What Platforms You Should Focus on to Get Reviews

A very quick answer to this question would be to use a platform that is popular and trending. However, doing so without considering other factors could be fatal to your efforts to solicit great reviews. How so? If the audience on a platform does not fit your market, then you have a problem. You may not get reviews and any reviews that happen to come your way accidentally may never be read by the people you want to reach.

Thus, it’s not good enough to go on Facebook because “everyone’s using it.” Studies show that while 1.18 billion touch base daily with Facebook, majority of these active users are from the 25 to 34 age bracket and 76% are female. Also, most of the traffic on Facebook happens between one and three in the afternoon on Thursdays and Fridays. Could it be because the young adults are planning their weekend activities? Moreover, only 42% of businesses find it relevant to be on Facebook – because it is where they can find their market.

Thus, choose a platform not just based on popularity but also on these factors:

• Target market
• Type of engagement you want to achieve: friendly, professional, on-the-go
• Type of content
• Competition – where are they and do you want to join the rat race or venture out on another platform
• Your business goals and mission
• Budget because it’s cheaper to be on a lesser-known platform than on Facebook especially if you want to place ads

In other words, there is a logical way of selecting the first platform to use and what platforms can follow as supporting avenues.

First, the platform should be dynamic. This means it is constantly being studied and upgraded to address the needs of your market.  According to Harvard Business Review, there are platforms that end up disrupting a business. Just think of Yahoo! whose value collapsed and became less relevant to the market compared to Google.

Second, when selecting your social media platform, understand the options well. For example, if you want to introduce a new product and get feedback, you might want to limit your choices to Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. If you want to promote a corporate brand and get feedback from professionals from your industry, LinkedIn would be the best option.

Finally, what platform appeals to you? It’s important that you trust and feel an affinity with the platform you will be working with. If you don’t believe in the platform, it does not make any sense to use it because you will feel forced to work with it. The only way around this is to hire an expert to use the platform for you with specific instructions to generate legitimate reviews.