What Social Media Platforms Are Right For My Business?
August 3, 2023 - Cassidy
August 3, 2023 - Cassidy
Social media is a vital aspect of many businesses growth strategies. Maintaining a presence on social media platforms can help a brand increase sales, gain new customers, find new leads, and so much more. However, it can be tricky deciding what social media platforms are a good fit for a business and its audience. It’s important to be diligent in keeping an audience engaged and using the social media platforms in an effective, ethical fashion.
If a brand currently does not use social media, it could be missing out on sales opportunities and other benefits. In today’s digital age, it’s recommended that businesses explore the possibilities of advertising on social media platforms.
Consider a few key questions: What demographic is the brand targeting? Does the brand plan to advertise on the platform? Will only photos be posted, or will videos be posted as well? Is the messaging going to be light and playful, or serious and professional? There are plenty of other important questions a brand’s social media manager or marketing team should be asking themselves, too.
Having a basic list of goals for social media usage will help streamline the process and give a clear picture of the right platform for the brand’s needs.
Feeling stuck or nervous about selecting what to use for your company’s social media efforts? Solution Agency’s digital marketing team put together this helpful guide to help you understand the typical audience, messaging style, content, advertising, and more for each individual social media platform.
As we mentioned earlier, social media is an extremely beneficial tool that can give a business the boost it needs.
While word-of-mouth marketing is still one of the most successful practices to spread brand awareness, social media can reach people all over the world with the click of a button. Oh yeah – have we mentioned that creating a profile is free on every platform?
Let’s dive into some of the advantages that come with using this social media as a marketing tool:
…and so much more.
Now that we’ve discussed why businesses use social media and what conversations are needed to set up a strategy, let’s take a deep dive into each platform separately and go over the perks for each one.
Facebook is a social networking platform owned by Meta that allows users to easily connect with their family and friends. It includes a “Home” page where users can easily view status updates, posts, photos, and more from Facebook friends. The layout is set up in a vertical format where scrolling leads to more content.
Even if you don’t personally log in every day, having a Facebook account is often considered a necessity if you’re a social media user. As of February 2022, it is reported that Facebook brings in around 2.91 billion users per month. This is the type of traffic that could increase sales or traffic by tenfold with the right content, brand imagery, website, and advertising. Basically, if you don’t already have a social media account for your business, this is a great platform to start with. After all, Facebook is the world’s third most visited website!
Facebook’s demographic is around 56% male, 44% female. This can be useful for businesses that have different product lines or services that need to be targeted to various genders. This is definitely something to consider along with the brand’s typical target audience. The demographics of your audience can affect the imagery, messaging, and other aspects of your social media strategy.
If your business targets a specific age group, Facebook sees traffic from people of all ages. According to Statista, the top percentage of users on Facebook are between the ages of 25 and 35. People who are between the ages of 18-24 make up about 23.8% of the total user population on Facebook. There’s also even a small percentage of users 65+.
Meta (Facebook) Ads are one of the most popular forms of social media advertising available. Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram are all owned by Meta. With these types of ads, businesses can directly promote their page, certain posts, and even their websites. Users can also be targeted based on where they’re located, their demographics, and even their profiles. Ad format options are available in the form of images, videos, carousels, and more.
As users scroll through their Home page, they can stumble upon a business’s ad even if the user has never heard of the brand, product, or service. With almost 2 billion Facebook users scrolling through their feed every day, advertising on this platform can be a great opportunity to gain new customers. Some businesses will see an immediate increase in sales, website traffic, and audience engagement as soon as they launch their first ad.
However, this isn’t always the case. It’s important to consider a potential customer’s behavior when they stumble across the ad. The user was probably on the platform specifically to see what friends are up to, watch some entertaining Facebook reels, or engage with relatable content. They most likely weren’t going on Facebook specifically looking for your brand’s ad. Having messaging that is enticing but not too salesy along with a strong Call To Action (CTA) is the key to getting the user’s attention.
