Should your business be on social media?
No doubt in our minds – not matter what your business is, you should be using social media to connect with your target market online.
The problem most business owners have is figuring out which social media channels they should be on. There are so many options these days it’s hard to choose which ones are the best fit for your business.
Who is your audience and what social media channels do they use?
First and foremost, you need to do some research about your target audience. What social media channels do they use and how do they use them? You need to figure out the kinds of content they share and how they engage on each platform and then you need to ask yourself whether or not your brand has appropriate content to share based on the above questions.
Here are some basic guidelines for the most popular social media channels out there.
Of all the social media channels, Facebook has the most users and the most diversity among its users. Facebook pages for businesses are just kind of expected these days.
Benefits of using Facebook
- The messaging functionality makes it easy for consumers to contact you.
- It’s easy to use.
- There are metrics that help you gauge how you’re doing.
- Facebook ads targeting is very robust and affordable.
- Chances are your target audience (or at least a segment of your target audience) uses it.
- The event posting functionality makes hosting events and communicating with attendees easy to do – and easy to share.
You should use Facebook if…
- You have a wide variety of content to share with your audience.
- You have someone who can monitor reviews, comments and messages.
- Your target audience uses the platform and you have a strategy for reaching them.
- You host lots of events.
Twitter has been around for quite some time. For some, Twitter is confusing but for power users, Twitter is how they keep up with friends, news, events, and brands.
Twitter’s demographic skews slightly male and it’s biggest age range is 18-29 year olds.
Benefits of Using Twitter
- You can follow both brands and individuals and interact with them freely.
- You can join in on big conversations by using hashtags.
- Hashtags help increase your visibility and help your brand be found by a wider audience.
- Twitter ads are gaining in popularity and have become more sophisticated.
- All of Twitter is searchable. This means you can search and listen for keywords to get a better idea of what people are saying about a certain topic or about your brand.
You should use Twitter if…
- You can tweet multiple times a day.
- You want to engage with lots of people and can contribute to larger online conversations.
- You want to do social listening.
Since it’s launch, Pinterest has been growing leaps and bounds. It’s an excellent platform for retailers, the food, wedding, fashion, and beauty industry, or anyone who has lots of visual content to share. Pinterest skews towards affluent women in the mid 20 -late 30 range.
Benefits of using Pinterest
- Pins and boards are searchable.
- Rich Pins help you embed important product, purchasing or other detailed information.
- Your pins can link directly back to your website.
- Pinterest users are taken through the Customer Journey without even knowing it.
You should use Pinterest if…
- You have lots of visuals to share
- You are a retailer
- You can share products, DIY ideas, projects, or how-tos
This platform is strictly business and is a very powerful networking tool. In our opinion, if you’re a business owner, you should be on LinkedIn at least as an individual.
Benefits of using LinkedIn
- There is a robust contact section where you can keep track of all of your contacts, keep notes, and even keep records of recent email conversations.
- LinkedIn ads are great for B2B companies.
- You can search for people within certain industries, areas, and companies and see immediately if you know anyone connected to those people.
You should use LinkedIn if…
- You are a professional.
- You need to network.
Instagram has recently surpassed Twitter in user numbers. It is has a high millennial demographic but is also used by the 30-50 year olds.
Instagram is simple: it’s just pictures. If you have visuals to share, Instagram might be a good platform for you. Instagrammers like to see artistic, unique, and unusual images. They want and expect to see a brand’s artistic side – or the side no one else sees: behind the scenes.
If you can do that, provide compelling copy in your descriptions and use hashtags that will help you be found by a wider audience, Instagram is a great fit for you.
While we didn’t go through all of the social media platforms, these are the channels we are asked about the most. Want to know more about the demographics behind each social media channel? Check out Pew Research’s Social Media Report.
