Choosing the best social media platforms for your small business
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It's 2021, and social media isn't going away. In fact, this year has seen a 5% increase from last with 3.78 billion social media users worldwide.
This is great news for small business owners looking to find the best place to connect with their target audience. But how do you choose which social media platform is right for you? Understanding the top social media platforms, building a social media marketing strategy, and identifying your target audience will allow you to be successful in choosing the best social channels for your small business.
"Social media provides targeting capability, as well as reach and scale, at a lower cost than almost all other marketing channels," said Abdul Muhammad, chief digital officer, and partner at rbb Communications, in a previous Business News Daily interview. "People are on social media all day, every day – brands must go where the people are." If you're considering getting your business onto social media, however, it's important to consider which platforms are right for your business and will provide the most value.
The goal of this blog is not to provide you with one way to use social media as a marketing tool. Instead, we're going to give you the skinny on each social media platform and guide you in choosing the platforms that fit the needs of your businesses.
Let's get started.
Wait. What is social media marketing?
Glad you asked.
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to build your brand, increase sales and drive website traffic.
This involves running social media advertisements, listening to and engaging with your followers, and publishing content on a consistent basis.
Social media has the potential to be one of the most profitable channels for marketing. However, social media marketing is not a "one size fits all" solution to grow your business.
Don't panic! That's why we're here.
Why do I need social media for my small business?
You've probably asked yourself this question before. Simply put: social media allows businesses to connect with your current customer base and potential customers in a personalized, cost-effective way. Social media platforms create an additional opportunity for customers to reach out with questions, comments or complaints, access your website, and in some cases, make a transaction. It's a powerful tool!
Focus on providing valuable, relevant content, developing meaningful relationships, and maintaining an active presence online. Keep this up and you'll be on track to having long-lasting relationships and loyal customers in no time.
Start by Defining Your Customers' Needs and Your Goals
Sure, you want to make more money. That's a given. But what's your primary goal in utilizing social media as a part of your marketing efforts? This can be answered by learning what your customers want from your social media posts? Align your goals with your clients' needs and you will grow rapidly. (How To Identify And Research Your Target Market In 2021—For Free)
What does your business do and who are your customers? Let's say you sell luxury watches and your research shows your customers are executives on Wall Street. You may not want to start a TikTok channel with silly clock-themed dances or a YouTube channel dedicated to the technique of repairing old watches. While both of those ideas would be incredibly fun to watch (pun intended) the executives might not be all that interested. However, if you set up a TikTok channel dedicated to fashion tips or a YouTube channel where you interview successful executives to find out what makes them tick (sorry, I'll stop now) you may find more success.
Three is the magic number.
When building your social media strategy, here are three things to keep in mind:
1) Don't spread yourself too thin
Remember, you don't have to be on every social media platform to be successful. This may seem obvious but many businesses get carried away with choosing too many social media platforms.
And by doing so, they end up spreading themselves thin across multiple platforms instead of focusing on one platform.
When you limit the number of social media platforms you use, you're able to focus on each individual channel and make sure that you’re providing value to your followers.
"But can't I just post the same content on every social media platform?" No... and yes, kind of. Let me explain. We will often suggest to our clients to repurpose the content they have created so that they don't spread themselves too thin. TikTok and Instagram Reels are essentially the same things, for all intent and purposes.
However, you wouldn't want to post a TikTok video un-edited on Facebook or YouTube. For starters, the recommended aspect ratio of the video is different for each of these platforms. Also, recommended video length is different for each platform.
So, you shouldn't just create a TikTok video and then share it over to every other social platform. Instead, you should re-imagine the content by either adding new elements on the screen, changing the aspect ratio, or re-filming the idea completely.
We suggest limiting yourself to 2-4 main social media platforms.
2) Choose a platform-specific to your content type
Choosing a platform that aligns with the content you intend to share is going to make your life a whole lot easier. Do you primarily share written blogs, articles, and guides? If so, Facebook is a great place to start. Do you have frequent, short updates that need to be shared throughout the day? Twitter! What if you only have images of your products or services? Instagram. On average, Instagram images receive 23 percent more engagement than Facebook images (businessofapps.com).
Success on social media is dependent on the success of the content you post. Producing effective, high-performing content can be challenging for small businesses, but sharing your content to the right platform that is specific to your content type will increase your overall engagement.
3) Follow your target audience.
If you know who your ideal client/customer is then choose a platform that best suits their needs. For example, if you sell products to women between 25 - 35 years old, Pinterest might work better than Facebook because its users tend to be younger. If you sell products to men over 50 years old, LinkedIn would be a great fit.
The key is knowing your audience. Once you understand where they hangout, you can tailor your message accordingly.
The key thing to remember when selecting a social network is to select one that aligns well with your brand identity and provides the most benefit to your company. The platform where your target audience already resides will provide you with the best results.
With over 1.6 billion daily active users, Facebook remains one of the largest networks online today.
