WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNEL IS RIGHT FOR MY BUSINESS?

We all know how important social media is to marketing efforts, but when it comes down to picking social media channels, do you know which ones are best for your line of business? Not every social media channel is right for every business. Taking an in-depth look at each social media network will help you determine which sites are going to be the best fit for your target audience, your business structure and your overall goals. While it might seem tempting to sign up for every single social media site out there and incorporate them all into marketing plan, you will have more success by honing in on a few networks and making them the best you can – as opposed to managing too many, spreading your resources thin and ending up with a handful of mediocre social media profiles instead.

Growing a strong social media presence will take time and resources, specifically human and financial. Keeping everything up-to-date and being consistent with posting content can be more time-consuming and difficult than you think. Make sure you have a strong social media marketing plan in place to help your business grow and make things easier for you.

Facebook:
Facebook is the king of social media networks. Let’s face it. If you were going to sign up for only one social media network, it would likely be Facebook. With 1.44 billion active monthly users and 1.04 billion active daily users, this social media site is the biggest of them all. If it isn’t enough that your audience is already there, Facebook also makes it easy for businesses to market themselves. Setting up a business page on Facebook is easy – you can even add custom call-to-action buttons and tabs to help drive conversion directly from Facebook. And with Facebook ads, you can easily reach a highly targeted audience in an extremely cost-effective way.

The Downside: Facebook used to be the place for the youngest generations to connect; that’s not the case anymore. With the rise of other social media networks, some of the younger generations are bypassing Facebook in favor of networks like Instagram and Snapchat. Post visibility can also be a problem for Facebook. Organic reach of business page posts is small – meaning if you want to get some eyeballs on your content, you’re going to have to pay for it.

Twitter:
When you think of social media for business, Twitter is most likely the second network that comes to mind. This social media network has about 320 million active monthly users. Nearly 40% of Twitter’s users are 18-29 years old, and 50% of users use Twitter daily. This media channel is the hub for communication—a link for people and businesses to interact with each other. Twitter is great for sharing breaking news, keeping up on the latest trends in your industry and developing thought leadership. From a business perspective, it’s a great way to announce promotional events, information regarding your company and the products/services you provide, and instantly respond to any questions or concerns. And unlike Facebook and its visibility issues, every Tweet you send goes directly to your users – no algorithm changes will prevent your audience from seeing your messages.

The Downside: Twitter has some limitations – starting with 140 characters per Tweet. Twitter is not for the longwinded – or the visually driven. Although the social media network has added in additional capabilities such as photo and video sharing, it’s still a text-heavy network. Twitter’s timeliness can at times also be a downfall. Tweets have a short lifespan, so you’ll have to be strategic with when you share your messaging.

Instagram:
This social media site has roughly around 400 million monthly active users. This media platform started out as a photo sharing site, but now has expanded into video-sharing capabilities with filters and other photo editing tools. Instagram is a great social media network for building brand awareness and engaging with your community. Like Twitter, Instagram makes use of hashtags – but unlike Twitter, the character limit per post is much higher, making it easier to utilize hashtags to reach a previously unreached audience. Keep in mind, 70% of users are females between the ages of 18-35. If that fits within your demographic, then this channel could be perfect for you.

The Downside: Instagram is a very simple network, and while it has great potential as a community builder, it’s very limited in terms of delivering marketing messages. The only area to link out in Instagram is through a user’s profile – hyperlinks cannot be included in individual posts, making it difficult to drive users back to your website from this social media network.

Pinterest:
A picture is worth a thousand words, and with this social media channel, it’s true. Like Instagram, Pinterest is a very visual-oriented social media network; where Pinterest has a serious marketing advantage over Instagram is its ability to post high-quality photos or rich media that link back to the source of the photo – making it a good tool for driving traffic. Pinterest offers several other advantages that benefit marketers. The average lifespan of a Pin is much longer than that of a Tweet or Facebook post. The nature of a Pin is to be saved for viewing later. Pinterest also offers advertising functions as well – Promoted Pins, which are essentially native ads on the site, can help your company build brand awareness, create engagement and drive traffic to your website. As of last December, Pinterest has more than 100 million users, more than 80% of whom are female. If your business is heavily reliant on the visual aspect of your products or services, then Pinterest could be right for you.

The Downfall: The disparity between female and male users makes Pinterest a better marketing tool for companies whose target audience is primarily women. The highly visual aspect of Pinterest may not work well for some companies, too.

YouTube:
YouTube has more than 1 billion visitors every month with 100 hundred hours of video uploaded every minute. YouTube is the second-largest search engine following Google. For those who didn’t know, Google owns YouTube – with this being the case, when it comes to boosting your SEO rankings, videos are more than 50 times likely to pop up when you’re searching for something. This competitive media site is great for posting inviting videos that allow sharing capabilities, and most importantly, enjoyment. If videos, such as commercials, are even a small portion of your business, YouTube could be a possibility for your brand.

The Downfall: Videos are significantly time-, resource- and cost-intensive to produce, meaning you’ll have fewer “posts” on this social media channel – or possibly none at all! If you’re not already creating videos as part of your marketing plan, YouTube isn’t a channel you want to consider for its own value.

Deciding which media channels you should invest your time and money in can be a difficult choice to make. As you contemplate each social media channel and its possible value, ask yourself if this media channel will allow you to meet your goals and help your business grow. If you need help figuring out how social can play into your overall marketing strategy, contact us today to learn more about our services.