There are different types of social media sites and each of them have different benefits for your business. Let’s explore some of them below. They are not listed according to the order of importance but for convenience.

Blogging and publishing networks:

These are social media that used for blogging, publishing and make goods and services available on the internet for prospective customers all over the world. Major examples of these type of social media include blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Medium among others. Individuals and businesses use these social media platforms to publish their business products and services. It used to encourage comments about the activities of the businesses. It is exceptionally effective at content marketing. The positive impacts of its engagements with the audience cannot be overemphasized in brand promotion and trust building for a particular brand. It will surely generate hundreds of leads and sales for your business.

Media sharing networks:

These are social media that designed for the purpose of sharing specified media contents like photos, videos, live videos, and many others on through the internet. Major examples of media sharing networks include Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat. Media sharing networks are very effective for relationship networking, achieving your marketing goal, presents prospective customers with graphic presentations of your goods and service. It is very engaging and successful in brand awareness and lead generation. It helps businesses also in audience engagement. Where your business is product based on exploring these media sharing networks would contribute noticeably to your overall market performance.

Social networks:

These are social media that are used primarily for networking with people all around the world online. The major examples of these type of social media are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Social networking media connects different people and different brands. It is a very powerful to competitive advantage in the business environment. Social networks are extremely helpful when it comes to market research and trend identification, brand awareness and strategy development, and lead generation and conversion to customers. These networks are also excellent at relationship building and customers’ services. It helps any business become a major player in globalization and products internationalization.

Discussion forums:

These are social media that are most times education orientation. Discussion forums inform, educate, persuade and entertained. On these media, members post vital questions for the members to discuss them. They could be exceptional educative for all its members. The examples of discussions forum include Digg, Quora, Reddit, among others. In order to use it to benefit your business, you would have to post a topic related to what you do to the platform and members will comment. Those comments could be used to determine your next marketing strategy. Members use these forums to find specific information and to discuss specific topics. It is used to share news and opinions.

 Consumer review networks:

These are social media that are concerned primarily with products reviews. Users of these networks use it to find out what customers are saying about their products or brand. They use it for market surveying by gathering different reviews. They also use it to share vital information about products and services. Furthermore, consumer review networks are very effective for finding relevant information about the travel destination, new brands, and restaurants. Typical examples of customer review networks include TripAdvisor, Zomato, and Yelp. When you receive a positive review about your products and services it authenticates your claim about the given products or services. Where a business is able to effectively handle these type of networks, resolving issues surrounding customers dissatisfaction will not be an issue at all.

Bookmarking and content curation networks:

These type of social media are very powerful as large social media optimization contents could be reduced to pictures and bookmarked while achieving even more useful results for the contents. Bookmarking and content curation networks are very useful for especially trend identification. Some examples of these type of social media include Pinterest, Flipboard, and many others. It could be used to discover trending contents on the internet and social media. Your business can use bookmarking and content curation networks to effectively engage customers, drive website traffic and increase brand awareness. All you would probably have to do is to pin your media contents and it goes viral online.

Social shopping networks:

These are social media that serve the purpose of e-commerce. In today’s internet world, these social media are very powerful and useful. Examples of social shopping networks include Polyvore, Etsy, and Fancy. Different people use these media to search for business opportunities. They use it to identify trending products. Those who have a special affinity to specific brands use it to follow their most loved brands. You can use it to make your business brand available to your customers to follow. You can use it to share information with your followers and increase sales for your business. You as well used it build brand awareness, increase engagement, as well as sell products via new channels.

‘Sharing economy’ networks:

These are social media that are primarily used for advertisements or finding, sharing, or even buy and sell, and trade products and services between peers. The typical examples of sharing economy networks social media include Airbnb, Uber, TaskRabbit. If you are offering the type of products and services that are traded in these places, then that would be an advantage to your business. Explore these networks extensively because they could just be another channel for bringing in business. Advertise your services in those places and be rest assured that the return on investment is extremely possible and sometimes not negotiable.

Interest-based networks:

These are social media that connects individuals around the world who share a common interest or hobby. A prime example includes Goodreads for those with particular interests in reading and reviewing of books and articles, Houzz, Last.fm and others. If you provide products or service related to the niche of these types of networks, take advantage of them by exploring all the available prospective opportunities. You can use these networks a great deal to engage with your audience and build brand awareness. Create accounts on these platforms for your business today and you will observe the improvements in market performance in the services you provide.

Anonymous social networks:

The anonymous social network is the type of social media that are specifically and exceptionally good for social discussions like gossips, vents, snoops, and sometimes bully politicians, organizations, etc. You can gather useful information from these places to promote your business services. They may also give you the opportunity to advertise your services. The examples of the anonymous social networks include After School, Whisper, and Ask.fm.

Therefore, explore all these social media to make the most use of them to promote your products and services and improve your business market performance.