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THE BEST SOCIAL MEDIA
PLATFORM FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Social media can be one of your business’s most valuable marketing tools. It’s an excellent way to build brand awareness, connect with past clients, and generate new leads. With so many social media platforms available and a limited amount of time, you need to find the best social media platform for your business.
Today, around seven-in-ten people use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves. It’s important to understand each platform to determine where your ideal client is present. When you take the time to learn each platform you will understand the best social media platform for your business.
Monthly active users 2.85 million
Best use: Engaging your audience, collecting reviews, customer service, advertising
DEMOGRAPHICS: 69% of people in the US, 61% Men and 77% women. 77% of U.S. adults between 30-49 years-old use. 76% make between $30K-50K.
Facebook is often the first social media site to come to mind when discussing social media, and for good reason. It’s one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, and it was one of the first to provide advertising options to businesses. A Facebook business page is a must for any company or brand, and you should update yours on a regular basis. Today’s consumers expect all businesses to have a presence on the platform, and many of them also expect those businesses to respond to their questions and concerns.
Basically, if you’re only going to choose one platform for your business to use, make it Facebook.
Monthly active users: Over 1 billion
Best use: Building your brand
DEMOGRAPHIC: 40% of people in the US, 36% Men and 44% women. 71% of U.S. adults between 18-29-years-old use. 47% make between $75K+.
Instagram is built around sharing photos and is great for any visual content. It isn’t a text-heavy platform, though, and also doesn’t allow links within posts.
Instagram is the best social media for businesses who want to create photos and videos for their audiences.
That being said, the platform is a valuable tool for building your brand’s identity. If you’re a B2C company, you can use it to share photos of your products in use and encourage your followers to do the same for user-generated content you can then re-post as part of your feed. If you’re a B2B company, you can use it to share behind-the-scenes photos of your company and office.
The use of hashtags on Instagram are a way to reach a multitude of people, and taking advantage of the ever-popular Instagram stories or Instagram Live video feature is a great way to expand your social presence.
The platform also offers advertising options for businesses, which can be accessed through Facebook. If you’re familiar with Facebook’s ad management system, it could be an easy transition to start running sponsored posts.
Monthly active users: 353 million
Best use: Building industry authority, real-life updates
Demographics: 23% of people in the US, 25% Men and 22% women. 42% of U.S. adults between 18-29-years-old use. 34% make between $75K+.
Twitter is a fast-paced platform, and many users seek news and information on it. Because of this, it can be especially beneficial for companies who publish original content on a regular basis.
Sharing links to new pages and blog posts is simple, and doing it regularly sends readers directly to your new content. Plus, if you make it part of your strategy to share useful and informative content from other sources, you can build your reputation as an authority in your industry.
Monthly active users: 310 million
Best use: Reaching B2B prospects and potential employees
DEMOGRAPHICS: 28% of people in the US, 31% Men and 26% women. 36% of U.S. adults between 30-49 years-old use. 50% make between $75K+.
LinkedIn is a social network for professionals, meaning it can be a useful tool for reaching B2B prospects. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful for B2C companies as well.
If your company is hiring, maintaining an active LinkedIn account can help potential applicants learn about your job openings. And if you share updates about your company and employees, you can show them what it’s like to work at your business.
YOUTUBE
Monthly active users: Over 2 billion
Best use: Highlighting company culture, tutorials, demonstrations
DEMOGRAPHICS: 81% of people in the US, 82% Men and 80% women. 95% of U.S. adults between 18-29-years-old use. 26% make between $90K+.
Although you may not think of it as social media, YouTube is one of the largest sources of user-generated content online. And if your company creates its own content, it can be a great way to connect with those users.
In addition to the views you get directly on the platform, you can also use YouTube to host videos to embed on your site. And considering how effective visual content is in engaging site visitors, this alone is reason enough to create an account.
Monthly active users: Over 450 million
Best use: Sharing products
DEMOGRAPHICS
31% of people in the US, 16% Men and 46% women. 38% of U.S. adults between 50-64—years-old use. 40% make between $75K+.
If you run an e-commerce business, you should be on Pinterest—it’s as simple as that. In fact, 87% of pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest. The platform allows you to upload individual photos (like product photos) with short descriptions (like product information) and a link (like to a product page). Not to mention its built-in shopping feature makes it easier than ever for businesses to promote their products on the network.
You can also use rich pins to provide more context to a product, recipe, article, and app pins, and use their advertising options to reach more users. It’s an easy way to drive traffic directly to your product pages and connect with potential customers.
TIKTOK
Monthly active users: Over 1 billion
Best use: Giving users a peek behind the scenes of your business, participate in viral trends
DEMOGRAPHICS: 21% of people in the US, 17% Men and 24% women. 48% of U.S. adults between 18-29-years-old use. 29% make between $30K-$50K.
TikTok lets users share short videos for a variety of purposes.
Quick tutorials, viral dances, and comedic skits can all be found on the video sharing app.
In addition to sharing videos related to your business, you can also take advantage of TikTok’s advertising options for your business.
SNAPCHAT
Monthly active users: 46 million
Best use: Real-time updates, promoting events
Demographics: 25% of people in the US, 22% Men and 28% women. 65% of U.S. adults between 18-29-years-old use. 29% make between $50K-75K.
Snapchat allows users to post photos or videos that will remain published for 24 hours before disappearing. This is ideal for businesses looking to promote a timely event, such as a product launch or conference.
Snapchat also offers marketers the ability to create custom, branded geotags to promote certain events in certain locations during a certain time period.
The Snapchat audience does skew younger, making it ideal if your target audience is a college student.
When it comes to the BEST social media platform for your business, there’s no magic bullet. Where you decide to show up and dedicate your time will be where you see a return. Determine where you want to show up, create a strategy and show up.
