From Facebook and Instagram, to Twitter and LinkedIn, deciding what social media platforms to use is confusing yet critical for a small business’ social marketing strategy.
So what’s the best method for deciding what platforms are best suited to your brand or business?
Who is your target audience?
Here’s the bottom line: when you target the wrong audience, you’re wasting both your time and money. So grab a pen and ask yourself these few key questions to filter down your primary customer segment:
- Where is your audience located?
- What is the average age and gender of your target consumer?
- What’s their average income?
- Which of all the above are my top-paying and most loyal customers?
By profiling your average buyer you can effectively pinpoint the suitable social platforms that they will be active on.
Are you B2B or B2C?
This is quite a significant factor when determining the best social media platforms because they follow very different sales funnels. Instagram for example, is used for B2C only. Whilst LinkedIn is one of few platforms worthwhile for B2B marketing. Similarly, each category should optimise quite different content deliverables; for example imagery and video for B2C marketing on Instagram, whilst blogs, ebooks, case studies or reviews work well for B2B marketing on LinkedIn.
What is your overall social media goal?
Social media is a platform predominantly for brand awareness and engagement more so than sales. Acknowledging and accepting this first and foremost will help you to shape your ongoing strategy.
For small businesses that simply want an organic presence across social media, all platforms provide good opportunity to do so.
If paid lead driving campaigns are your goal, Facebook definitely stands out as holding the greatest and most measurable opportunity. For the average SME, select 2 social platforms and do them well.
The breakdown
- Best for B2C, in some cases B2B
- Demographics: 25 - 55+, both men and women
- Top industries: fashion, e-commerce, retail, entertainment, real estate, sports, marketing, health and wellness, news
- Best content: video, imagery (individual/carousel), blogs
- Best for B2C
- Demographics: 18-35, mostly women
- Top industries: travel and hospitality, fashion, health and wellness, e-commerce, beauty, photography, event planning, art and crafts
- Best content: fast video, beautiful imagery
- Best for B2C, some B2B
- Demographics: 18-29, both men and women
- Top industries: news and info, retail, e-commerce, health and wellness, finance, fashion, telecom, sports, travel and hospitality
- Best content: include imagery, polls or blog reposts with your tweets
- Best for: B2B, B2C employment
- Demographics: 25-45, both men and women
- Top industries: finance, employment, science and tech, legal, manufacturing, marketing, education, professional services, health and wellness, IT
- Best content: case studies, articles/blogs, informative videos
Photo by Sandrachile . on Unsplash
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