Even if the user only signs up for emails or likes your business page, the brand has won. Small touchpoints will often lead to a sale later down the road, which can then lead to word-of-mouth advertising and more people discovering the brand’s website and products/services. No matter what, before diving right into this platform’s ads, the business should do some testing with things like budgets and ad copy before solidifying a strategy.
Twitter is a social media platform that is widely considered a news and “microblogging” app due to its 280 character count limit. A Twitter post can contain an image, video, link, and more. The primary purpose of the app is to allow users to share their ideas and current news/events with others in short messages called “tweets”.
According to Hootsuite, 55% of Americans reported that they choose Twitter as their social media platform of choice for news and discovering current events. Twitter is a great place for a brand to stand up for its beliefs and bring awareness toward issues like climate change and fast fashion. It’s also a good platform to share current updates and company news.
Twitter is forecasted to have almost 500 millions users by 2025. Its’ primary users fall between the ages of 25 and 34. From a global review, 56.4% of users identify as male and 43.6% identify as female. Generally speaking, they have an audience that is very similar to Facebook’s.
Twitter ads are aimed to help brands increase outreach and are purchased in the form of an auction. There are three main types of ads on Twitter:
Learn more about Promoted, Follower, and Trend Takeover ads to decide if they’re a good fit for your business once it is active on Twitter.
Instagram is one of the other social media platforms owned by Meta. This platform was designed to be a photo and video sharing network with followers. When you choose the photo or video you want to upload as a Story, Reel, or Post, it can be edited with trendy filters, sounds, and even virtual stickers. In the post’s captions and text, you can even make use of hashtags and geotagging. One cool feature about Instagram and Facebook alike is that you can activate a setting to automatically upload any Instagram post you make directly to Facebook and vice versa.
Instagram is a great platform to consider if a business is hoping to capture its audience through visual experiences, whether that’s through photos or videos. Using this platform can help a brand curate better content, build/track engagement, and so much more.
Instagram was the most downloaded app in the world in 2022 with 2 billion or more active users every single month! Around 52% of Instagram users are male and almost 48% are female according to Statista. Check out the user percentage for the following age ranges:
Advertising on Instagram is an excellent option for eCommerce businesses or any brand that has a product/service to sell. A customer’s attention can be captured instantly with the right imagery and ad copy. Instagram ads are convenient because all of the budgeting, scheduling, and creation is done within the Meta Business Suite’s Facebook Ads Manager; a tool that lets you view, make changes, and see results for all your campaigns, ad sets, and ads.
Instagram does not have its own ad management platform. Instagram ads are managed within the Meta Business Suite, so to set up Instagram ad campaigns, your brand will need to have a Facebook page set up first.
LinkedIn is a professional social networking platform that focuses on business and employment. It can be accessed online or on its mobile app the same way users can access the previous platforms we’ve talked about.
On this platform, brands can drive website traffic, connect with other businesses, discover relevant news, recruit new employees, and share an expert blog or posts related to its industry.
If a brand is looking to share professional information or if its target audience is professional individuals, LinkedIn is a great platform to utilize. As of 2022, around 57.2% of all global LinkedIn users are male and 42.8% of users are female.
The majority of users are between 18 and 24 years old in 2023. Users between the ages of 25 and 34 come in at a close second, accounting for 20.4 percent of the platform’s total user base, followed by users that are between the ages of 35 and 54 in third. One fun fact about LinkedIn is that in the United States, approximately one out of every three adults that are 30-49 years old have a LinkedIn account according to Oberlo!
Audiences that are exposed to different types of ads on LinkedIn are six times more likely to convert. LinkedIn ads are the perfect way to build brand recognition, gain leads, share informative content, sell software & helpful products for professionals, and more.
There are numerous types of ads that brands can use to their advantage on LinkedIn. From dynamic ads to conversion ads, there’s an ad to meet most needs. Hootsuite has put together a comprehensive list of all ad types you can use through LinkedIn.
