How Businesses Pick the Best Social Media Platform

ChurnMarketing
Sep 8, 2018 · 5 min read

To say social media management can be overwhelming is an understatement.


Having a mastery of different platforms is hard even for well-bankrolled companies. The question, ‘Which sites do I really need to be on?” is a common one that doesn’t have any easy answers. Instead of saying, “I dunno,” you can, in turn, ask what they’re trying to achieve to try and get a better picture of their goals. By rephrasing the question, you can determine which platforms best suit their business.

Surely, my website is good enough

Small businesses usually can’t afford an in-house social media team. This leaves making posts up to their employees or outsourcing to a marketing company. If you are going to let someone else run your campaigns for you, this article can help define your goals.

Sorting Through the Chaos

To help make sense of it all, I’ll break down each platform and highlight the benefits for each:

Facebook:

As much as it pains me to say this, businesses can’t have a web presence and not be on Facebook. In 2017, Facebook logged 1.9 Billion(with a B) unique monthly users, 47% of them spent 20+ minutes a day browsing the site. In short, you can’t afford to miss out on these views. It also provides a unique landing page for anyone researching your company.

YouTube:

YouTube is the next Social Media behemoth, second only to Facebook. With a user base of 1 billion users monthly, that is a massive number of eyes, it doesn’t mean YOUR company needs to use it.

YouTube is best suited for Media creators, Animators, and Instructors. But, this doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy YouTube’s massive audience by using Google Ads.

Instagram:

Coming in third place, Instagram has a monthly user base of 600 million. If you scroll through your timeline, you’re bound to see ads for all types of products and services . Instagram is another platform that caters heavily to businesses with a visual appeal. Artists, video creators, construction companies, restaurants, and influencers can easily engage with their audience.

Twitter:

The most loved and hated of all the platforms with monthly figures in the 300 million mark. While anyone can use Twitter to scream into void of the Timeline, it doesn’t seem to hit the target for every market. i.e. promotional tweets for a landscaping business I manage never get much traction.

Does that mean you should ignore it? No, many other companies have found success in utilizing Twitter for customer service. This is because it’s often managed more than their website contact email.

Pinterest:

Tying Twitter with 317 million users monthly, 2017 statistics show that 45% of them were women. Women aren’t the only users, but artists, crafters, interior designers tend to do best here. Lots of infographics, how-tos, recipes, and art take the cake.

LinkedIn:

With 106 million users monthly, LinkedIn is a great resource for many businesses. That said, finding your niche isn’t easy. Writers, influencers, and corporate entities can thrive here by regular engagement.

LinkedIn exists to show off who and what we know, think of it like Facebook for companies

Snapchat:

Snapchat is universally considered a millennial’s game since they’re main demographic. Roughly, 25% of internet users are using Snapchat, but it’s not as ubiquitous as other platforms. While SC has begun rolling out better options for advertising, it’s new territory. You still see companies with larger budgets taking full advantage of SC’s features. Yet, small businesses can still leverage location-specific filters to increase brand awareness and engagement

Google+:

Coming in just shy of 200 million , Google+ lands at the bottom of our list, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. The benefit of using G+ is that it’s quickly indexed by Google. Being free doesn’t hurt and you can set up cross-posting to other platforms, which is as “set it & forget it” as things get.


Taking advantage of location-based technology

As I touched upon above, many of these platforms best serve physical locations. Due to location data, someone searching for “<businesses> near me,” will likely find you first. Make sure you claim your business page on Google and Yelp, because these help customers find you.

Is this actually necessary…

While sorting through all the options can be daunting, it gives you a solid grasp how social media works. Whether you’re tackling this on your own or paying someone else, knowing what you want is critical. Having an idea which platform is best for you helps in planning your presence and will save money in the long run.

We all know how easy it is to get sucked into thinking you need to be everywhere at all times. But sometimes it feels like we’re throwing money down the toilet. With some foresight and context, we can all make more informed decisions.

Data is all well and good, but how do I actually do this?

Between using the information in this post you should be able to put together a plan of action. Yet, if you’re looking for a simple place to start, I’ll use Facebook as a jumping-off point.

A business page on Facebook will likely net the biggest payout with measurable results. It will also you to get your feet wet in the world of business-centric social media. In addition, Facebook has many easy tutorials with detailed analytics at a granular level.

From there, you will get a feel for your audience and can start expanding onto different platforms. Often, Instagram is next because Facebook owns it and it’s easy to integrate with your business page. Now, you’re basically a pro. All that’s left is managing your customer engagement.


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