Choosing the right Social Media Channel
“Right now, with social networks and other tools on the internet, all of these 500 million people have a way to say what they are thinking and their voice be heard” — Mark Zuckerberg
Checking your Facebook account or Twitter feed soon you wake up has become muscle memory. Mobile phones are the favourite bedside companions for all of us, more so for the digital natives — Millennials and Gen Z.
Being a Start-Up or SME leader, apart from figuring out the daily operations, and building a world-class product/service, you also need to market the business. After all — there is no point to the good work you are doing if your audience does not know you or avail your product/service. Isn’t it?
Why Social Media for start-ups?
As a Start-up, you are very cautious about your spend; by spending, we mean both — Time and Money. And, unless you have a large capital to start with (which more often than not you will invest in building your product and better your service), you cannot afford pocket burning traditional marketing.
While you network and spread the awareness about your business, it is unthinkable to dodge the social media and yet reach your global audience. Here are 3 reasons:
1. Reach: In 2017, 71% of Internet users were social network users. This number is set to grow and estimated that in 2019, there will be around 2.77 billion social network users around the globe (Source Statista). No one is willing to lose an audience of this size! Additionally, with the right targetting you can create your niche which can be otherwise impossible to do physically.
Social Media penetration by Region — IMAGE
2. Engagement: Feedbacks, opinions, thoughts, requirement statements — all this and more is needed to validate the quality of your product or service. Imagine getting all these almost real time from all over the world and thereby improving your offering to drive sales. Yes, Social Media engagement is your answer.
3. Cost Efficient: Social Media Marketing is arguably the best bang for your buck, more so when it comes to allocating your ad spend and in comparison to traditional marketing channels, which require substantial funds to get started with. What’s even better is that the costs can be tailored exactly to your budget. This makes it much more accessible to startups and SME.
Leveraging the Social Media channels — from Facebook to Reddit — is your golden ticket. Okay, so you are convinced and now want to get social.
How to choose the best social media networks for your start-ups?
Before you take the leap, it is equally important to gauge Where is your audience? Which channels are ideal for you to be on and reach your potential target market? How much time do you have? From our experience, every marketer has limited time for social media marketing, so its best to focus your efforts on the fastest growing social network where your target market resides. Also, of course being an early adopter of a social media channel helps is securing a large follower base easily.
From Facebook to YouTube, here’s a look at how you can find the best social media platforms for your business.
Although Facebook is the most popular social media channel and also the fastest growing, India (270 Million) followed by United States (240 Million), Indonesia (140 Million) make its largest active user base. If targeting China, Facebook should certainly not be your choice of preferred social channel.
57% of users are between the ages of 18–34. So, for companies whose target demography is under 18 years old, you may want to look for alternate channels. You can however just have a “company business page” with contact information in order to have a presence. It is best not to invest in time and manpower to publish new posts regularly on Facebook in this scenario.
Instagram is seen more of a brand-building social channel and has great reach with 800 Million active users on the app. The downside, individual posts are not associated with any clickable links. So unless you spend on Instagram advertising, the only clickable link within Instagram is on your profile page. This particularly makes driving traffic to your website a challenge.
Also, with the recent algorithm change, the user feed is not chronological. It is rather determined through an algorithm by Instagram, which similar to the Facebook’s algorithm, not many understand. Hence you as a marketer have less control and do not know how many people will be exposed to your posts.
Hashtags are popular on Instagram similar to Twitter with the most popular ones being #LOVE #INSTAGOOD #FASHION #PHOTOOFTHEDAY.
If you are in fashion or food or art, showcase your talent with post beautiful images or videos, go for it.
Microsoft owned LinkedIn has over half a billion users and is definitely the largest professional network. 40% of its active user base use LinkedIn at least once a day.
LinkedIn is the go-to social network to search for newer talents and has 46 million students and recent college graduates. If you are marketing for a Headhunting firm, it’s imperative to be on LinkedIn.
Geography wise, over 70% of LinkedIn users are outside of US. After US, India, Brazil, Great Britain and Canada have the highest number of Linkedin users.
Snapchat
60% of Snapchat users are under the age of 24 in US, thus making it the most popular social networks of teenagers in the region.
If you are targeting the older generation, Snapchat will be an unlikely choice. However, it’s a “must be present” platform for businesses targeting millennial.
As a marketer if you are creating unique video content, behind the scenes footage, new collections, or conducting interviews with Influencers and prominent figures, you can capitalize on this free marketing opportunity and gain a loyal following.
Targeting women? Make sure you are on Pinterest. With a 70–30 ratio of Women to Men, Pinterest presence is a must for female-focused companies. Having said that 50% of Pinterest’s new sign-ups are men.
Pinterest reaches 83% of all women 25–54 years-old in the U.S. That’s more than Instagram, Snap and Twitter.
Pinterest has a good track record when it comes to conversions specially with the Pinterest buy button, you can make it easier than ever to make a purchase with a click of a button. One in two users have made a purchase after spotting a Promoted Pin.
YouTube
Beginning of the year we predicted every business needs to have a Video marketing strategy for 2018, thus as a marketer you cannot ignore YouTube as your go-to marketing channel to create engagement using brand videos, new launch and product demos.
People watch YouTube in 88 countries and 76 languages around the world. With a global audience of 1.5 billion viewers and more than three quarters of Americans hooked on to YouTube, it is second only to Facebook in reach.
Demography wise, YouTube is more popular with teenage boys with 85% of boys 13–17-years old watching YouTube daily, versus 70% of girls.
Managing multiple social media channels and keeping up with the ever-changing landscape and algorithm is a full-time job, but worth the time and effort to drive engagement and build your brand.
Figuring the best two to three social media channels befitting your company’s target audience and driving regular engagement with those is far more productive than creating a presence on all platforms and getting mediocre results.
Talk to us to drive your social media strategy and save time by automating the regular activity.
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