Which Social Media Platforms should you be using and what should you be posting?
This is probably one of the first questions you might ask yourself when you’re considering your online marketing strategy. Which Social Media platforms should you be using and what should you be posting? Is there a right answer to this question? Well, some might argue yes there is – or some might advise you to be on as many as possible – or they might say just focus on one and get that one performing really well. At the end of the day, just like every person is different, every business is different. Each business will find that they perform better on certain platforms and that they will need to develop their own unique strategy. Now by no means will this article be able to cover all the possible combinations every varying type of business could use. But, hopefully you will be able to take away some key guidelines to give you a better idea of where you can get started and dip your toes (or thumbs😉) into the world of Social Media Marketing.
Take a look at these stats from Statista.com, is it pretty much how you thought it would look? I think we all knew who might come out on top of this one but lets not forget the platforms going down the list. Your target audience could be sitting in one of those places!
So, let’s get started! I think it is probably safe to say that you will already have a good working knowledge of a few of the social media platforms out there available for you to use. What this article will aim to do is cover the ‘main ones’ which will give you a good starting point and you can see what works for you and your business. From there, you can start making informed decisions about where you should focus your attention when it comes to your online marketing strategy.
Initially it’s a good idea to set up about 3 social media accounts for your business. This will give you a good foundation to build from and if you feel like after a few months one of them is underperforming, don’t be afraid to switch for a better alternative. Remember that the time it takes to see results will vary, you might not see results for 6-9 months if you’re starting from scratch, but make sure you set up your accounts with specific goals in mind so these results are measurable!
Pretty sure we have all heard about this one! ‘The Facebook company builds technologies that give people the power to connect with friends and family, find communities and grow businesses.’ It really is THE social network to be on! Check out these stats from Sprout Social to see just how useful Facebook is as a marketing tool!
Quick Overview
- Posting Options – Text/Photo/Video/Blog/Infographic
- Biggest social network – a large majority of your target market will be on Facebook so you need to be too!
- Ability to reach a wider target demographic than most other social media platforms, what’s not to like!
- Great for Branding & website traffic with specific ‘Call To Action’ buttons and outbound links
- Can be a slow process to build a Fanbase unless you use paid adverts to speed things along – although if you spend time on your organic strategy these followers might have a better life-time value for your business
- Exposure can be poor for your content until you build a following and learn how the facebook algorithm works, Hootsuite explains how to get the most from the algorithm here.
YOUTUBE
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google! Do I need to say more – well actually yes. It can take a while to build up a fan base on YouTube and to gain any real exposure – some even say it can just be a lucky break that gets your video’s to go ‘Viral’. However, there are strategies that can be utilised to help grow you channel. Brian Dean has some great tips here.
Quick Overview
- Posting Options – Video
- Great for SEO, Branding and Website Traffic
- You can choose to monetise your channel with Ads (income varies depending on a number of factors)
- Suits most businesses
- More time consuming to produce regular videos when compared to other apps
Instagram was launched in 2010 and was brought by Facebook just 2 years later, making the platform 10 years old this year. While initially Instagram might not have been the best for Website traffic it has fast become a powerful marketing tool. With over 1 billion monthly active accounts and 90% of them following at least 1 Brand or Business it’s definitely a platform you should considered when marketing your Brand online.
Quick Overview
- Posting Options – Image/Video/Infographic
- Great for Brand awareness and exposure
- Building a following is quicker than when compared to other platforms
- 83% of Instagram users discover new products or services on the platform
- Constantly developing new ways to share content, most recently Reels
- Allows Brands and Businesses to show more of their personality and be creative with what they are posting to their followers
TIKTOK
Founded in 2016 TikTok’s global audience of 800 million people is only growing. A platform that you might only think is being used by the ‘younger generation’ is actually starting to grow in popularity with an older demographic too. There are also some really exciting features that you can utilise to help improve your brand awareness and website traffic. Michael Sanchez recently did an interview on Social Media Examiner where he gives some great insight in to the best ways you could utilise the platform.
Quick Overview
- Posting Options – Short form Video
- Rapidly growing in popularity
- People don’t have to follow you to discover your content
- Video’s can be shared to other platforms – but if you try and do it the other way around fan’s of the app might not be as interested in your content as it’s not native
- Can help to build brand awareness and website traffic
Although it has been omitted from the Statista stats Linkedin has nearly 700 million active users in 2020 and has expanded to become one of the best social media networks for lead generation in B2B marketing. You will need to consider how you create your content for LinkedIn as sharing your latest Instagram post might not be the best idea. Consider creating unique content targeted towards a more professional audience.
Quick Overview
- Posting Options – Blog/Image/Video/Infographic
- Great for promoting your Brand and Business
- Good for increasing your Website Traffic
- Reach a professional audience
- Increases your leads and Network
While a little further down our list Pinterest is still a great platform to market your Products or Blog. Don’t think of it as another platform that you have to learn, it’s actually more like a search engine at the end of the day. So the strategies you use to optimise your content or website, can also be used to optimise your pins & boards. Focus on your keyword strategy and use on brand designed pins to market your content and a personalised board to advertise your products.
Quick Overview
- Posting Options – PINS!!/Blog/Image/Video/infographic
- Less competitive than some of the other platforms
- Pinterest users are considered to be further down the sales funnel and are more proactively looking for products or services to buy on the platform
- Good for Website traffic
- Good for promoting your Blog or Products
- Content has a much longer shelf life – some of your oldest pins will still show up in the latest searches if they are relevant to the query
Twitter has 330 Million active users and 145 million active daily users. While it’s not the largest platform that we have discussed so far Twitter can still be used as a powerful marketing tool. While your tweets may only enjoy a short life span and be limited in length, Twitters strength is in keeping you up to date with industry news and your customer service. Like LinkedIn many B2B businesses are also utilising Twitter as a powerful marketing tool.
Quick Overview
- Posting Options – Blog/Image/Video/GIF/Infographic
- Good for Brand Awareness
- Good option for B2B marketing
- Keep up to date with industry news by following key influencer accounts and information services
- Tweets are limited in length and have a short life span
Hopefully you’ve found some of this information useful. If you have any more questions or if you’re looking for a more focused discussion about how these platforms can work for your business get in touch here!
See you next week!
