WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA IS BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
Social Media. It wasn’t even on the radar of businesses 15 years ago. In fact, the largest social media platform, Facebook, was just created in 2004. Now, however, people are using social media daily and businesses are using social media to market their businesses and engage with their customers.
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67% of all Americans are using social media, according to Marketing Land. And, at 90%, young Americans still are most likely to use social networks, but social media use among those 65 and older is growing.
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88% of all businesses are using social media, according to Adweek.
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Customers spend 20-40% more money on companies who engage with them on social media, according to Social Media Today.
Social media marketing can be frustrating for businesses. Not only are social media platforms rapidly changing, but new ones are also introduced. Businesses want to ensure that they’re using the right social media platforms for their businesses. And, which platforms are best really depends on a number of things. With so many social media platforms and so many changes, it can be difficult to determine where your focus should be. In other words, which social media is best for your business?
Here are five recommendations to determine which social media platforms are best for your business:
1. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS & WHAT PLATFORMS THEY USE.
It’s crucial that you know who your customers are in order to determine which social media to use. Each platform attracts different demographics and is used differently. For example, younger audiences may go to SnapChat to be entertained while professionals go to Linkedin to network with other businesses. Therefore, you need to know your audience to determine which platforms will be a good fit for your business.
By knowing your customer, it will help determine which social media platforms your customers use. It’s also helpful to determine which platforms they are most active on. Many of your customers may be on a platform but may not be active on that platform. Determining this will help you know where your business should be focused. For example, some people only use Instagram to look at pictures of family and friends while they may be more likely to seek information and be engaged on YouTube or Pinterest.
2. DETERMINE YOUR GOALS.
When choosing a social media platform, it’s important to determine what your goals are. You may want to entertain. You may want to engage. You may want to inform. What works on one platform, will not work on another so you should have different goals for the different platforms that you use. By establishing your goals, it will also help you determine what type of content to share on each platform.
3. START WITH ONE PLATFORM.
You’ve heard the saying “a jack of all trades is master of none.” This can certainly be applied to social media choices. Because each platform is so different, it’s important to start with one and “master” it before using others. To start, pick the platform where your audience (customers and potential customers) is most active and engaged. It’s a great idea to create profiles on other platforms as well so you can be found easily, but focus your attention on one platform in the beginning.
4. ADD MORE PLATFORMS, ONE AT A TIME.
Social media is all about building relationships and, basically, being social. To do that you need to engage. And, how you do that with each platform will be different. While there are automated systems that will post content for you, posting the same content across all the platforms that you use isn’t the best approach. As already mentioned, each platform is used differently by people and attracts different demographics so you cannot use the same content for each. So, by adding one platform at a time and developing your approach to delivering content and engaging your audience, you will be more successful at such.
5. HIRE AN EXPERT.
Social media marketing is growing and the traditional marketing approaches are not applicable to social media. In addition, there are new platforms and changes to existing platforms all the time. It may be in your best interest to hire a Social Media Marketing professional. A social media marketing expert can help you determine where your efforts should be spent and also help you with content and scheduling. Remember, just because your teenage niece is always on social media does not make her a social media expert. An expert is not someone who simply understand how to use the platform, but actually, someone who understands the most effective ways for businesses to use social media. There is a wide range of services an expert can provide from offering initial account set-up to developing a plan to actually handing all of your social media marketing efforts.
Whether you handle your social media marketing efforts yourself or hire an expert, the first thing you need to do is determine who your audience is and which platforms to use to reach them. Determine what your goals are keeping in mind that social media is meant to be social. Most audience members do not like businesses making “hard” sells. Here’s a brief overview of the most popular social media platforms to help you determine which are right for your business:
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Facebook is the most widely-used social media platform. It has a good balance of men and women. People use Facebook to connect with friends and family and to read news content. It’s also commonly used to invite people to events.
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Google+ is operated by Google and can be integrated with other Google applications. It is not widely used.
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Instagram skews slightly female. Its content is highly visual with pictures and videos. People use it to follow friends, family, influencers and companies. Instagram is owned by Facebook and there are opportunities to cross-promote between both platforms.
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LinkedIn is used mainly by professionals seeking business to business communications.
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Pinterest is often called the world’s “catalog of ideas.” Its audience is skewed heavily toward women. This site is all about users actively seeking and discovering information.
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SnapChat is mainly used as a storytelling and photo sharing application for teens and young adults. The ratio of male to female users is about equal.
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Twitter users focus on the latest news and trends and are mainly used by college-educated people. Twitter’s focus is on real-time moments.
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YouTube is the go-to place for instructional videos. It is also heavily used for entertainment. All the content is video-based but links back to websites and other social media platforms can be inserted into the videos and listed in the video descriptions.
Hopefully, this article will help you determine which social media platforms are best for your business. Remember that you do not need to be on all social media platforms. You’re better off to have high engagement in one or two platforms than to have little engagement in many platforms!
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Sondra Kirtley, MBA, is an entrepreneur who owns and operates a retail and service business in Eureka, California. Known for her helpful nature and small business expertise, Sondra founded SmallBizpathway.com to share tips and experiences with other small business owners.
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I’m telling you, if you don’t understand all of the new mediums….hire an assistant who can steer through it with you. They aren’t afraid of the platforms as they grew up with social media and are willing to work on it everyday, whereas you may not be able to to.
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