My Social Media Platform Review (Sept 2017)
Social media is a fickle place. One years shining star can be as dead as a dodo in just a year or two. Anyone remember Meerkat and Periscope? With that in mind, I thought I’d have a quick look at the platforms I use and review how I think they are doing…
Twitter
It used to be my platform of choice. This probably changed about 2 years ago now and I rarely use it properly these days. There are however situations where it still shines. Events is where I’ve seen it’s best use, and I do still delve back in on the event hashtag when attending any. It’s still a great instant service when connecting people with a common theme.
Facebook
This is where I hang out most these days. I’ve seen that the same is true for alot of other people I was previously in constant contact with on Twitter. It’s a really media rich (i.e. It handles just about any media you throw at it) platform now, is a doddle to use, and most people use it regularly. The group aspect is very powerful too now, and has replaced many forums and club websites.
Instagram
It’s sort of the anti-Facebook in some ways (but ironically owned by Facebook) as it’s a much more relaxed and slower moving platform. As someone who appreciates great photography, I love it for the visual aspect of browsing. As it’s not so manic, it’s great for making meaningful connections too.
Snapchat
I was never a fan and despite trying to get into a couple of times, I simply gave up. From a user interface point of view I find it totally unintuitive and against everything I advise in my day job! It did help drive other channels to up their video publishing game (and silly filters!) though. It’s interesting that around a year ago it was being hailed as the next big thing from a business perspective. Pretty much all the people I know that were using it, seem to have dropped it now too.
LinkedIn
We all know LinkedIn as the well established, stuffy, “professional”, business social media site. Things are changing though. When they first started moving towards a more Facebook style approach it didn’t seem to work. However, these days I’m having similar conversation on there as I do on Facebook. The stuffiness seems to be slowly disappearing (though there are still some cracking posts when someone does something different and are called unprofessional) and I’ve been using it more and more. Funnily enough, the more I use it, the more it gives back to me :)
Thanks
Richard
