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Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok: The Purpose of Each Social Media Platform

November 27, 2023 by Erica

Social media has come a long way since its beginnings in the 1990s. Early on, platforms such as Bolt, Six Degrees, and Friendster led the way. These platforms planted the seed for MySpace in the early 2000s, effectively bringing social media to the mainstream. Never before was it so easy to meet new people and connect virtually.

In the last 20 years, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have become essential social and marketing tools for people, creatives, and businesses alike. What was once a small idea is now a global phenomenon.

While many of these platforms share similarities, they all serve their own unique purpose. This article will discuss the purpose of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Social Media Marketing: The Most Popular Social Media Platforms

As social media developed and evolved, it became clear that this form of technology had a bright future in the world of business. These platforms offered a unique opportunity for advertising, brand building, and social media marketing.

Before social media, television, newspapers, and billboards were the most popular way to spread awareness. Since the rise of social media in the early 2000s, this trend began to change.

Facebook

The oldest social media platform on this list, Facebook, was founded and developed in 2004. Since then, it has grown to over 1 billion users. Facebook allows people to create a free profile with pictures and personal information.

After creating a profile, you can befriend other people on the platform. At any time, you can post pictures, thoughts, music, or videos directly to a friend or on your feed (which allows your friends to see).

The purpose of Facebook is to connect people all around the globe. Since the network is so large, it has revolutionized how we connect socially and professionally. Facebook allows businesses, companies, and creators to build a following and connect instantly.

In 2007, the Facebook Ads platform was launched. This allowed businesses to use Facebook for marketing purposes. Essentially, people and businesses could pay to extend their reach beyond their friends and followers. Similar to newspapers and commercials, this created an amazing opportunity for growth.

Twitter

Twitter first debuted in 2006. The idea of this platform was simple: give users an opportunity to share their opinions and thoughts.

By using hashtags, people were able to connect and communicate on various topics. Since its inception, Twitter has grown from a few devoted users to more than 500 million today. Through short word-based content known as microblogging, Twitter turned from a cultural novelty into a vast universe for political and entertainment news.

Due to its immense popularity, Twitter allows businesses and creatives to build a rich and devoted community. Similar to Facebook, Twitter allows users to market themselves using ads. These ads can help to boost engaging content and take a business to new heights.

Instagram

In 2010, Instagram was launched. The idea behind this platform was to make photo and video-sharing easy and aesthetically pleasing.

While Facebook and Twitter both allowed visual content, it was Instagram’s prime purpose. This opened the door for artists and photographers of all kinds to share their work. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram focuses more on images and less on words.

In 2012, Facebook bought and absorbed Instagram. This allowed the two social media superpowers to become one. Soon after, Facebook ads became a part of Instagram, allowing individuals and businesses to promote themselves on the platform.

TikTok

TikTok began in 2016. The purpose of TikTok was to allow users to create short-form videos of all kinds. These videos could be purely for entertainment or to promote certain products.

Since then, TikTok has boomed into arguably the most popular social media platform to date. As TikTok has evolved, you can now create longer videos, create content alongside other content, and much more.

Learning from their predecessors, TikTok created opportunities for companies and individuals to promote themselves using TikTok for business. Like other platforms, TikTok allows users to grow their following and purchase products and services using ads.

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How National Geographic Used Instagram for Marketing Gold

October 21, 2022 by Erica

In a time when images and video are the primary digital formats that brands use to boost exposure and acquire followers online. Some companies are fortunate enough to have some of the heavy lifting done for them when it comes to marketing.

The brands that outsource photographers for marketing, sales, and other purposes have a leg up on competitors who may not allocate a budget for professional photography.

National Geographic is undoubtedly one of these companies, with photographs dating back to 1905. As social media was born and Instagram gained popularity, National Geography had over 100 years of content ready to share online.

Why National Geographic Photography Rules the Digital Marketing Space

For marketing strategies, Instagram empowers businesses and individuals to harness their creativity for storytelling and sharing their brands.

National Geographic took a unique approach to its Instagram strategy — they created several Instagram accounts for various audiences, including NatGeo Travel, NatGeo Wild, and NatGeo YourShot.

NatGeo Travel covers content from all over the world, including animals, people, cultures, landscapes, and much more. Followers will see content like sunsets in Carlsbad, metropolitan shots from Hong Kong, and dunes in Abu Dhabi.

NatGeo Wild focuses primarily on animals and nature from National Geographic. Followers see content that centers around wild animals in their natural habitats; this account shares the most traditional content of all the brand’s Instagram accounts.

NatGeo Get Your Shot is National Geographic’s community account, where freelance and hobby photographers can share their images for a chance to be featured.

National Geographic photographers’ work is also shared on this account, and they encourage their followers and photographers to share their images using the hashtag #YourShotPhotographer.

