Social Media
Did you know that 75% of people under the age of 50 and 90% under the age of 30 are active social media users? 1 When you combine that with the fact that more than half of all users look to social media to research products or services they are considering buying, it goes without saying that your business needs to be online.
However, while it can be tempting to feel like you should spread your social media net as far as possible, we wouldn’t actually recommend having a presence on every platform. In fact, in some situations it can actually do more harm than good if you’re spending time on the wrong platform. So, how do you know where you should be focusing your attention?
The key is knowing what the purpose of each platform is and (even more importantly) what customer base it serves. Luckily, we’ve compiled a quick guide to help you know which platforms are a good fit for your brand and business.
So let’s get started with the platform that is perhaps the most well-known:
Facebook is one of the oldest platforms and therefore boasts the largest follower base. Facebook is a great platform if the content you create needs a lot of interaction and engagement. Users are much more likely to comment or share your content here than on any other platform.
Users can also engage with your content directly on your brand or business’ page. Combined with the fact that videos or Live broadcasts can be directly posted into your feed, Facebook is perhaps one of the best places to interact with your audience in real time and create an engaged community.
However Facebook isn’t for everyone. If your business caters to younger generations, we recommend putting your attention on other platforms. While Facebook is the number one platform for people in their 30s and above, among younger generations, Facebook is steadily decreasing in popularity year to year.
Recommended posting frequency: Couple times a week - once a day
If your business or brand is a highly visual brand, you need to be on Instagram. With the heavy emphasis on imagery on this platform (there’s not much other than photos on this platform!), many users utilize Instagram not only to keep up with friends and their favorite brands, but also to be inspired by well curated imagery.
In addition to images, another great feature of Instagram is their Stories feature, which is a great opportunity to allow your followers a peak into the day-to-day happenings of your brand or business, create simple tutorials, or any other sort of video content you may be producing.
Like Facebook though, not every business or brand should be here. With such a heavy emphasis on curated content, brands or businesses that don’t have a lot of visual content, aren’t able to create consistent, on-brand imagery, and have an older following might have a harder time growing their following on this platform.
Recommended posting frequency: Multiple times a week - every day
Audience: Ages 30+
LinkedIn has gained the reputation as being the “professional Facebook,” and for good reason: in 2019, 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn as a content distribution channel. So it goes without saying that if you are a B2B company, you should definitely be on this platform, especially since 46% percent of the social media traffic to B2B company sites is from LinkedIn.
In addition, LinkedIn is one of the top networking platforms for professionals, so if your business or brand depends on networking, you need to be active on LinkedIn.
Recommended posting frequency: At least once a week
Audience: Working professionals and B2B customers
While Instagram may be all about the visuals and less about the copy (writing), Twitter is all about the copy. While it is possible to post images and other visuals on Twitter, this platform is first and foremost focused on written content. Twitter is a great fit for public figures as it is a platform designed to make the sharing of opinions, beliefs, news highlights, and agendas as publishable and consumable as possible.
If your brand is focused on sharing short messages based on these categories consider including Twitter in your marketing strategy. The added benefit is, unlike other platforms, there doesn’t seem to be a limit to how many times a day you can post before your audience gets tired of your content, so this is also a great platform for businesses or brands who have a lot of content to share.
Recommended posting frequency: At least once a day
Audience: Ages 20+
Many people would argue that Pinterest isn’t really a social media platform, but did you know Pinterest drives 33% more traffic to websites than Facebook? And 90% of users use Pinterest to make purchase decisions? However, like all platforms, it’s key to make sure your audience is present on Pinterest and that the content you produce is well received there.
Brands and business that do very well on Pinterest include those that offer a lot of resources and inspiration. So if you have how-to guides, tutorials, or create inspiring visual content that users can reproduce, Pinterest is a great place to be.
But what really sets Pinterest apart is how well it drives traffic back to your website. With every item shared on Pinterest requiring a link to the original content, anyone clicking on your pinned content will always be redirected back to your site. That’s as close to a guarantee as possible that if someone clicks on your content, they will visit your website.
Recommended posting frequency: At least once a week
Audience: Women, ages 20+
We mentioned earlier that if your brand or business is targeted towards younger generations (particularly teenagers) Facebook might not be the best platform for you to be on. But where do you find the younger audiences? They’re definitely not on LinkedIn!
It might surprise you, but a good place to find that audience is actually Snapchat. Like Instagram Stories, Snapchat is a great place to share the day to day events in your business. However, like all the other platforms, Snapchat is DEFINITELY not for everyone.
Snapchat prides itself on the low cost, unfiltered, and uncurated nature of the content created there, which can steer many businesses and brands away. But consider this: we recently had a huge success at a local concert with one of our clients. For the event, we produced Snapchat “stickers” for our client and uploaded them to Snapchat. Users were able to apply our client’s stickers to their videos of the concert and when they shared these with their followers, the stickers they used were also advertising for our
client!
Given the short-lived and uncurated content on this platform that younger generations flock to, businesses and brands with older audiences would have a hard time finding their clients on this platform. It’s also a platform that brands typically have more success with when they post frequently, so if sharing content multiple times a day most days of the week isn’t something your business or brand can realistically keep up, this isn’t the platform for you.
Recommended posting frequency: Multiple times a day
Audience: Teens (12-20)
Whichever platform you do decide on, the most important strategy is to be consistent. By posting frequently and consistently, you are helping to build trust with your audience and where there is trust, there are loyal, repeat customers.
1 https://99firms.com/blog/linkedin-statistics/
2 https://blog.hootsuite.com/pinterest-statistics-for-business/
