How to pick the best social media platform for my business?

So you need to define your social media strategy but do not know where to start? Firstly do you understand and know about the different types of social media platforms available to you for free? Do you know their unique purpose and whether they would reach your target audience?

These are the questions you need answers to before you can define any strategy. If we analyse the large platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn in, what do they all have in common? They all have hundreds of millions users and are all free social sharing platforms. They can all let you building a following, showcase new products and also let it act as an arm of your customer service?

All of these platforms are available on various devices, apps and most importantly are available 24/7, they do not sleep and sometimes its hard to believe the users of them sleep.

Lets get started

We need to know:

  1. What is the unique purpose of the platform?
  2. Do its attributes relate to my business’ needs?
  3. Which target audience does this platform serve?
  4. How much time on this platform is necessary to have the best impact?

 

Twitter

Primary Purpose: Shares breaking news and quick updates, promotes new products, content, or brand contests, collects instant feedback from your audience.

Unique Attributes:

  • Serves people looking for quick info, company news, and immediate response to questions about products or events
  • Focuses on dialogue creation and starting conversations with customers
  • Known for its hashtag (#) communication functionality
  • Best platform for PR/publicity purposes when traditional media does not respond

Target Audience
Average Age Range of Users: 18-29 years old
Gender of Users: 50% female, 50% male
Primarily: B2C industries

Time needed to have a good impact
You should posts approx. 3-4 times a day or 20 times a week

 

Facebook

Primary Purpose: Builds brand loyalty and reputation. Establishes your business as an authority through interesting content and informational posts.

Unique Attributes:

  • Reaches a variety of segments of an audience with one post
  • Offers opportunity to create ads to drive traffic to your website/blog
  • Encourages dialogue and depth with a customer base
  • Ideal for sharing personal stories, testimonials, detailed information about your business

Target Audience
Average Age Range of Users: 25-45 years old
Gender of Users: 60% female, 40% male
Primarily: B2C industries

Time needed to have a good impact
You should posts approx. 1-2 times a day or 6 times a week

 

Pinterest

Primary Purpose: Acts as an online scrapbook, showcases products, and displays brand essence through inspiration boards.

Unique Attributes:

  • Generates leads and drives traffic to other content (or back to your website)
  • Visually promotes and highlights products/services through images
  • Provokes immediate or future Call-to-Action (CTA) responses
  • Allows you to micro-target your search with clearly defined categories

 

Target Audience
Average Age Range of Users: 18-35 years old
Gender of Users: 80% female, 20% male
Primarily: B2C and B2B

 

Time needed to have a good impact
You should posts approx. 2-3 times a day or 10 times a week

 

LinkedIn

Primary Purpose: Acts as an B2B marketing tool, enables promoting and selling products and services direct to businesses via pages and groups.

Unique Attributes:

  • Generates leads and drives traffic to other content (or back to your website)
  • Enables you to network with other professionals
  • Ideal for creating groups for your industry to share experiences and stories
  • Allows you to educate people within your industry about your products and services

Target Audience
Average Age Range of Users: 25-60 years old
Gender of Users: 60% female, 40% male
Primarily: B2B

Time needed to have a good impact
You should posts approx. 1-2 times a day or 10 times a week

 

The Bottom Line

Before you launch into social media research the platforms you think you will use. Ensure you use one that connects with the right audience for your business and aligns with your business’ needs. Do not feel pressured to use every platform; you need to use the ones that work for you. The worst thing you can do it create and launch an account on a platform and never update it.

 

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