VIDEO: Take Your Business to the Next Level with Social Media

Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Not according to Snapchat.

With the introduction of Instagram Stories earlier this month, the internet had a fit over the cloning of one of Snapchat’s most popular features. Through Stories, users of Instagram, a Facebook-owned photo-sharing app, can post photos and videos to a timeline that disappears in 24 hours—just as they can with Snapchat Stories. It’s a good way for Instagram to reach a new demographic. (The app has a much more inviting interface than Snapchat, thereby winning over the 30-and-older crowd.) But it’s also a good way for Instagram’s parent company to get back at Snapchat executives, who turned down a $3 billion takeover offer from Facebook in 2013.

That’s business—not to mention the power of social media. While Instagram and Snapchat may work against your company’s marketing goals, other platforms, like LinkedIn, Twitter and even Facebook, may be a good fit. Your customers live there and your competitors know it. And in this dog-eat-dog world, there’s nothing stopping them from using these tools to disrupt a legacy industry. That’s why it’s up to you to make social media a part of your company’s corporate strategy.

Not sure how? No problem. Check out the five tips in our video below:

Looking for more? Read Print+Promo’s August cover story, where Senior Content Editor Hannah Abrams expands on how to create engagement, handle customer complaints and more.