it do so at their own peril. Those who don’t participate in So what’s the best platform to reach your target audience?
the online social space can be perceived as less relevant, That depends on the age of that audience. For now,
especially with younger buyers. Actively posting, liking and Facebook is a must, as that’s where the majority of friends,
sharing social content keeps your name and that of your family and business associates gather on the digital town
business before the buying public at little or no cost. square to share their latest news.
F
acebook continues to be the 800-pound gorilla
of social media platforms, although its influence
is slipping, particularly
among younger demographic
I
nstagram is seen as almost as important to reach a broad
audience, and grew at 5% a quarter in 2018, compared
to 2.3% for Facebook. While there is now substantial
overlap between the
Facebook and Instagram user
groups.
Emerging quickly as a
challenger is Instagram, which
has led all social platforms in
growth – by a longshot ¬– over
the past year. (Note: It’s a bit
disingenuous to call Instagram
a challenger to almighty
Facebook, since the former
has been owned by the latter
since 2012.) Some predict
that Instagram will overtake
Facebook by the end of next
Google Earth Pro
allows users to
import and export
GIS data and view
historical imagery.
increasingly grabbing older
Facebook users.
MAPS
As with search, Google
is king of the mountain
when it comes to online
maps. Its mobile version,
“Google Maps,” is a solid
lots of useful information
about neighborhoods, local
napchat, which started
strong with the teens-to-20s crowd beginning in
2011, is losing some of its luster, and never caught
on with older users, who complained it was difficult to
use. Some of Snapchat’s most innovative features, such
as filters and stories, were copied by Instagram, and later
Facebook, which further eroded the cachet of Snapchat.
T
witter is a great source of breaking news and the
latest business trends, among other things, but is
littered with negativity by numerous internet trolls.
Video Platform YouTube (owned by Alphabet, the parent
company of Google), is an obvious source of videos of
every kind. However, it’s not the platform most people turn
to for a pure online social experience.
In addition, career-oriented LinkedIn can be a valuable
marketing tool for the commercial real estate sector,
and Tumblr offers a popular platform for a photographic
experience.
8
old age group, the overlap is
GPS tool and includes
year.
S
sets for the 35- to 49-year-
RPCRA.ORG | MAY/JUNE 2019
businesses and government.
Be aware, though, that paid ads can skew results when
searching for a particular kind of restaurant, for example.
G
oogle Maps for the desktop is considered the
go-to resource for exploring neighborhoods,
especially in areas where 3-D imagery is available.
For an even richer experience, the mobile and desktop
versions of Google Earth set the standard for exploration.
Google Earth Pro for the desktop is free and includes
advanced features that allow users to import and export
GIS data and view historical imagery of most areas. What
did that neighborhood look like in 1995? Boom! Move a
slider and you’ll see a satellite photo of it.
The GPS app Waze, which uses crowd-sourced data
presented in real time, is a robust, reliable resource that’s
available for both Android and iOS. n