All the NatGeo Instagram accounts have their specific audiences, so each account posts unique content. By targeting various audiences and sharing curated content, National Geographic uses Instagram as its in-house marketing department.

NatGeo hits it out of the park when it comes to evoking emotion. Each account shares images that inspire viewers and encourage emotional connections between viewers and the imagery.

What Does the National Geographic Instagram Strategy Teach Us About Marketing?

In many ways, National Geographic is a pioneer in the travel industry.

Over the past 100 years, National Geographic has provided avenues for people to see animals, nature, and communities on the opposite side of the world. Thanks to its talented photographers, journalists, and storytellers who produce high-quality stories, photographs, and video content, we’ve all experienced different cultures and ways of life.

Travel and nature content quickly became the way for consumers to see images and read stories from around the world. As a result, National Geography brought their magazines to stores and homes worldwide.

When social media became king, National Geographic followed suit.

How Did National Geographic Embrace Social Media Marketing?

Their team has perfected a marketing strategy that utilizes in-house photographers to create visually stunning Instagram feeds. From there, they built a massive social following (238 million followers), and kept their website visitors growing, following along with their campaigns and interacting on social media feeds.

National Geographic had a direct advantage when Instagram, an image-focused social platform, became the king of marketing for brands.

But the thing they do best? Evoke emotion, create connections, and inspire good. When a brand can do all three of these, there’s no social media goal or KPI out of reach.

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Social media isn’t going anywhere. There’s no doubt in our minds that brand survival in any industry depends on it.

Businesses still face significant challenges, particularly for those without 100 years of photographs to build a social strategy around.

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How Hot Pockets is Getting Engagement on Instagram

March 7, 2022 by Erica

Instagram Marketing: How Hot Pockets is Getting Engagement on Instagram

Instagram has proven to be an effective marketing platform for businesses all over the world. By now, it is almost expected that most businesses will have some content on the social media platform. But you might be wondering if Instagram marketing is right for you and your business. Instagram, after all, is an image-sharing platform. Businesses whose services do not rely on visual appeal don’t need an Instagram account, right?

It turns out the answer is not that simple. Instagram can still be a powerful marketing tool for you, even when you wouldn’t expect it to be. For proof of this, we need to look no further than Hot Pockets. As of March 2022, the official Hot Pockets Instagram account has nearly 60k followers. The account is fairly active, usually offering 2-3 new posts each week.

This might seem bizarre. There are only so many times you can share an image of a microwavable sandwich online and keep people engaged. So how does a company like Hot Pockets have such an engaging Instagram presence?

Instagram Engagement and Marketing 101: Brand Awareness

For Hot Pockets and many other brands, Instagram is not necessarily used for actively selling their product. Instead, Instagram is a tool for growing brand awareness. Instagram’s visual medium makes it a great setting for customer engagement. Commenting and reacting to images is quicker and easier than reacting to text posts for many users.

For a brand like Hot Pockets, the opportunity for fun and engaging visual content is endless. It certainly helps that Hot Pockets was an established brand before the advent of Instagram. Even more fortuitous, their target audience (young males) is one that is already active on the platform. But these factors do not entirely explain the brand’s success on the platform.

Hot Pockets has managed to keep a new generation of customers engaged with light-hearted, humorous content. The brand’s Instagram posts are a blend of product images and memes. This humorous content keeps their followers engaged with the product and maintains brand relevance on a major social media platform. While nobody is buying Hot Pockets on Instagram, they are maintaining brand awareness there. And that brand awareness is crucial to sales and success.

How to Increase Instagram Engagement

Hot Pockets relies heavily on humor to increase Instagram engagement. But humor has long been a marketing staple for their brand. This works for many brands, but it is not always right for others. Hot Pockets has a young audience that responds positively to humor and has come to associate humor with the product.

Other forms of engaging Instagram content include polls, image submissions, and announcements. For instance, a recent Hot Pockets post on the platform shared a screenshot of “poll results” determining their most popular flavor. This post resulted in a feisty comment section filled with followers discussing their favorite Hot Pocket flavors. Other brands can encourage users to submit photos of their product or photos relevant to their service. This can be a great way to engage your Instagram audience and also to endear your brand to customers.

Instagram also presents opportunities for corporate partnerships. Another staple of Hot Pockets’ Instagram presence is posts related to video games. Given their predominantly young male audience, partnerships with video game studios and professional gamers have proved effective for the brand.

Great Content Grows Brand Awareness

Having strong customer engagement on any platform relies on understanding the audience and their expectations on that platform. Each business will have its own target audience. Platforms like Instagram provide a creative, personal, and accessible medium for your customers to engage with your brand. Unlocking that engagement through great content is often a tremendous step toward growing brand awareness.