Diversify your Social Media with Instagram, Pinterest and Spotify

You’ve been told a thousand times, social media is an incredible tool that is slowly becoming a must have. Everyone knows the standard Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are three new, unconventional, social media tools that can really help skyrocket your business.

Instagram -

I already told you about Instagram in my Top 11 in 2011 blog. It’s growing quickly and there are a few ways you can leverage your Instagram account for your brand. With over 2 million registered users (and it’s only an iPhone app so far) Instagram has blown up since it’s release.

Part of its beauty is it’s ease in use. Just snap a photo right in the app, apply a trendy filter if you so choose and instantly you can share it to Instagram’s own network or a multitude of other networks (like Twitter and Facebook). It’s about the easiest way to share visual data. EVER.

Advanced search functions provide for the capability to search for pictures by their caption content or the account that posted it.

The more likes or comments a picture receives the more popular it becomes.

Why use Instagram? –

It allows you to interact with your consumers on platforms that they love. You’re not spamming them with boring emails they probably won’t read. They are choosing to follow you and that is the most valuable follower. Instagram makes it incredibly easy for them to interact with you directly and get a sneak peek into your world.

From photos inside your HQ, sneaks of new products or featuring people using your product, Instagram provides endless opportunities for you to share and keep viewers interested.

Pinterest –

You’ve probably heard of it. The sorority girls at Starbucks are spending all their time on it and maybe you even have an account of your own, if you were lucky enough to snag an invite.

Essentially Pinterest features a pinboard style stream of photos that can be repined to a series of personal boards you create. From “Products I love,” “Food” or “Home” to “Travel,” “Wedding Ideas” and “Workouts” you can categorize pins any way you’d like.

Follow friends and users similar to you, see what others are pinning and search all of Pinterest based on 32 designated categories.

Why use Pinterest? –

Promote and test new products through Pinterest. The commenting capability allows a lot of people to voice opinions on products and you get to track it. It’s an easy way to do market research and get people excited about what’s next.

Connect with consumers by communicating with them. The more a consumer thinks you care about them, the more they will like you. It’s a two way street.

Link back to your site. Every pin provides the opportunity for a caption and a link back to the article or product. This means it’s an excellent tool for external links. WHICH COMPLETELY ROCK!

Spotify –

You may be confused. Please stick with me. Spotify is the coolest new music app. It allows you to share music with friends and followers and listen to a database of almost every song. I don’t know how many songs they have, but I do know I’ve only encountered one or two songs that haven’t been available in the entire 8 months that I’ve been obsessed.

Why use Spotify? –

You’re more than likely still confused. It’s okay. I didn’t really explain my logic yet.

It’s incredibly important to connect with your audience. Oddly enough, people are most likely to support companies that care and put forth an effort to connect personally even though we are becoming more and more technology obsessed.

Barack Obama just released his official 2012 Campaign Playlist yesterday on Spotify and he already has pulled in almost 8,000 subscribers. That’s 8,000 people that no other political candidate has pulled in on Spotify and every vote counts.

His playlist features songs from campaign staff, songs that tie in President Obama’s view points and even a few of the President’s personal favorites. Not only does this bring the presidential campaign into another social media outlet, it allows you to get more personal with Barack, and quite frankly it’s brilliant.

So make a playlist of your office favorites, or a playlist of songs all centered around your business (banks make a playlist all about money- Who doesn’t like Just Got Paid by N’SYNC? Let’s be honest).