Users ages 25–34 years are the largest demographic. It also offers an array of tools that allow marketers to track their performance across multiple metrics such as likes, shares, comments, clicks and conversions. The network also lets advertisers create custom audiences based on specific criteria like age or gender.
Most studies agree that posting on Facebook once or twice per day is sufficient. If you are not posting at least three times per week on your page then it is likely that people will stop visiting and engaging with the content of your page.
With 1.3 billion daily active users, Instagram is one of the fastest-growing networks among millennials. Instagram is a visual platform best for businesses with strong visual content, that catches viewers' attention.
There are many ways businesses can promote their services and products on the site. Between Instagram Live to Instagram Stories, there are countless combinations of tools to use.
These features make this Social Media Platform perfect for businesses who want to connect directly with customers through visual communication.
While Instagram hasn't been around as long as some of these other social media apps, it still boasts an impressive number of daily active users. If you want to use Instagram for marketing purposes, consider creating an account dedicated solely to promoting your company.
For example, if you own a restaurant, you may decide to post pictures of food items available on your menu. You might even share behind-the-scenes photos of how your kitchen operates.
You can also follow popular accounts within your industry and see what content types they share regularly. Then try sharing similar content yourself to start building relationships with content creators within your industry.
Twitter was originally designed as a microblogging site, but now many companies use it to communicate news updates, product announcements, and customer support information. While Twitter may seem like just another social networking channel, there’s actually quite a bit of power behind its 280 character limit. With nearly 300 million monthly active users, Twitter allows companies to communicate instantly with consumers via short messages called tweets.
The average lifespan of an individual tweet is around 40 minutes, which means if you're going to use this platform, make sure you schedule tweets ahead of time. OR that you are ready to tweet at a moment's notice.
LinkedIn is primarily used for professional purposes, but it can still work for small businesses looking to build relationships within their industry, or if you're a B2B company. LinkedIn gives you access to millions of professionals around the world, including executives from Fortune 500 companies.
Similar to Pinterest, LinkedIn is another powerful tool for connecting with potential clients and building relationships. The difference between these two sites? While LinkedIn focuses primarily on professional networking, Pinterest is geared toward home decorating and lifestyle topics. Both networks allow you to create boards filled with photos and graphics related to your industry, but each one serves its own specific purpose.
YouTube
YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google. With more than 2 billion monthly active users watching nearly 3 hours each and every single day, YouTube is no longer just another way to share short clips. Nowadays, it's a powerful marketing tool that helps brands build awareness, engage audiences, and generate leads. Better yet, people of all ages use YouTube!
There are two main ways to leverage YouTube for your business: through paid advertising and organic search results. Paid ads appear alongside, before, during, or after videos uploaded by other channels or third-party advertisers. Organic search results show up whenever someone searches for keywords associated with your brand.
The best part about using YouTube for organic marketing is that it doesn't cost anything!
TikTok
TikTok may not seem like much at first glance — just another app where you record yourself lip-syncing songs into a phone camera. But there’s actually quite a bit going on behind the scenes here. It was recently reported by Business Insider that TikTok had over 1 billion downloads across all platforms, which makes it the most downloaded mobile application ever created. That means its potential market size is massive!
If you're looking to get started on TikTok, we recommend starting off by making videos that showcase your personality. Being overly self-promotional on this platform won't build you a loyal following, so be prepared to take the approach of entertaining first. (adobe.com) This helps build trust among potential followers.
Once you gain traction, you'll find yourself getting invited to join groups where people discuss topics related to your niche. From here, you can begin sharing links to articles, blog posts, products, etc., so long as those items relate to your niche.
If you've ever visited Pinterest, then you know why it has become one of the most successful visual content sharing sites online today. A majority of users say they discover new brands on the site every week, meaning Pinterest is a great way to increase your brand's exposure. (businessnewsdaily.com)
Pinterest allows businesses to create visually appealing images that encourage consumers to click through to websites where they can watch tutorials, read blogs, or purchase products.
However, it's unlike any other social media platform. This is because it's "technically" not social. Your goal is not to start a conversation or chat directly with your audience. It's to convince people to pin your content. When you are creating content, create something your audience would want to "save for later". In the most basic sense, that's what a pin is. Pins are practically immortal, unlike posts on other social media sites. They have the potential to show up in a user's feed weeks, months, or even years after you share the original post.
To be successful on Pinterest, share quality images, provide the information your audience will find valuable, and ALWAYS link pins back to your website.
What's Next?
Now that you have an idea of what social media platforms work best for your company, start planning how you want to use them moving forward. You should also consider creating a strategy around when you plan to publish new content.
Next, start building relationships with other businesses that share similar values and goals. These connections are invaluable resources that can lead to future collaborations down the road. As you continue to grow your business, remember to stay focused on your overall goal: increasing sales while decreasing costs.
By implementing the tips above, you'll be able to achieve both of these objectives simultaneously.
Go forth and conquer! It's not as scary as it sounds. Trust us!
Avery
