Deciding what platforms your business should be on can be difficult, especially if you are not too familiar with the different social media platforms. In this blog post, we will focus on the 5 most popular social platforms being used by businesses today.
The first thing to understand is what you are looking to achieve through social media. From building your brand, to talking to your consumers, each platform offers a different opportunity. The second thing to consider is what social media platforms your target market is on.
So let’s get stuck in…
Facebook:
Facebook is often thought of as the original social platform. Designed and developed with the sole purpose to connect people. Facebook is the perfect platform if you are looking to build a community for your business. Facebook is one of the most versatile platforms in terms of the type of content you can put out. Live videos, polls, updates, photos and check-ins are all ways you can share content on Facebook.
Setting up a business page is relatively straightforward and allows your followers to tag you into posts. A business page shares your contact details and is also a great platform on which your customers can write reviews for your products or services.
The Facebook user demographic is slightly older in comparison to other social platforms. (The highest number of Facebook users were found to be 25-34 year olds, with 34-44 year olds coming in second and 18-24 year olds coming in third). This means that Facebook is a relevant platform for most businesses.
Twitter:
Twitter is a micro-blogging site and launched shortly after Facebook with the intention of being a platform on which to start a conversation. With a limit on the number of characters used in a tweet, this platform is designed to be a discussion social platform. It enables a business to put out regular updates on the business in a short and concise way.
It also enables a business to start conversations with their consumers. Twitter now offers the ability to run polls and share images and videos. It is a great platform on which to get quick feedback and create better relationships with your followers.
With 45% of 16-24 year olds are on Twitter (Avocado Social), it certainly has a younger demographic than Facebook.
YouTube:
When you think of social media, YouTube may not be the first platform that springs to mind. However, YouTube is one of the most powerful, popular and biggest social media platforms there is. It also happens to be the second-biggest website in the world! Just think of how that could help your business in terms of traffic, awareness, brand building and lead generation.
YouTube is owned by Google which means that YouTube can be hugely beneficial from an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) perspective. As long as your content is optimised effectively, you can start to make a real difference to your SEO.
YouTube is, of course, a video sharing platform, and this can deter businesses from using it because you need… well, videos! But creating good video content has never been easier. Video content is the most engaged type of content. Take a look at our blog post, ‘Why All The Hype About Video Marketing‘ for more information on video content. Anything from how-to videos, to product launch videos, YouTube is a great way to engage with your target market, on a big scale.
A comScore report released in October 2017 revealed that people aged between 18-24 watched ‘a massive 486.6 videos each on average’ during July 2017, compared to just 96 views among those aged 55+.
Instagram:
Instagram, owned by Facebook, allows you to create a gallery of images that represents your business or brand. This platform is limited to sharing images and videos and therefore may be more suited to product based companies rather than service providers. However, with a bit of imagination and dedication Instagram can be an effective platform for almost all businesses.
Engagement levels are higher on Instagram than on platforms such as Facebook, which means people are more likely to comment or like your posts on Instagram than they are on Facebook. With the introduction of Instagram Stories in August 2016, it has given businesses a great opportunity to offer snippets of ‘a day in the life of’ which is a great way of showing the personality of your brand. Take a look at our blog post on, ‘How Instagram Stories Can Help Your Business’.
The 15-34 age demographic is the most dominant on Instagram, appealing to women, much more than men.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world. If you are a B2B company this is a great platform for you to promote your business. It allows you to establish connections, build relationships and position yourself as a thought leader in your niche by making connections to industry leaders and networking in relevant groups.
One of the best opportunities you get from LinkedIn is recruitment. Not only is it easy to recruit talented candidates looking for a new role, but it also enables you to target individuals who may not be actively looking for a new role but are open to a new opportunity should the right one come along. LinkedIn works for businesses with different budgets too. It is free to share a vacancy on your LinkedIn page but if you do have a budget for recruitment, there is the option to pay for job posts.
To recap, don’t forget to set an objective for being on social media. That way you can measure the success of the platform you have chosen to use. Consider who you are targeting, and which platform they are likely to be using. Don’t be on a social media platform as a business just to ‘tick a box’ or you are in danger of wasting time, money and effort.
While there are a number of other social platforms that can be utilised, the ones discussed above are the most popular.
Creating and managing a social media strategy can be a daunting task, and it does take some time. If you would like to discuss how we might be able to help you manage this process, we would love to chat to you, so please do get in touch.
