Choosing the Right Social Media to Market

Social media is an essential way to reach your customers, gain valuable insights, and grow your brand. Great marketing on social media can bring remarkable success to your business, creating devoted brand advocates and even drive leads and sales.  But how do you choose the right social media to market? And how to you post on social media in such a way that is effective, engaging, and useful to your marketing strategy?  It needs to more than just sharing posts about your company that has nothing to do with motivating your audience to act and supporting your communication campaign.  Here are some key considerations to consider:

• Content is key. What type of content will attract your target audience best? Is it images, videos, or links? Is it educational or entertaining content? 
• Decide the intention of your post – types of posts might include educating about a product, motivating the viewer to take a specific action, posting to sell a specific product, or talking about a new initiative your business is taking.
• Choose the talking points that accomplish that intention to include in the post. People only do things when they read or hear words that make them want to do things. Words should inspire action! Be creative – the more visual your language, the more the audience will engage.
• It is okay to be repetitive because the more you repeat your talking points, the more your audience will hear what you want them to hear and do what you want them to do.
• Along the way, whether you are publishing content or engaging on social media, you will want to do some analytics to determine how your social media marketing is performing. Are you reaching more people on social media than last month? How many positive mentions do you get a month? How many people used your brand’s hashtag on their social media posts?

How do I choose the right social media platform for my business?

Start with a plan.  Ask these key questions:

1. What are you hoping to achieve through social media marketing?  For example, are you trying to increase website traffic? Raise brand awareness? Generate leads? Build a community or develop stronger relationships with your existing customers?
2. Who is your ideal customer and where do they hang out?  It is helpful to know which networks are most popular with your target audience. Where is your target group most engaged, most concentrated and most accessible?
3. Which platform fits your style?  You need to be on a platform that makes sense for you as well as your ideal customer. 

The most popular social media sites:

Facebook

• Most used social media network (2.23 billion monthly active users).
• 53% female, all ages.
• Format is text, image, and video.
• Good for building community.
• Low organic reach (number of unique users that have seen your content)

YouTube

• 1.9 billion monthly active users.
• 62% male, all ages.
• Video format.
• Great for solving problems with how-to tutorials.
• Good for attracting new customers.
• Time and resource intensive

Instagram

• 1 billion monthly active users.
• 68% females, mostly 18-29 years of age.
• Good if you are a B₂C (business to consumer) business targeting younger people.
• Image and video format.
• Great for visual brands and making personal connections.
• Good for connecting with existing customers
• Creativity required.

LinkedIn

• 590 million monthly active users.
• 56% male, mostly 25-54 years of age.
• Text with image format.
• Great for B₂B (business to business) lead generation and recruiting.
• Good if your marketing goal is to become a thought leader.
• Downside is users are not as active.

Twitter

• 326 million monthly active users.
• 53% male, mostly 18-29 years of age.
• Text format.
• Great for news, public relations, and connecting with influencers.
• Allows you to have a direct dialogue with your customers in real-time.
• Downside is short lifespan of posts.

Pinterest

• 250 million monthly active users.
• 80% female, median age is 40.
• Image format.
• Great for driving traffic for blogs and e-commerce retailers.
• Main strong attribute is the users who are eager to share their dream products.
• Custom images are required.

Need Help?

Digital Consultants can help to ignite your social media presence. Our social media experts can help you target your audience and achieve your business goals which will result in increased sales and enhancement to your brand value. Our specialists will help you engage with your target audience across different social media channels effectively.