Last week, we discussed about the basics on creating your personal brand. Knowing what you’re passionate about, creating your online persona, your voice, and your look.

Now, we move forward in choosing the platforms that you should capitalize on. As we mentioned the last time, it would always be better to choose which social media platforms you should focus your campaign on. There’s nothing wrong with using them all. However, it might seem like you just want to get them all even if it’s not necessary to have them.

Each social media platform have their own strengths. Aside from popularity, their functionality should be your number one consideration.

So what are the strengths of these social media platforms and which niche would best use them?

The Basics: WordPress, Facebook, Twitter

These three are the basic ones you should have. Although WordPress does not really fall under the “social media” category, but having a website or blog is one of the best ways to market yourself.

A WordPress site or blog is a huge in creating and organizing content. Depending on your layout, you can create different pages for your portfolio, blog, and a contact page. Your blog should be in a separate page of your website (like www.yourdomain.com/blog) so people can easily track your latest posts and so you can optimize your web content through it.

Facebook is also a given. It’s a multi-media, multi-purpose social media platform. Most importantly, it is a platform that most people use. Through Facebook, you can link your website or blog in it (e.g. posting your latest blog article), post a photo, video, or any enticing content that you want. It’s not one-dimensional and it’s very flexible.

Now, Twitter is not as flexible as Facebook. So why would you invest time and energy on Twitter?

Twitter may be highly text-based. Although it also allows you to post photos and videos, and even feed live video, but Twitter is still king when it comes to the written word. For corporate brands, they mostly use Twitter for news and customer support. But for your personal brand, you can post your own news, new blogs, important announcements, and some personal tweets from time to time. You’ll also find that most people on Twitter love a good sense of humor blended with wit plus a very apt GIF that would cap it off.

The Lords of Visuals

If you’re diving into a niche that requires a lot of visuals, you can get good exposure on Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and YouTube. This is best for those who are into photography, fashion and make-up, food, graphic design, and gaming among others.

Instagram and Snapchat are pretty much the same. They’re good for posting stories, short yet fun videos, and lovely photos. But if it’s a toss up between the two, we’d go for Instagram just because it’s constantly evolving and its features are really driving towards a good platform from branding.

Pinterest is also good for visuals especially if you’re into fashion, arts and crafts, and doing graphic design. It has been said that Pinterest has drawn interest by brands where they will post their products for people to notice, pin on their boards, and hopefully, purchase soon. You might want to grab that kind of attention, too.

Then, there’s YouTube for all your videos. You can do tutorials, Q&As, and just your regular vlog. Although, IGTV is also giving you that option now. So if you want to minimize the accounts you want to manage, you might just want to stick with Instagram from now.

The Word Nerds

If you’re more into the written word, you can go for social media platforms which allow more text or content. Tumblr, Google+, and Reddit are the few we can suggest.

Having Tumblr might be redundant with your WordPress blog, but it’s usually the place for fun content. If your target audience are the young adults who have the knack for some humor, then invest a bit of time on Tumblr.

Google+ is a more professional approach. But the main purpose of being on Google+ is to have your posts rank higher on Google. Since this is their very own platform, it’s easy to understand how its purpose serves only to their platform. But, of course, we all know it’s the top search engine so we won’t mind that.

Now we go to Reddit – which is, we admit, a bit of an out-of-the-box suggestion. But if you’re into writing and knowing more from people (and not solely rely on experts), go to Reddit. Join communities, make connections, and be active. Ask questions, respond to other people’s questions. You’ll soon find out how it is a great platform where you can dig a lot of treasures of knowledge.

The Professional Approach

Now let’s get into a more professional approach. Some niches may not be into all the visuals and talk, but are more on the serious side of things. If your expertise is into human resources, management, and business, then you need to get into LinkedIn and Quora.

LinkedIn allows you to connect to the right people. You can follow company pages and connect with their executives to expand your connection. Other than that, you can also share your blogs and articles on expert advice in the platform and have like-minded individuals to comment and share your content.

On the other hand, Quora is a great platform to show your aptitude on your field. Quora is filled with so many questions seeking for professional help. Establish yourself and your expertise by replying to these questions. If you give a great answer, it would be upvoted and the more upvotes you get, the higher your answer would be placed.

These are just suggestions on which social media platforms you’d like to dive into in creating your personal brand. At the end of the day, it’s still your choice whether you’ll only choose a few, or try a little of everything.

Just remember that every effort you exert on strengthening your personal brand should lead towards its success. It may not happen overnight, but if you choose the right platform, it might just come faster.