Choosing the best social media platforms for your business requires some thought
There are over 3.5 billion social media users worldwide. That’s a lot of users, about 45 percent of the world’s population. With almost half the planet on social media, businesses can no longer afford to ignore this potent marketing tool. Now the big questions are which social media platforms you should invest in for your business? Should you invest in all of them? Which social media platform would provide the best ROI for your business?
There are so many social media platforms to choose and picking the right one for your business can be difficult. Here are some points to consider when deciding on the right social media platforms for your business.
Your target audience
It is crucial to identify your target audience before you decide which social media platforms you want to market your business on. Your social media target audience are the people you want to appeal to and who are most likely to buy your product. You can identify your target audience based on demographics such as age, income level, location, education, occupation etc.
Your social media marketing goals
Understand what you are trying to achieve through social media marketing. Some common goals businesses may have in mind are:
- Drive traffic to their website
- Communicate with their customers
- Enhance visibility
- Advertise/sell a product/service
- Generate more leads and sales
- Increase brand awareness
- Establish online authority.
- Others
Platforms your target audience is already using
There is no point using a social media platform that your audience does not use. There is ample research available online that details the demographics of social media users.
Type of content that you plan to produce
It’s important to use content that is most appropriate for your business and choose the platform that is best suited for sharing that. Instagram is great for posting pictures, LinkedIn is great for sharing white papers, YouTube is the best for videos and so on.
Best social media platforms for businesses
Facebook has a monthly active user base of over 2.4 billion, which makes it the largest social media platform. Over 60% of these users are Americans. People are increasingly using Facebook to interact with businesses. In fact, two-thirds of Facebook users admit that they visit a local business Facebook Page at least once a week. Facebook works great for lead generation, building customer relationships, converting leads into customers and interacting with the audience on a more personal level. Facebook advertising lets you customize your ad campaign to target specific audiences.
Instagram is possibly the hottest social media platform with over a billion active monthly users. Those users share 500 million stories each day. The most encouraging statistics for businesses are that 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business. Further, 83% claim that Instagram has helped them discover new products and services. Instagram is great for your business if your target audience is young and shops online (from mobile). With Instagram’s “checkout” feature customers can look at the images and buy what they like directly from their Instagram account.
Twitter allows you to share your content with over 326 million monthly users. You can use Twitter for litany of purposes. Twitter is used to engage users, boost conversions, promote a blog or videos, and more. Most importantly you can get instant feedback from your followers. To get the most from your Twitter presence, create conversations and engagement around the topics that matter the most to your target audience.
Pinterest has a total of 250 million users and around 500,000 business accounts. It is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. Over 55% of Pinterest users are specifically on the platform to find photos of new products. It is a very powerful platform when it comes to driving website traffic, converting more leads and increase brand awareness.
LinkedIn has more than 660 million users globally. 93% of the marketers consider LinkedIn to be the most effective platform for lead generation. In fact, research has also shown that LinkedIn generates more leads for B2B companies than Twitter, Facebook or Blogging individually. 64% of corporate website visits originate on LinkedIn. So, LinkedIn is the right choice if you want to enhance your discover-ability, build reputation, target B2B clients, showcase your products and services, post content, collaborate with community, and more.
Other social media platforms
These are the five most popular social media platforms for businesses, but there are others as well such as YouTube, Reddit, Quora, and others that you may invest in. Understanding which social media platform to use for your business will save you time and money, and help achieve your goals. If you need help determining the right platform for your business, let us know. We are here to help.