You already know that you should be hot on social media marketing. It’s a no brainer! But, the question is, not all social media channels are right for every business, so how do you know which ones to choose?
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How do you know which social media channels to choose?
Here is a fact: your target audience are not going to be using, or actively using, every single social media platform that is available to them. All demographic and generational segments have different habits regarding social media usage and their social platforms of choice.
It’s not just the demographic audiences using individual social media networks that you need to be looking at. You need to assess what each platform is used for, and whether or not this suits your brand.
Should I use every single social media platform?
No. Whilst you may be wanting to increase your brand awareness as much as possible, using every single platform available to you is a wasted effort.
You need to uncover where your audiences are, and why they are using their platforms of choice, and how each one suits or does not suit your brand and your business goals and needs. What is the point in building a presence on an app that your target audience doesn’t use? News flash! You don’t need to use every single social media platform as part of your marketing strategy.
Here are some of the most popular social media platforms and what they are best used for.
Facebook: best for community building, best for reaching multiple demographic segments
Don’t dismiss Facebook, it’s very much still the big boy of the social media world. Although you won’t find a teenage audience on here now, in 2021 there are 2.7 billion monthly users, and they’re not all golden oldies. As of January 2021, Facebook’s biggest audiences were women aged 18-24 and men aged 25-34. A large percentage of every generation is using the app daily.
Having a presence on Facebook is brilliant for community building. Although Facebook prioritises posts from family and friends over business posts on user feeds, you can still utilise Facebook’s page tools and increase your awareness by upping your engagement. In simple words, start conversations! Use Facebook Live to capture and engage your audience. Comment on posts relevant to your business. Join industry groups. Create private pages for your fans and invite your customers and followers to share their thoughts.
YouTube: best for SEO purposes, best for shares
YouTubesecond largest search engine. Its capabilities allow your content to be shared, thus increasing your reach. If you’re a dab hand at video creation, this is the channel for you. The network now reaches more 18-49 year olds than any other broadcaster.
Use YouTube to educate and entertain and you can’t go wrong – you will generate subscribers and shares whilst also improving your website’s SEO. For example, if you sell cocktails, you could build a loyal, large following and customer base from simply uploading cocktail-making tutorials. You’re going to appeal to the right people and sell products by doing so.
Video is favoured content on the web – tweets with videos get over 6x as many retweets compared to tweets with photos (Wochit, 2018). The rise of TikTok is evidence of how popular online video content is nowadays (more on this later!)
Twitter: best for customer service
A Twitter feed is chronological, so tweets are very short-lived. Whilst this is great for news outlets and for commentating on live events, it’s not the best place to build a large, engaged community. However, Twitter is unrivalled for customer service management. The instantaneous, conversational platform allows you to give your customers fast, immediate responses around the clock – which is perfect for an angry customer demanding to know where their parcel is. You can also use the platform to ask questions to your customers and find out more about them – what do they want out of your business? What are you doing well, and what could you improve? Which new products or services do they want to see?
It’s also a great platform to show off your brand’s unique personality – look at Greggs, Innocent and KFC as examples of companies who have used Twitter to mould and cement their brand’s persona and generate a large, loyal following from doing so.
LinkedIn: best for b2b
LinkedIn usage skyrocketed during the pandemic. Whilst 46-55 year olds are the networks largest demographic audience, a quarter of millennials also count for the app’s total users. LinkedIn is a fantastic network for lead generation, so if you’re a b2b company, you should be using LinkedIn not just to create new connections and network, but to promote yourself to an audience of career-driven professionals and industry insiders.
You can also establish yourself as a thought-leader in your industry through publishing your own LinkedIn articles. Think informative over entertaining. People mean business on here!
Instagram: best for visual content
If you are a business with a wealth of photography, artwork, graphics, branding, product, fashion, food or wisdom to share, Instagram is the best platform for getting your brand’s creativity and individuality noticed as it is a photo led platform. So, if you are a creative business (in whatever shape or form that comes in) this is the platform where you can really show off – an image says a thousand words and this is the place to post and boast! You don’t have to be Damien Hurst to build a coveted, aesthetically pleasing grid either. For example, if you sell artisan sandwiches, regularly share your sandwich of the day – people lap up food photography on the gram. There are so many ways you can channel your creativity and express yourself on Instagram, whether that’s sharing outfit of the day, chef’s specials, pretty packaging or interiors inspiration.
You can also utilise Instagram Live and Instagram Reels to help increase engagement and show off your creativity and talent via video. Use relevant hashtags and up your engagement to build up an organic loyal following. You can also use Instagram to stay on top of your industry and suss out upcoming trends.
If you’re unsure how often you should be posting on Instagram, you can read more here.
TikTok: best for reaching a younger demographic
60% of TikTok users belong to Gen Z, so if you’re selling to teenagers and early twenty-somethings, why are you not on TikTok yet? In the UK, TikTok’s largest share of users (26%) are aged 18-24, and whats more, young people have mega parent persuasion power when it comes to purchasing! Use TikTok to sell your products and services through creating funny, entertaining, and light-hearted content for a Gen-Z and millennial audience. The network’s tagline is ‘Make My Day,’ which demonstrates the approach you should be using when creating content for TikTok.
Snapchat: best for customer loyalty
Whilst Snapchat definitely isn’t new, it’s still popular (despite a Gen-Z influencer tweet affecting its market share!) and is used by a UK audience of a whopping 21.1 million! Businesses can utilise Snapchat to create a feeling of exclusivity and inclusivity for their audience through exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes peeks, insider news, community and geo-filters, unique promo codes and more – use Snapchat to give online users an unprecedented look into your business which will help build a community around your brand. Snapchat users seek authenticity, to this is the platform to connect with your audience on a personable, authentic level and drive customer loyalty.
If you’d like some help along your digital journey to effective online marketing, we’d be happy to assist. Take a look at our services or contact us today to find out more.
Social Media Account Audit Template
Audit and optimise all of your social accounts with our free, downloadable template.
