The Next Big Thing in Social Media Marketing-Visual Micro-Sharing Platforms

               It started first with Twitter and now there are many other micro-sharing platforms out there.  Vine and Snapchat are becoming a more popular way to share things and communicate with friends and family.  Vine, who was acquired by Twitter and launched in 2013 allows us to create short videos and share them via an app like Instagram.  Snapchat uses photos and captions to communicate with others.  Snapchat users send over 50 million photos a day.  These micro sharing platforms are great for personal use but can businesses use them?

                Like all social networks these micro sharing networks don’t work for everyone.  Many startup companies were some of the first to use Vine to showcase their products and share their employee’s ideas.  Snapchat has been used by companies to share exclusive deals, giveaways and contests.

One main difference between Snapchat/Poke and Vine is that Vine was built with businesses in mind.  However as apps grow there is more opportunities for business presence and it seems Snap Chat will soon start showing ads. 

The downside of these micro-sharing apps is that they are mostly used on a user-to-user basis, and Vine only allows users to upload 6-second videos. These apps have also been in the news for because they have become a haven for sharing porn and other illicit videos and spam has yet to reach these micro-sharing platforms. Companies need to use these micro sharing platforms for community building and exclusive sharing of products and services.

Here is a list of public social networks and micro sharing platforms for you to check out.

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AlmostAt : Following people at real-world events in real-time. Hosted

Cirip : Micro-blogging platform (in Romanian). Hosted 

Facebook : A huge public social network with over 500 million members.  Private groups can be set up for different activities, and pages for businesses or other activities. Hosted 

Foursquare – Check in, find your friends, unlock your city. iPhone, Android and Blackberry apps available. Hosted.

Google+ : Social network Hosted

identi.ca : Public micro-blogging service. Hosted

Jaiku : Create your activity stream. Hosted

LinkedIn : Social network for professionals; groups can be set up. Hosted 

Plazes : Share your location and stay connected with your friends. Add people you trust and you want to be your contacts. See who’s crossing your path. Hosted

Orkut : An online community designed to make your social life more active and stimulating. Hosted

Quenchmark : A new social networking tool for open surveys and questions and answers. Hosted

Quora : A question and answer community. Hosted

Twitter : A global community of friends and colleagues. Hosted

 Here are some 3rd party Twitter Apps.

Upperz : Social networking site for professionals. Hosted

What do you want from them?: A social learning community for managers.Hosted

Xing : Social network for professionals with more than 10 million members worldwide Hosted