Finding the right social media platform is the key to its success for you.
The most popular networks are:
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Instagram
- YouTube
- LinkedIn
- Snapchat
- TikTok
All of these platforms are free and are straightforward to set up, either as an individual or as a business. Each geared to a slightly different audience so when choosing a social media platform for your business, it’s important to look at the key factors first:
- Location
- Gender
- Specialist Interest
- The type of business model or brand that you have.
Depending on your demographic and target audience, you may not wish to invest time being on every network.
Here’s a list of the current, most well-known platforms with a few stats to boot!
Twitter
Twitter has around 400million users, most of which are 25-34 years old. Limited to 280 characters, this platform is great if you are wishing to create gripping yet compact content. You could be advertising an event for example, or, if a customer mentions your business, you can ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ this post to your feed. Doing this adds to customer relationship. It’s also easy to engage with your audience and rectify a situation if there is a complaint put out towards your business.
Facebook
This is the most commonly used social media platform, and for a good reason. Facebook has an even spread of users across all age groups of any social media platform, with 2/3rds of people visiting a local business page weekly. It’s mostly suited to building your brand engagement. Facebook can be used to interact with your customers, either by posting content, photos or text. Businesses are now using live video more often too. Customers can easily ‘react’ as well as leave comments or share to their own profiles. With Facebook having such a wide reach, this allows business to attract customers both locally and globally.
Instagram
Over the last couple of years, Instagram has grown massively in popularity, with most users aged 18-24, with 68% of which are female. You can post photographs and short videos to your feed, along with live content. You can also share photos taken by customers that are interacting or using your brand for further advertisement, and additionally, you can post stories and set them as highlights on your profile to allow further insight into your brand. Posts made on Instagram can also be shared automatically to Facebook if connected to each other via Meta’s business suite.
YouTube
This is the worlds second most visited site of which 56% users are male. If you want or to create regular video content that can be watched by anyone, then YouTube is the platform for you. It’s key that your video content has engaging titles and inviting thumbnails to grab the attention of your audience. Your customers can comment on videos and like and dislike them, which over time, captures what you audience wants and needs from your content.
LinkedIn
Users on LinkedIn are predominantly adults aged 24-35 years, with 30% of users being 35-54 years old.
This is most suitable for advertising jobs and posting career information. As a business tool, it’s great to promote the more professional information and network with other businesses for potential collaboration or work.
Snapchat
If you want to offer quick promotions such as discounts and promo codes, you could look to Snapchat. 50% of its users are under 25 with 58% being female. You can feature user generated content to allow influencers to take over the account. Mostly, this platform is suited to younger audiences.
TikTok
If you want to market content within a short time period, then TikTok allows you to post video content that ranges from 30 seconds up to 3 minutes in length. Like Snapchat, TikTok is known for being used by a younger fan base, with 32.5% users aged 10 – 19 and an average time of 52 minutes spent per day on the app. If you, as a business, wanted to market towards this demographic, then TikTok should not be dismissed. Like the other social media networks, you can ‘reply’ to comments on videos and even create a video response.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, there are a number of networks that can be used to your advantage depending on your demographic. Picking a social media network and creating a strategy can certainly pay off in terms of new and existing business.
____________________________
COMMON QUESTIONS
How much time should I spend posting?
Social media can easily soak up your time and often make you feel that you aren’t giving it enough time and energy to reap the rewards. It’s a good idea to at first decide on what time and resources that you have available and then look at building a strategy on what you can accomplish and put your focus to, especially when starting on a new social network.
How often should I post?
It’s important to post at least once or twice a week. Try and maintain consistency with the day and time that you post so that your audience keep a look out for your content. You can maintain audience engagement if using the right posting frequency. Posting at irregular times or on different days can mean that posts are missed by some of your customers. It is important to note, however, that each platform has its own best practices.
According to Hootsuite, the below is a summary of their own findings based around insights and analytics for each platform:
- Instagram - 3-7 posts per week.
- Facebook - Daily between 1 and 2 posts.
- Twitter - Daily between 1 and 5 Tweets.
- LinkedIn - Daily between 1 and 5 posts.
How can I keep up with what is working and what isn’t?
With each social media account being unique, it’s vital to test and analyse your results and gain an understanding of what network your customers are on. Whilst each network has its own insights/analytics, there are a number of tools that can remove the stress.
Need some assistance with your social media or with a marketing strategy? Get in touch with us today!