techhints 
Digital spend is up across the board, and more and more companies are starting to allocate serious resources to their social media strategies. Social media is more than a fad, and it can help you as an individual and for your business. Here are the best social media platforms for your specific business needs.
Great For: Deals, Creative Campaigns, Connecting with the Consumer
The Scoop: Facebook brand pages have become a popular means for connecting with consumers. Acquiring likes has become a new kind of currency, and researchers have priced out the value of a Facebook fan to be worth anywhere from $3.60 to $136.38. Whatever the case, acquiring likes will only become more difficult with time, so it’s time to sit down and create a Facebook strategy. Just some of the ways to leverage Facebook include contests, Facebook Deals, social platform shopping, and much more. While Facebook isn’t necessarily ideal for conducting extensive b2b conversations, it’s a great place to get creative with connecting with consumers.
Foursquare
Great For: Brick and Mortar Loyalty Programs
The Scoop: The verdict on the future of geolocation is still out. Some people love it, and others feel like it’s a little pointless, but if you have a small brick-and-mortar shop, it can be a great means for implementing a loyalty program and encouraging people to share their trip to your store with the rest of their social network.
Great For: Recruiting, Company Profiles, and Thought Leadership
The Scoop: LinkedIn has become a great place for businesses to network, recruit, show growth, and much more. One of the best ways to leverage LinkedIn is to sign up for a business account and get to work. If you’re starting a group, though, create something that’s focused on your speciality as opposed to about your actual business. This will encourage more members and stimulate more conversation.
Planely
Great For: Networking
The Scoop: Planely is a new and interesting idea that allows people to connect with others on their flights. You schedule your upcoming flight and then write in a message about the types of things you’re looking for. The user base doesn’t seem that big yet, but it’s always worth signing up and seeing who might be of interest.
Quora
Great For: Establishing Yourself as a Thought Leader
The Scoop: Q&A sites are all the rage right now, and Quora seems to be the business-oriented leader of the pack. Jump on this site to help people out, as well as establish yourself as a thought leader.
Sprouter
Great For: Entrepreneurs
The Scoop: Sprouter is an excellent social network for entrepreneurs looking for help, ideas, and advice in the world of startups. The interface is clean, and there’s potential to get your business featured here as well.
Great For: Getting in on the Conversation
The Scoop: There are more than 50 million tweets sent out every day, and not all of them are about breakfast cereal. Twitter is a great way to talk to current and prospective clients about anything and everything. Companies like Comcast and Dell have used Twitter to create customer service hubs, while brands like Nylon use the service as a means for facilitating a cultural conversation. While Twitter doesn’t seem to have mastered the art of ads for businesses, the platform is still a great way of generating organic interest and nurturing an active online base of brand advocates.
Yelp
Great For: Restaurants and Stores
The Scoop: Search for a restaurant, and near the top of the search engine results, you’ll likely find Yelp. The site is flooded with matter-of-fact user reviews, so you can easily learn what people think of your business. Businesses can also get active on the site with Business Pages, an online dashboard that lets you create offers, keep track of how many people are reviewing your business, create badges, and send public or private messages to people who have reviewed their experience at your business. Yelp has become a great way to master customer service.
YouTube
Great For: Putting a Face To the Business
The Scoop: YouTube has become the fourth biggest website online, bringing in more than 2 billion video views every day. YouTube can be a great means for conveying ideas, creating authentic messages, or just letting people in on what makes your business so great. Because YouTube has a reserved spot in the Videos section of the top searches on Google, a good online video can also serve as an effective means for bringing more people to your site, where the sales happen.
