3 Questions You Need to Answer Before Choosing a Social Platform
How to choose the social media platform that’s RIGHT for you..
So you have finally decided that it’s now time to get into social media marketing to grow your audience and business — great! I hope that before you make this decision you’ve read the 5 Facts About Social Media Marketing in 2016 That You Need To Know.
Assuming you have already read the article above and fully understand the commitment that you need to make, it’s now time to choose the social media platform that is right for you.
Notice that I say “the right platform for you” and NOT “right for your business”. I know that what I just said may sound really counter intuitive but hear me out for a sec. I said what I said because your business is an extension of you first and foremost, and second your business is not the person who will be posting on these social sites but you yourself (unless of course you’re fortunate enough to have the resources to have another person do it for you- in which case this article may not be for you). So it’s only natural that you pick the social media platform that’s right for you — you control how your business is perceived as well as the message it puts out in the social media world.
With that in mind here are three questions that must be answered when choosing a social media platform…
How familiar are you with the platform?
Being familiar with a social platform can make all the difference when it comes to social media marketing because you already know how people behave on the platform, what people say, what people tend to like, what is acceptable to post, and even tools to make the social media platform experience that much better.
If you’re not familiar with the platform you can have a hard time trying to connect with the audience you want to connect with because you’re too self-conscious about what you say and how you say it. You just end up getting too worried of how people will think of you and how they will respond.
SO being on a social media platform that you are already familiar with can really help you be your most authentic self which can really help set you on a successful path to social media marketing.
Are you willing to learn?
If you are going to use a social platform that you have absolutely no idea how to use, you have to ask yourself if you are willing to put in the time to really learn how to use it because if you’re not willing to do so then it’s not even worth starting. Nothing bothers me more when it comes to social media marketing to see a page that has been live for months with absolutely nothing posted — why did they even bother.
For those of us that are not that technically savvy, learning the ins and outs of a social media platform can take a lot of time to do. You’re not only learning how people use the social platform but all the technical stuff as well. Ultimately when answering this question you have to weigh if learning this social platform can really be beneficial in the long run, as in is this social platform worth spending all this time learning from the ground up. If you absolutely feel that it’s worth the effort, then go for it.
Will it be fun for you?
Another factor to consider when choosing a social media platform is whether you feel this will be fun for you. As I said earlier, it’s not your business that will be posting but the people behind the scenes — which more than likely will be you.
SO if you preview the social platform, see the kinds of content that are being shared, and you feel that these type of content isn’t something that you will enjoy making then it’s probably not the platform for you — AND don’t convince yourself otherwise thinking that it will be worth it because you think that’s where your audience will be.
Even if the audience that you want spends time in this social network you’ll just be posting for the sake of posting, with at best mediocre content that people wont notice, and in the long run you wont be able to sustain your presence in the platform because you won’t enjoy it — I mean would you spend time on creating something great that you don’t enjoy? Probably not.
Alright now that we got that out of the way here are the top social media platforms that you can get started with and the audience that it caters to..
FACEBOOK -
Facebook is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, and most recognized social media platform to this day. It boasts over 1.59 billion users with 1.04 billion daily active user [Source: TechCrunch] — that is a lot of people using the platform just in one day. So if you are looking for an audience Facebook is definitely a great place to start. The most common age group are between 25–34 making up roughly 29.7% of its users and with roughly the same ratio of male and female users [Source: Zephoria].
TWITTER -
Close to Facebook heels is Twitter, a microblogging platform of sorts that allows its members to broadcast short posts called tweets (consisting of no more than 140 characters). It has over 1.3 billion users with 100 million daily active users [Source: ExpandedRamblings]. The most common demographic that uses twitter is also 25–34, similar to that of Facebook. The typical twitter user is a young woman with an iPhone with 208 followers [Source: BloggingPro].
LINKEDIN -
LinkenIn has positioned itself as the business-oriented social network. Here you’ll find social profiles of individuals that hihglights their work experience as well as all the business connections they may have. It has a more serious tone compared to other social networiking sites but certainly appropriate given the fact that people use the site for business networking reasons as well finding potential job opportunities. The site boasts over 414 million users with 107 million of those coming from the US [Source: ExpandedRamblings]. also 56% of its members are male and 44% are female [Source: Sensible Marketing]. If you are a business professional looking to make business connections then this site is for you.
PINTEREST -
Pinterest is a unique social media platform in which you visually share and discover new interests by ‘pinning’ images or videos to their own and other peoples boards (usually under a common theme). Currently Pinterest has over 100 million monthly active users with its users being predominately female — roughly 81%. The median age for Pinterest users is 40 but the most active of users are below 40 [Source: Omnicore].
INSTAGRAM -
Instagram is a visual sharing social network site owned by Facebook. Instagram is becoming the ‘It Girl’ of the social media networks that now boasts 400 million users and growing. Instagram is definitely popular with millennials, roughly 41% of Instagram usage come from those aged 16–24 and 35% from those aged 24–35 [Source: Econsultancy].
With this information in hand, are you now ready to take on the social media world? What are you’re thoughts about these platforms? Was this helpful?
If you have any comments or questions send them over in the comments section below, I’d love to hear from you. And if you enjoyed this article make sure to hit the ❤ I’d really appreciate it.
About the Author: Jonathan De Leon is the creator of KLT Tv, a YouTube Channel where he shares his knowledge of online marketing ranging from social media marketing to online marketing tools to help with your online presence. If you’d like more online marketing tips, tutorials, or marketing tool recommendations and reviews just like this please come check out his YouTube channel HERE or his blog HERE.
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