When you first launched your business, you may have been told that in order to see real results with your social media marketing, you must have a presence on every single platform.
Whilst this can certainly help to maximise reach, for many busy business owners, maintaining a quality presence on multiple platforms just isn’t feasible. What’s more, struggling to create, post, and manage content on 6+ channels may actually be harming your results.
So, what can you do?
As is the case with any aspect of digital marketing, the most important thing is to focus on targeting the right people, not the most people, with your social content.
And in order to target the right people, you must post to the platform (or platforms) where your target audience most often ‘hangs out’ online.
To help you work this out, let’s break down the 4 main platforms used by businesses…
Facebook –
With 2.85 billion monthly active users worldwide as of September 2021, Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform. According to Pew Research Center, 69% of US adults use Facebook, which is significantly higher than the next most popular platform, Instagram, on 40%.
Facebook is one of the most comprehensive online advertising platforms thanks to its high number of active users and vast range of features. This includes (but isn’t limited to):
- Sharing plain text, photo, and video content
- Creating and joining relevant groups
- Buying and selling products (both through ‘shops’ and marketplace)
- Setting up events and fundraisers
- Posting jobs
Being a multifaceted platform makes Facebook one of the best places for businesses looking to generate leads, build relationships, and ultimately gain new customers.
Bear in mind though when mapping out future social media marketing strategies, Facebook’s engagement is experiencing a gradual decline, with people spending less and less time on the platform than they use to.
In a nutshell: Best described as an ‘all-rounder’, Facebook is a must-have for your small business regardless of your target demographic (though we wouldn’t spend too much time creating content specifically for this platform).
Think of your Facebook business page as an online brochure, where your target audience can discover more about your business and can easily find relevant contact information.
Instagram –
Instagram is a strong visual marketing channel for brands and boasts an impressive 1.39 billion monthly active users.
Once described simply as a ‘square photo-sharing app with filters’, it’s become so much more than this in recent years, with the platform leaning into shopping, entertainment, and video.
Instagram’s ability to allow users to ‘follow’ hashtags makes it easy to put your brand in front of people outside of your own following, and the likes of influencer marketing have made the platform a serious means of advertising for businesses.
Despite the total number of US adults with an Instagram account being significantly lower than Facebook, this isn’t the case when looking specifically at the 18-29 category. Within this demographic, 70% of adults use Facebook, but 71% use Instagram.
This is hardly surprising given that young people, often described as ‘digital natives’, prefer visual content (which can be processed 60,000 times faster than text).
In a nutshell: Whilst Instagram is often considered to be best suited to businesses selling a product directly to a young target demographic, its position as a strong visual platform means it can also work well if your target audience falls outside of this category.
If you have the capacity to take or create strong images or graphics as part of your business, Instagram can work for you (e.g. graphic designers).
LinkedIn –
Despite only 28% of US adults using LinkedIn, this figure jumps to 50% when looking at people with a salary of $75,000+, and up again to 51% when looking at college graduates. This indicates that LinkedIn for businesses and professionals.
Launched in 2003 (one year before Facebook and seven years before Instagram), LinkedIn is for professional networking and career development, with user profiles resembling a CV.
According to the platform’s own marketing material, members from every Fortune 500 company have profiles, making LinkedIn best suited to companies looking to establish themselves as trusted leaders in their field.
In a nutshell: LinkedIn is a must-have for B2B marketing. It can also be useful for B2C companies too though, especially for recruitment, business development, and networking purposes.
X (Previously Twitter) –
Set up as a microblogging social media site (hence the 280-character limit per tweet), X (previously Twitter) is a much more fast-paced and concise way to connect compared with some of the other platforms.
This could explain why so many more people aged 18-29 use the site (42%) compared with those 50+ (25%).
Whilst a post on LinkedIn could see engagement 3 weeks after posting, you’re unlikely to get much engagement on a Tweet after about 3 hours. For this reason, journalists and publishers who tweet ‘breaking news’ and their opinions on current affairs prefer this platform.
Other professions and industries also use X, with many companies using it as their designated customer service platform.
In a nutshell: X demands quick reactions from users, so create content for this platform with this in mind.
Despite being most popular with a younger demographic, this shouldn’t be the main reason you choose to post to X. Instead, think about whether your target audience likes to be the first in the know. If so, X is for you.
Choosing your social media platform
Choosing what social media platform you use for your business is no easy task, especially when there are so many to choose from (we haven’t even touched on Youtube or TikTok).
However, the key to choosing lies in fully understanding your target audience. If you need help with this, why not download our free persona profile template? This 3-page document works to simplify the identification of your client persona by encouraging you to think about key demographics and buyer behaviours.
And if you’re still struggling after that, reach out to the 10X Marketing team who will be happy to give you further advice.
By downloading our free Ultimate Social Media Guide, you’ll get a list of the advantages and disadvantages of the top six platforms, as well as our list of helpful content ideas for you to start taking advantage of.
