I’m not a big user of social media, and when they started popping up and becoming popular, like everyone else I signed up to all the various ones. But lately I’ve been exploring just how social media works, and how it can help a business like mine. As a freelance professional finding your way around marketing and promoting is always an issue. Yes there are companies and other freelancers that are available to do the job and will most definitely do a very good job, but sometimes you have to learn what you’re paying for, and how to know if it’s being done right.

One of the things that I’ve learned from my exploration is not all social media is a good fit. For instance sites like Pintrest, Tumbler, Instagram, Vimeo, Flickr are great for sharing things that are more visual like pictures and videos. If you work in any industry that does a lot of visuals, videos, pictures, these sites are great for Marketing, photography, retail, fashion and such.These sites are great as they use minimal words and maximum eye catching visual. All you need is a title, a great photo and off you go.

Industries that are more focused on things like administration, accounting, project management, writing, etc., then sites like Twitter will be great for you. With Twitter you can add links from your blogs, other sites or links to work that you wish to share with your followers. Twitter tends to be more versatile when it comes to sharing. You can add pictures only, or you can add write-ups to like to whatever articles or sites you’re talking about.

So figuring out which site is best for your type of business is the first step in looking at your social media. So take a look and see if you’re signed up to the right site for you.

As I continue my explorations there will be more to follow. So check out your social media. And I’ll keep you informed about hashtags, following people, and promoting. From one social media newbie to another don’t sign up to something before you check it out fully and see if it’s right for you. I’ll look at Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogs in a later post.