Whether you are new to the arena and trying to get your business off the ground or you have an established brand and want to branch out, there is no doubt about it! You’ll need social media platforms.
It should come as no surprise that there are billions of users worldwide across various platforms, and that means a whole lot of potential clients!
The trick then becomes how to choose the best social media platform for your business – because not all platforms will be beneficial to you.
Here are some things to consider first when looking at Social Media.
- What type of business do you have?
- Who is your target audience?
- What demographics do you want to reach?
- What is your goal for social media marketing?
- How much time can you budget for posting?
There are so many little things to consider, but if you can determine answers to those five questions, you will be well on your way to choosing the best social media platform for your business.
Of course, once you have those answers, you still need to know which social media platforms can benefit you. I think it is important to point out that you don’t necessarily need to have a presence on every single one of them.
In fact, targeting the ones that will give you the best results (based on your answers to the above questions) would be an appropriate strategy. It is better to excel at a few things rather than spread yourself too thin across too many platforms.
Here is a quick look at some of the most popular platforms and what they can bring to the table for you.
Still the leader in usage, Facebook has over 2 billion users worldwide. It’s no wonder that the world freaks out when the platform goes down (like it has a few times recently). It’s also probably the most versatile platform.
You can share everything from videos to blog links, connect with clients through Facebook business options, and interact more directly with both clients and potential clients. In short, you can build your own little Facebook world for your clients to explore.
If you cultivate it properly, your image on Facebook can also become client-run. By that, I mean that you may not need to post as often because you can foster a climate where followers can share with each other directly, which can give you more time to create better content.
In some ways, Twitter is quite the opposite of Facebook. You can give quick bursts of information, but the back and forth between you and your target audience can be limited. You may also find yourself struggling to get your message across in the limited number of characters.
Twitter requires a lot more time and multiple posts to keep your message out there. Plus, they are constantly changing their “community standards” (sometimes randomly), so what is okay to post this week might get you banned next week. Additionally, using this platform requires a lot more effort, both in the number of tweets and how they are written (learn those hashtags).
I tend to think of Twitter as a good way to direct people to other platforms where you can have a bigger presence.
Fun fact: did you know that Instagram (and WhatsApp) are both owned by Facebook? Makes a pretty good argument for Instagram, right? It is easy to build across the platforms and create varying content that fits each one – but still gets your brand across to clients. But just like Twitter, you should have a strong hashtag plan.
Instagram is perfect for lifestyle businesses or ones that can be easily promoted using images and video clips (via Instagram stories). Additionally, people who routinely use Instagram are more likely to be on other platforms. In other words, Facebook users might or might not use Twitter, but Instagram followers are apt to use Tik Tok and YouTube.
Tik Tok
Think of it as Twitter for the video crowd. Short clips can be an effective way to get content across while also directing your viewers to additional platforms for more information. A properly edited, eye-catching Tik Tok video can easily go viral which (obviously) can mean more clients. But just like Twitter, it would be difficult to build an entire social media campaign based solely on Tik Tok.
Other Platforms
YouTube, LinkedIn, and Snapchat are additional platforms to consider, but again, your answers to the questions at the beginning of this blog will guide you. For example, if you’re targeting 40+ year old professionals, you might want to build a presence on LinkedIn, but you probably won’t be getting the younger demographic there. Conversely, if you build around Snapchat or Instagram, you run the risk of missing out on the older demographic.
Make it work for you.
Of course, a lot of these insights are generalizations. There are LinkedIn users who use Snapchat, and vice versa. It all comes down to your target audiences and demographics, what you want your social media to do for your brand, and how much time you want to put into it.
Do your research and find where your potential clients hang out. Start building the best social media platform for your business there. The rest will fall into place as you continue to grow.
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