YouTube, owned by Google, is unique in the fact that it is a social media platform, but it is also a free video sharing service. Brands can easily upload or create videos to share with other users on the platform. Then, users can like, comment, and even share the brand’s uploaded video to other social media platforms. Users can also subscribe to your channel to get notifications every single time a new video is uploaded.
YouTube is a great platform to join for brands wanting to share educational videos or tutorials, product reviews, and other types of videos that would help them stand out as thought leaders. It’s a great way to show expertise when it comes to various industries and build brand or product recognition. Optimizing a YouTube account is also extremely beneficial for SEO (search engine optimization) efforts.
YouTube can improve a brand’s website’s ranking in search results, drive organic traffic, and more. YouTube videos are now featured in Google’s results when people search for things related to videos that have been published. It’s important to use the brand’s YouTube videos on its website and in all marketing strategies to help video content be seen by users searching on Google.
YouTube is the second most popular social media platform in the entire world. Users on YouTube watch approximately 6 billion hours of videos every single month!
Among those users, around 54% are male and around 46% are female. When we break down the amount of total YouTube users by age ranges, the results are fairly close:
Use this information to decide how the brand should convey its message within a video. The video’s purpose should be clear to the viewer and the content should be engaging. Having relevant videos related to a target audience can help the brand grow even further, especially if users are sharing videos or the brand’s account with other people they know.
YouTube video ads allow brands to reach a target audience while they’re actively watching videos on the platform. People who have the free version of YouTube have to deal with advertisements during and in between videos. If the user is already watching a video related to the product/service in your ad, they might be more inclined to check it out.
However, YouTube does provide users with the option to pay for an ad-free subscription or skip through ads after a certain amount of time has elapsed within the free subscription – usually after just a few seconds. The average cost of a video YouTube ad is usually $0.010 – $0.030. Businesses will want to keep this in mind as they consider advertising strategies and which platforms to advertise on. YouTube has a more in-depth guide regarding their pricing, resources, and campaign setup tool on their website.
Pinterest is a social media platform that allows users to share visual versions of their interests, products/services they want, and more by “pinning” an image or video for others to see. Users can browse pins other people are interested in or even search for pins directly related to a keyword or phrase. As of January 2022, Pinterest was ranked as the world’s 14th largest platform. It may not be as popular as Instagram or YouTube, but it definitely is unique.
Pinterest’s demographic has always been primarily composed of female users. Currently, users sit at about 60% female and 40% male. If a brand has products, blogs with recipes or helpful information, or any other service that is geared toward a primarily female audience, Pinterest is a good platform to consider joining.
Brands can create campaigns and manage them easily within the Pinterest Ads Manager. Features include the ability to report, target, and track within all existing ads. The platform’s conversion tool can even help a brand discover the specific action a user took after viewing its ad. Here is a list of some other benefits from utilizing Pinterest Ads:
…and much more.
According to Pinterest, ads on their platform are approximately two times more cost efficient for each conversion than ads on other platforms. This is definitely something to keep in mind if a business is looking for a cost effective platform to test some ads on.
Whether you’re looking to create social media profiles for your brand to simply build awareness or to make a huge impact by doubling product sales, having a presence on social media platforms is important to staying relevant. More and more people are shopping online, looking for new products and services through search engines instead of walking into a store, and relying on their mobile devices for product discovery. The digital revolution has arrived and is here to stay.
Be sure to use this list to compare and contrast the cost, time, audience reach, and more before jumping headfirst into creating a social media strategy. Talk with your team or a marketing expert to make sure the brand is getting the best outreach and results from its social media strategies.
At Solution Agency, our digital marketing team has years of experience in social media marketing and strategic planning. Don’t know what to expect when working with our team? We can assist your business with content, PPC management, budgeting, building out a marketing strategy, and so much more.
Contact us today to get started on your brand’s next social media solution.
