In this article I'll write about social media.
Over the past few years, along with the spread of smartphones, all sorts of social networks have become popular. Maybe not all of them, but I'm sure some of you are saying, "I only use Facebook" or "I only use Twitter."

There's no particular right or wrong when it comes to using them privately, but this time I'll share some "tips" for using these social networks for business.

Some of you may think, "There's no real trick to using social media, is there?"
But whether or not you know these tips makes a huge difference in the results! (Probably.)
If you use each one with an understanding of its characteristics, you'll find it much easier to get results.

Feel free to pick out just the parts that interest you and put them to use.

[The Three Social Networks You Should Master]

Although we say "social media" as if it were one thing, there are many different kinds. As of February 2017, the major, widely used social networks are:

★ Facebook
★ Twitter
★ Instagram

These three.
Of course there are many more, but if I wrote about all of them I'd end up working overtime, so I'll stick with these three this time.

I'll skip explaining what each of them is, since I'm sure many of you already know. If there's one you're not familiar with, just ask Professor Google.

Now, here's the main topic. Even if you know what the four social networks just mentioned are, how many people really grasp the characteristics of each and make the most of them?

Partly because this is my line of work, but even setting that aside, I've always been an internet lover—internet for work during the day, internet for fun at night, glued to my computer all day long. Of course, I use several social networks too.

Looking at social media every day like this, I often think, "Ah, what a waste of a post!" or "They'd be better off writing it like this…"

Based on that experience, from here I'll share the characteristics of each social network and tips for using them.

[Facebook: characteristics and usage tips]

First, let me share the characteristics of "Facebook"—probably the network used by the largest number of you reading this article—along with tips for using it.

There was actually a hint about its characteristics in that very sentence—did you notice?
The part that was the hint is:

"used by the largest number of you reading this article"

That's the phrase. It's not just that it has a lot of users—what I wanted to convey is that among all social networks, a great many people who run their own business use Facebook.

Think of your Facebook friends. It may depend on who you're connected with, but don't a few names come to mind—"Ah, I'm connected with that company president," "This person is a president too"? And maybe you yourself are a president.

As you can see, a great many people use Facebook as a place to share information about their business and to maintain business connections.

By age group, users in their 40s are at the top, followed by 30s → 20s → 60s → 50s. When people hear "social media" they tend to picture young people using it, but with Facebook the largest share is people in their 40s.

So how do you apply this to your business? As you can see from the ranking of users by age group, if you want to promote something to young people in their 20s, Facebook isn't well suited, since the proportion of them using it isn't high compared with other social networks.

Conversely, there are many users in their 30s and 40s, and many of them use it to build business connections, so it's effective when you want to promote things related to skill development, marketing, or company management.

Posts about dieting and eating habits could work well, too.

As you can see, thinking about what kind of people use each SNS gives you a clear picture of which platform you should post your promotional content on.

Another key feature of Facebook is the way content spreads when someone clicks "Like."
This may sound obvious to anyone who uses Facebook regularly, but when a post receives a "Like," the original post appears in the timelines of that person's friends along with a message to the effect of "So-and-so likes this post."

Conversely, this means that even if someone privately thinks a post is great, they may hesitate to click "Like" because it will show up for their friends.

For example, with information about dating or marriage, people may scroll past even if they like it, simply because they don't want their friends to know. In such cases, you need measures that make it easier for people to click "Like"—such as posting an intermediate article that avoids overly direct wording.