
It’s not feasible for most small to medium businesses to maintain a strong presence on every social media platform out there.
Instead, it makes sense to go with the platforms that will give your particular business the best possible results.
The choice of platforms should depend partly on the nature of your business, and partly on which platforms have the highest number of active users and the best advertising options.
Facebook is still the king of social media and it makes sense for all businesses to have a Facebook page at minimum. Not only do they have over 2.2 billion active users, they have the largest blend of demographics of any social media platform.
Facebook’s growth continues, especially outside of the US. Source: Tech Crunch
Their advertising is also easy to use and has great targeting options, meaning you don’t waste ad revenue on users who aren’t interested. Best of all, you can communicate directly with potential customers via Facebook Messenger resulting in more leads.
Twitter is a trickier nut to crack but its strength lies in viral and influencer marketing. Hashtags and mentions allow you to track and participate in trending topics and conversations. With 328 million users and 500 million tweets per day on average, there are plenty of opportunities to join conversations relevant to your industry.
Twitter has a fairly even distribution of users over most age groups. Source: Statista
In terms of demographics, Twitter is also fairly varied. Users are split pretty much 50/50 between male and female, with ages being split fairly evenly as well. Twitter also offers advertising options, so you can promote your tweets, your account and even a trend to gain new followers and leads.
Primarily aimed at professionals, LinkedIn tends to be marketed to business-to-business (B2B) brands but it’s also a powerful platform for freelancers, startups and entrepreneurs. It’s the ideal platform for marketing your brand’s expertise, skills and technical knowledge, whether you are an individual or a company.
92% of B2B marketers favour LinkedIn. Source: State of B2B Digital Marketing 2016
LinkedIn has 575 million users worldwide and many of these are decision makers at their respective companies, making them the perfect target market when promoting your services. Over 50% of all traffic to B2B websites and blogs comes from LinkedIn which is why the platform is so popular with B2B marketers.
Pinterest is a visual-based social media platform and is well suited to brands that wish to promote themselves this way. It also features buyable pins which makes it easy to sell products directly from your Pinterest page. Despite being particularly well suited to industries such as fashion or home décor, all brands can find a way to creatively promote themselves on Pinterest.
Pinterest users vary widely when it comes to location. Source: Sprout Social
Pinterest’s 250 million users are predominantly female, making it a great platform for brands that want to market primarily to women. Within that 81% of users, the demographics are more varied across age, income, education level and location. You also have the option to promote your pins, which makes them visible to a larger audience. 78% of users say they welcome content from brands on their feed.
Instagram’s biggest strength is visually showcasing your brand in an organic, real-time manner. The rise of ephemeral content, live video and user-generated content has also positioned Instagram well for these new marketing trends. Over 250 million users interact with Instagram Stories on a daily basis.
Instagram Stories has seen phenomenal growth since its launch in 2016. Source: Recode
According to BrandWatch, 50% of Instagram’s 800 million active users follow brands and 60% of their users log in daily, making it the second most active social media platform after Facebook. Instagram also lets you message users directly which is great for answering queries and getting new leads.
Social media marketing with Gnu World
At Gnu World Media, we draw on many years of experience and the expertise of a multi-disciplinary team to craft effective social media marketing strategies for small to medium businesses. We understand the importance of developing a social media strategy that delivers on your marketing goals and makes the most of your budget.
We offer packages that cover different aspects of digital marketing, as well as more holistic, “all in one” packages, designed to make the best possible use of available digital marketing channels.
Contact us for more information or to discuss your social media marketing needs.
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