Jumping into the world of social media can leave anyone with a head full of questions. What should you post? When should you post it? Will anyone even follow you? The answers to these and many other questions depend on what platforms you choose to be a part of.
But with so many channels, how do you decide which ones you should participate in? Well, we have created a short rundown of each platforms pros and cons that will help you choose.
What Are You Comfortable With?
In social media marketing, there is one mantra that rules all decisions, quality is critical. Think about what platforms you already use regularly. Chances are your posts will come off more professional and you will feel more comfortable on the platforms that you have personal experience with. If you can avoid learning an entirely new process of posting you will be able to be able to infer much of your strategy.
Understand Who You Are Trying to Reach
One of the first steps in starting a business is to determine a few crucial things. What product or service will your business provide? What problem does your product or service solve? Who is experiencing this problem? You may have a general idea about your audience, but it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty of exactly who they are.
Go Beyond Demographics
Creating a robust picture and description of your target audience will help you choose which platforms to use and create more engaging content later on. Age, sex and location is a great place to start your persona development, but what is even more valuable to know is your potential customers behaviors, challenges, common interests and personal drivers.
Each social media platform offers the ability to reach unique audiences in their own environment. Once you have narrowed down your target audience, you will be able to evaluate which platforms will be the most successful.
As the most used social media platform, Facebook is useful in reaching almost any audience.
While the size of the audience you can reach is one of Facebook’s biggest benefits, it is also its largest negatives. With so many people participating in the conversation, it can be easy to get lost in an overwhelming stream of information. Expect to post at least twice a day so you don’t get lost in the crowd.
- 79% of online adults use Facebook.
- 62% of internet users who are over the age of 65 are present on Facebook (this is the highest percentage on any platform).
- At least 75% of men and women use Facebook.
Over the past few years, Instagram has slowly been gaining ground on the social giant, Facebook. Instagram is still mainly popular with a younger demographic, but it is quickly gaining ground with older audiences.
- 32% of online adults use Instagram
- 38% of online women use Instagram compared to 24% of men
- 59% of 18-25-year-olds use this platform
- Instagram has the highest number of interactions per thousand followers
While Twitter’s audience has shrunk in recent years, it still presents a unique experience because the type of content that its current users are looking for is much different than on Facebook. Twitter is mainly used as a news outlet and younger generations living in urban areas are the main demographic of this platform.
One of the most daunting aspects of Twitter is the short life span of a tweet. Tweets tend to get buried in the stream of posts within a few hours. If you want to seem as though you are present, you need to post multiple times a day. Because Twitter users often utilize the platform for gathering and sharing news, one of the most common businesses uses for Twitter is customer service and community management.
- 24% of online adults use Twitter
- 36% of online adults 18-29 years old
- 26% of online adults that live in Urban areas use Twitter
Designed to be the first of it’s kind, Linkedin has made an enormous impact on the way professionals interact with each other. If your customers are other businesses, you need to have a presence on Linkedin. It’s not only useful for acquiring customers, but it’s a great tool to fill job openings and network with like-minded professionals.
Linkedin’s audience is looking for work related content that will allow them to learn and grow within their industry. The most popular times to post on this platform is at the beginning of the week in the mornings.
- 29% of online adults use Linkedin
- 50% of online users who have graduated college are on Linkedin
- 49% of Linkedin’s members are key decision makers in businesses
This platform offers the ability to save and share images, articles, recipes and inspiration with the world. Pinterest is a platform that is typically dominated by women and has huge say on the purchase behavior of its audience.
Pinterest is truly a “lean-back” platform that most people use in their free time. It sees the largest number of users and engagement in the late evening and during the weekend. If you are hoping to see success on Pinterest be conscious that you will need to spend your free time on the platform.
- 32% of online adults use Pinterest
- 38% of online women Pin regularly
- 93% of pinners use Pinterest to plan or make purchases
- More popular than email for sharing
Up and Coming Platforms
Any new sensational platform like Snapchat or Ello will typically become popular in the youngest age groups first. The decision to dive head first into these platforms is always tricky. Our best advice here is to try it out personally. If you can get the hang of it in a few days, start putting together your plan of attack.
Once you have picked the social media channels that are right for your product or service be sure to tailor your message to what the users are looking for in each platform.
