Before creating a social media strategy, understanding your audience and the social media demographics of each platform will help determine what platform makes the most sense for your business or brand.
There are a lot of options when it comes to choosing the right social media platform to use for your business. Let’s take a look at the big players in the space.
- Facebook: this social media giant boasts nearly 2.5 billion users worldwide. Millions of companies use Facebook Business Pages to share organic news, events, talk to customers and manage highly targeted advertising campaigns. This means Facebook is potentially going to be one of the most important platforms to your social media strategy.
- YouTube: With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is the second largest social network and interestingly enough, is also the second largest search engine in the world. YouTube offers some of the highest referral rates of all the social platforms along with significant conversion rates with regards to paid advertising. With the opportunity to host original content, syndicate content or advertise via short clips that appear before another video, there are many reasons to consider exploring this social platform for your business.
- Instagram is owned by Facebook and although considered the third largest social media platform based on users (over 1 billion monthly); it is considered the most engaged platform after Facebook with 500 million using the platform daily. If your target audience (or persona) is under the age of 35; this is a platform that may be worth exploring with the most popular age group 25-34 but also serves as a great network to showcase your brand, products or staff.
- With over 326 million users monthly, Twitter is the by-the-minute news network with 71% of users reading news on the platform. It is a fantastic place for you to discover what’s trending in your industry. With over 75% of B2B businesses market on Twitter and 65% of B2C choose the platform, Twitter may be a social channel worth exploring.
- LinkedIn is the platform most business to business (or B2B) marketers are familiar with. It has evolved from primarily a job recruiting platform to a platform for professionals to network and stay connected. Today, this social media platform can be used to research potential clients, network in groups, share the latest news or highlights from your company, and help position yourself as a thought leader. It also serves as a great option to invest in targeted advertising. LinkedIn is a growing platform that is offering outstanding results when used correctly in the B2B digital marketing landscape.
- Pinterest carries 250 million monthly users reaching 83% of US women 25-54 however, 50% of new signups in 2018 were men. The platform is still in its infancy stages of monetizing its user base, and that user base continues to grow. With new features added, and advertising opportunities to reach your audience, Pinterest may be the platform to add to your strategy if the audience fits the bill.
There’s a lot to learn about all of the social media channels and do you need to be on all of them? Likely not. If your business is B2B (business to business) than focusing on LinkedIn might be a good option whereas if you’re an independent bridal shop with a primary customer base of women 28 - 39 year old; perhaps Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook are the best options. That is why it is always best to develop your buyer personas before developing your social media strategy.
From there, you'll have a pretty clear understanding of where your customers spend their time and then, you'll want to be found in as many of those places as possible.
The good news is that you can start small and focused, then build as your team builds and your resource pool grows. And don’t be afraid to create profiles and test out the channels! They can often seem more overwhelming than they are, and once you dip your toe in the pool, the water gets warmer and warmer.
Ready to get started at creating a strategy? Moda's FREE Social Strategy template can help get you started.
