Which Social Media Platform is Right For Your Brand?
by Al Gomez
I know that it’s hard to start your social media marketing with all the social media platforms. They can all help in boosting the amount of traffic and users for your brand. However, you can’t pick all and use them at the same time. So, which social media platform is right for your brand?
Before we start, here are some statistics that show the power of social media.
In 2012, Nielsen discovered that 33% of customers, especially the millennials and gen X and Z, prefer to contact brands using social media.
In 2018, the Content Marketing Institute reported that 94% of B2B brands and 96% of B2C brands use social media for content marketing purposes.
According to the Global Digital Report 2018, more than 4 billion people are using the internet (7% yearly increase), more than 3 billion use social media (13% yearly increase), and more than 5 billion people are mobile phone users (4% yearly increase).
Communicating with consumers is the most vital aspect of successful marketing. To effectively communicate with them, you must choose a channel to reach out to them.
Before studying the major social media platforms, you should first identify the following:
- Your type of business (B2B, B2C, or both)
- Target audience
- End goal
When you have clear answers or pictures of these three, it will be easier to choose the right platform for your brand.
Below are the six most popular platforms with their main purpose, pros, cons, and target audience.
With 1.71 billion users per month, Facebook is the largest social network in the world.
Main Purpose:
Develop brand loyalty and reputation. It creates the largest opportunities to communicate with consumers without being obtrusive.
The best for both B2B and B2C businesses. The top industries in this platforms are fashion, beauty, health, wellness, entertainment, auto, news, sports, marketing, retail, e-commerce, real estate, and education.
Pros:
In one minute, this is what happens on Facebook:
- 249,055 photos uploaded
- 3,125,000 Likes
- 50,000 Links shared
- 3,298,611 items shared
- 15,277,177 Like and Share buttons are viewed on other websites
- 323 Youtube videos are viewed
- 500 accounts added
- 100,000 friend requested
- 150,000 messages sent
- 13,888 apps installed
- $11,700 made by brands
Aside from the variety of engagements and interactions going on here, you can make ads to target your audience in terms of location, gender, age, interests, and other factors. You can use this effectively because almost everyone is on Facebook.
Moreover, Facebook offers a free insights tool to track marketing results (ads and organic posts). You can see detailed information about your page’s performance such as your posts likes, shares, comments, and ads.
Cons:
- The changes in the algorithm can reduce reach overnight
- At least 40% of users don’t just ‘like’ any brand pages so paid promotion is the only way to reach them
- Posts and likes from friends and families are prioritized so you need likes and shares to obtain visitors
Target audience:
25-45 year-olds, men (40%) and women (60%)
Twitter has the largest penetration in the US and still spreading slowly and steadily especially to some third world countries.
Main Purpose:
To share breaking news and updates; quickly promote content, products, and events; and promptly collect feedbacks from the audience and consumers.
The best for B2C and some B2B businesses. The top industries in this platforms news, information, e-commerce, retail, entertainment, sports, travel, fashion, finance, marketing, health, and wellness.
Pros:
- 320 million users per month (200 million active)
- 24.6% of all verified users are journalists
- Useful in networking with bloggers and press
- Helpful in finding content to share
- Indexed by Google to boost SEO
- Twitter chats are interactive and great channels to meet other brands and seek advice
- Known for the hashtag (#) functions
Cons:
- Character limit of 280 restricts how much you say
- Very fast moving so posts get buried quickly
- Some users find it confusing so they don’t stick around for long
Target audience:
18-29 year-olds, men (50%) and women (50%)
Main Purpose:
It serves as an online scrapbook or visual journal for users. Mostly used to showcase products, services, brands’ essence through boards.
The best for B2C businesses. The top industries in this platforms are retail, health, wellness, travel, e-commerce, crafts, arts, fashion, beauty, lessons, education, home decor, parenting, relationships, gardening, and event planning.
Pros:
- 100 million users per month, 90% are active
- It is actually a vast search engine and pins have a longer shelf life than tweets or Facebook posts
- The average leads from referrals is twice as high as in Facebook
- Pins are linked to their sources and, in average, a pin is repinned 10 times
For a hobbyist or someone who wants to learn a new skill, Pinterest is a paradise. Users spend a lot of time creating boards with relevant pins to guide other users. That’s why it’s easy to find your way around Pinterest.
This platform is especially for brands who have a lot of products and visuals to showcase.
Cons:
- You need to pin frequently to have effective results
- Pinterest has a huge US bias, with 55% of users from the US
- There are fewer interactions with customers
Target audience:
18-35 year-olds, mostly women (80%) and fewer men (20%)
Main Purpose:
The best place to share images and videos that stimulate feelings or emotions about a brand by using purely visual contents.
The best for B2C businesses. The top industries in this platforms are travel, fashion, photography, health, wellness, crafts, arts, food and beverage, beauty, e-commerce, auto, event planning, and entertainment.
Pros:
- The visual platform is perfect for designers and makers
- Many creatives use Instagram so finding users that shares your passion is easier
- The use of hashtags lets posts to reach beyond your current followers
Aside from this, Instagram provides built-in unique filters and video styles. It also lets you increase brand awareness in a playful or creative way.
Cons:
- Captions can’t have clickable links so you have to make ways to encourage click-throughs
- Posts can get lost in non-chronological timelines
- The introduction of Instagram stories have reduced engagement on normal posts
Target audience:
18-40 year-olds, Mostly women (58%) and fewer men (42%)
Main Purpose:
A massive professional social media platform with 500 million users from 200 countries and 10 million active job listings. This platform is the best for fostering professional communities to build meaningful relationships.
The best for B2B companies. The top industries in this platforms are finance, employment, science and technology, marketing, legal, manufacturing, education, professional services, health, wellness, and IT.
Pros:
- Best used to easily make communications and connections with candidates
- It offers keyword targeted candidate searches
- It lets users participate in professional groups and organizations
Furthermore, LinkedIn allows you to reach out to real people based on mutual connections. It can also promote professionalism and trust when you post information about your company and employees.
Cons:
- Incomplete user profiles get overlooked
- Hackers often use fake accounts to pose as recruiters and gain access to information
- There are too many passive candidates
- The high cost of the recruitment plan
Target audience:
22-54 year-olds, men (52%) and women (48%)
The thing is you don’t have to be on every platform. Aside from the amount of time that you would waste in managing each platform, you might attract the wrong audience. Choose one social media platform that can help you connect with the right audience, aligns with your business’ needs, and can regularly be managed with fruitful results.
After you have achieved your primary goal, you can, then, start planning your expansion.
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