When it comes to social media marketing, you want to be strategic. It’s important to remember that not everyone is going to be interested in your products or services, and not every social media platform is right for your business.
Just because there is no fee associated with setting up a social account doesn’t mean there isn’t a cost. All the time and energy you spend creating an account could be used to produce killer content on the specific sites where your target audience is most engaged.
To help you decide where to focus your efforts, check out our quick overview of four of the most used social networks:
Quick Overview: Facebook is the largest and most widely-used social platform, boasting 2.072 billion daily active users. It offers a variety of marketing features that can help you increase brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation, and online conversions.
Demographics: Of all social media platforms, Facebook may offer the widest range of demographics. According to a Pew Research Center survey, more than half of Americans adults in almost every age group are active on Facebook.
Posting Tips: While the Facebook algorithm doesn’t prioritize content from brands, they make it easy to reach your audience and beyond with a highly-sophisticated advertising platform. This platform allows you to target potential (and current) customers by age, gender, interests, relationship status, employment, purchasing behaviors, and more. All you have to do is plug in your ideal audience requirements and Facebook will place your ads and content directly into the correct News Feeds.
Brands that see the most success on Facebook are those who utilize Facebook’s far-reaching ad platform. Even a small advertising budget of $50 a month can significantly increase your reach and engagement.
Quick Overview: We’ve talked in the past about how and why you should focus on your Instagram brand. But, we cannot stress enough that one of the biggest draws for businesses is the high engagement rate of its users – which outshines Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. The more users engage with your content, the more likely it is to end up in their friends’ feeds, and the further your social media marketingreach extends.
Plus, the high engagement rate can help drive sales. Studies have shown that long term social media marketingengagement encourages consumers to visit your business more frequently and spend more money there as well.
Demographics: Instagram is an equal opportunity photo sharing platform – but you will find more women (39 percent of American adults) using the app than men (30 percent of American adults). Additionally, Instagram tends to skew toward younger age groups, with only 10 percent of those over 65 years old using the app.
Posting Tips: Instagram is a highly-visual social media marketing platform, so snapping the right images is crucial. But, that doesn’t mean you should neglect your captions. Captions allow you to expand on the image and tell a story, give your image context, tie it back to your brand, and create a connection with your followers. Remember, engagement is key on Instagram – so you want to give your followers guidance on how they can engage with your brand.
Quick Overview: Twitter might not have the same growth potential as Facebook and Instagram, with only 336 million active monthly users, but it definitely has ROI potential for local businesses. According to Twitter, 93 percent of people who follow small- and medium-sized businesses on Twitter plan to purchase from the brands they follow – and 69 percent have already purchased from a small business because of something they saw on the network.
Demographics: Who still uses Twitter in 2018? The data shows that Twitter boasts an even distribution of men and women (23 percent and 24 percent of American adults, respectively). Like Instagram, Twitter also skews toward a younger user base.
Posting Tips: According to Twitter, tweets with videos are six times more likely to be retweeted than those with photos, and three times more likely to be retweeted than those with GIFs. So, if you want to engage users on Twitter, you might want to work on developing a video strategy.
More importantly, Twitter is the ideal platform for social listening – giving you real-time intel on competitors and instant feedback about customer experiences with your brand. If you want to succeed on Twitter, you need to develop a strategy for monitoring and engaging with posts that include:
- Your brand, products, or slogans
- Competitors
- Industry buzzwords
- Campaign keywords
Quick Overview: LinkedIn is the top-rated B2B social media marketingplatform for lead generation and brand awareness. With more than 500 million users, it’s the largest global community of business professionals and the top platform for sharing industry news, peer insights, recommendations, and professional content.
Demographics: For businesses looking to target young professionals (either for entry-level jobs or for their high buying power), LinkedIn is a good place to start. Almost one-third of the under-30 demographic is active on the platform.
On the other hand, 61 percent of LinkedIn users fall within the 30- to 64-year-old range. So, if you’re looking to target professionals with more established careers who have the most buying power and peak earning potential, LinkedIn is a powerful resource.
Posting Tips: When it comes to marketing your business on LinkedIn, you want to balance promoting your own content with sharing insights from other industry leaders. The overly “salesy” approach does not work, as users are focused on professional growth, not searching for products or services.
For your original content, it’s best to share posts that can help your followers perform their job better, learn more about your area of expertise, or address a common pain point. You’re looking to add value, not sell to your audience.