Jennifer Jenkins | @jnjenks

Businesses have found a new medium -- social media -- to channel their marketing efforts in order to help build their brands. However, it’s important to understand the different audiences, types of content, tones and messages to best connect their brand with their target audience and give them an edge above the rest in a social marketing field that is becoming increasingly saturated.

Here are some social media networks that can be paired together to enhance different business plans, courtesy of Mashable:

1. Instagram and Pinterest: Remember that recipe that you were just dying to try? Or that DIY project that just turned out to be a masterpiece and you just want to show it off? Instead of sharing your Instagram photo on Facebook or Twitter (which has become the norm), pin it to Pinterest instead. This way, it will generate conversations and buzz on a social media network that will appreciate your hard work!

2. Pinterest and Tumblr:  As we previously mentioned, Pinterest is a great site to showcase your mad cooking and designing skills, or even that dream closet that you wish you would just magically swap places with your closet overnight. However, the site does have some drawbacks. Typically, people tend to re-pin and reshare images from the site instead of uploading their own original content from websites or their own personal files, leading to fewer new ideas being circulated across the site. If you want to be bold, go to a site like Tumblr that has similar categories to Pinterest.  You can find original images, stories, etc. that will generate buzz between the audiences for both social networking sites. This makes Pinterest and Tumblr perfect complementary sites.

3. Twitter and Pinterest: Now that you can add pictures to your tweets, it would be a great idea to pull content from your Pinterest boards to incorporate with your tweets and interact with a new audience.

4. YouTube and Everything Else: Since YouTube is the clear undisputed video champion of the internet, it’s pretty easy to assume that any video you watch on any network can lead to more great content.  With so many different social media networks out there now offering video uploads, such as Vine or Instagram, you may find someone with a popular web series that you just might love with content that will pertain to your voice and audience. So keep your eyes open for any special viral gems.

5. Facebook and Twitter: If you need content to post to your business’ Facebook page, look no further than Twitter. Why you might ask? Because the microblogging site has become a popular place to post articles, discussions, and keep up with current events. Another little thing about Twitter: hashtags. They make it even easier for you to search for important topics of content or discussion for your business that you might like to transfer to your Facebook. However, please note we are not suggesting you set up auto cross posting between the two social networks. They each have their accepted rate of  frequency and if all your tweets begin showing up on Facebook - you  might see the number of your Facebook friends/likes to nose dive.

6. Twitter and Tumblr/Reddit: Twitter has become one of the most used social media sites today, generating who knows how many conversations a day. Have you ever found yourself wanting to partake in one of these conversations, but you couldn’t fit what you wanted to say in those pesky 140 characters? Well, that’s where Tumblr and Reddit come in. You can post a full winded responses on one of these sites and then link back to it using Twitter so that you and nobody else misses out on any part of the conversation. Just make sure to add a preview sentence to your tweet so that people will be drawn in to your longer response.