Choosing which of the many social platforms to work across can be overwhelming when you already have so many things to do for your small business, but it shouldn’t be left unconsidered.

People are spending more and more time on their mobile devices, in fact, Generation Y spends an average of 2 hours a day on their devices and use on average, 6 apps a day. Team this with the fact that  by the end of 2015, it is predicted that 50% of the devices on corporate networks will be mobile and that in just five years, 50% of the workforce will be Generation Y-ers, and suddenly the picture of why social media shouldn’t be ignored becomes crystal clear.

Different social media sites have different user bases, and certainly have different rules of etiquette, so it’s important to do your research to see which sites will best fit with your business. Facebook used to be king, but with changes in their algorithms lowering their organic page reach to just 6% of a pages users, or to a staggering 2% for pages that have over 500 users, Facebook is quickly becoming more work than it’s worth for the average small business owner. Meanwhile, Instagram has taken off, growing more than 50% in the past nine months and it’s engagement rate is through the roof, making it a great place to have visibility for a business.

Unless you have dedicated people to run your social media campaigns, you will need to pick and choose. Although some sites can be linked together for automatic updates, posting content across even 5 platforms is time consuming and the most important thing in the world of social media is consistency.  Your viewers want regular content, or they’ll become bored and move on.

So, do your research, pick your platforms, let your customers know which sites they can engage with you on and and start consistently posting content that will get them talking.