that’s better than another. Before deciding what social media, if any, that you want to get involved in personally or as a business, I would suggest doing some research about each type of social media out there. In order to make a choice that is best for your industry you have to know what public each platform is designed for, how many people use it and what they are primarily used for.

2. What social media is relevant for my industry?:

It may seem like since everyone has a Facebook or Twitter account, that it’s a good idea to create a company account for each of these, but once you start to get familiar with the different types of social media out there, you will see that it is very important to make sure that whatever social media you are using is relevant to your industry. For example, if you are in a very people-oriented industry and you have had numerous clients and customers ask about a Facebook page or Twitter account or even Instagram, then go ahead and get it set up. There are so many options for great social media out there, the main thing is to make sure whatever you are creating is going to communicate to your client base.Another example is if you are in an industry where you know that most of your customers don’t use social media like Facebook or Twitter, but they are very active on LinkedIn, it would obviously be a good idea to create a LinkedIn profile for your business as an additional way to be available for clients and a waste of time to try and keep a Facebook page or Twitter account updated.

3.Do I have the capacity to handle this?:

In this day and age it seems like everyone and their dog (seriously I’ve seen it) has Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc and it would appear to be a great way to stay connected to your clients/customers. However when you start looking at making social media accounts for your business, it is very important to make sure you have the capacity to keep those pages up to date and relevant. The last thing you want to have happen is to to have a link from your Showcase website (or any website) and have it sending visitors to a Facebook page that hasn’t been updated in 3 years.

Being involved in social media can be a great thing for a company. The important thing is to know what your options are and what would be the best choice for your field. Find out what social media your clients are currently using, what they prefer to use and finally determine if you have the capacity to keep all that social media updated. If you decide that links to social media is something you want to have on your new Showcase website, just know it is okay to start small and stay small. Social media is a lot like a party. You want to make sure that when you are sending invites out, that you are inviting someone to a party that’s going to be hopping and awesome, not a party with a bowl of stale chips and 2 people sitting on a couch picking their fingers and not talking.

When it comes to social media, sometimes less is more, but it’s all dependent on your industry and what your business can handle.