Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for Your Business

It seems as if nowadays there is a new social media platform being created every few months. You might feel like as a small business owner that your company needs to be present on all of them. However, that’s not often the case. At Nick the Marketer, we preach “quality over quantity” meaning that you don’t need to put your eggs in every single social media basket. Instead, you should choose 2-3 social media platforms that are best for your business and create quality content for those platforms. If you’ve spread yourself too thin with a lot of social media channels you might find yourself creating content just to create content that is just missing the mark. But, how do you decide which social media platforms are the best for your business? There are a few things to think about and we can help!

Do Your Research

First, you’re going to want to research some social media platforms you think might benefit your small business. Learn more about what each platform offers, what the demographics look like, average engagement levels, etc. Doing this research, in the beginning, will help you decide which social networking sites you want to continue to consider using. The most popular ones are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Get Clear on Your Goals

When starting up social media marketing, it’s important to first understand your goals so that you know what you’re trying to accomplish. This will not only help you decide which social network is the best for you but also give you a guide on how to create your content and target your audience. Some common goals for social media marketing include: creating brand awareness and improving your customer experience, showcasing your products or services, promoting sales and specials, boosting traffic on your website, creating new leads, etc.

Know Your Content and Your Audience

What type of content are you already creating? This is something you should know as different types of content perform or come across better on different platforms. Types of content that are popular for businesses to create are blogs, testimonials, ebooks, videos, product/service spotlights, podcasts, live streams, etc. The content you create should be a reflection of your audience, brand, and what industry your business is in. 

Once you’ve got a clear idea of your content, you’ll need to think more about the demographics of your audience and where they are. Is your audience younger or older? What social media networks are they hanging out on? Those are the areas you’re going to want to target. For example, if you have a predominantly older audience, there’s a good chance they might not be on Instagram as much as they are on Facebook so you’ll want to be sure that you’re sharing your content on Facebook. That way, your audience will have the best chance of exposure!

Choose Your Platform

After you’ve completed all of the research you need to choose the best social media platform, it’s time to pick the winners and create the channels if you don’t currently have them. We’ll give you a breakdown of what the popular social media networks do so that you can make your decision.

• Facebook: Facebook is by far the most popular social media network currently. With over 2.6 billion users with an average age of 40.5 in the US, Facebook is a great network to share both your text-based and image-based content. Not only can you promote your products and services, Facebook is also a great place to show off other sides of your business like behind the scenes, employee spotlights, and show off parts of your company that your customers might not normally see. There’s also a Facebook Live option that allows you to host live videos where customers can watch a process, ask questions, etc.
• Instagram: 35.2% of users on Instagram are between 25-34 years old so if your audience is within that age range, Instagram is a great place to reach them. Much like Facebook, Instagram is a fantastic place to show off your image-based content and a different side of your business. Whether it be on your feed, Instagram story, an IGTV video, or Instagram Live, showcasing behind the scenes content is popular amongst users. Within stories, you can run polls for market research, ask questions, and interact personally with your audience. 

• Twitter: Twitter is the best platform to use if your business is sharing news updates, announcements, and other important information that you want to easily share with your clients. It’s primarily text-based so publishing easy to read and digest text updates is the best use for this platform.

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is all about networking and business! It’s the best place to post about breaking news or editorials either directly from your company or within your business. This is a great platform to grow trust within your field and to gain/convert leads.

• YouTube: We all know that YouTube is the place for all things video! YouTube is the platform for you to post all of your strictly video content. It can even be used to house your videos that you then post on your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

• Pinterest: A popular platform that many people might not think about is Pinterest. However, over the years it’s become extremely popular within the marketing world! Most users on Pinterest are looking to buy and if you’re able to get your pins in front of them using the right hashtags and keywords, it’s a great place to drive sales.

If you’re looking to grow or start your social media marketing efforts, deciding which platform to use is the first step. Don’t waste your time trying to perfect your content for every single network out there. Take the content you have and put it on the platforms that will help it convert best! Need help with your social media marketing strategy? Let us be your go-to! At Nick the Marketer, we know that social media management can be time-consuming and it can be a challenge to stay consistent. We can help you create killer social media content that will fall in line with your goals.