One of the most crucial high-level necessities for reaching audiences in this modern age is social media.
It is not easy to pinpoint the most appropriate social networks for a business because social networks have mushroomed almost everywhere and in great numbers.
Though dwindling choices may be strategically narrowed down, you can enhance your efforts by fetching maximum return on investment.
The article, therefore, gives a step-by-step guide to social media platform selection.
It instead identifies its audience, defines the objectives, and maybe the platforms that are best suited for the brand’s objectives rather than focusing on social networks alone.
Step 1: Identify Your Audience
Any successful social media strategy begins with knowing your target audience.
Knowing whom you are talking to will greatly simplify your decision.
To construct a vivid image of your audience, you will first need to address the following questions:
Who are my targets?
Who does your business need to communicate with? Is it necessary to communicate your business to the masses, adults, kids, or some kind of age group?
Who’s your typical customer? Think in demographics, interests, and behaviors.
How old are they? Age groupers tend to favour different platforms.
Are they male or female? Gender can influence the type of content and type of platforms they prefer.
Income level and education. These dictate what the customer will be interested in buying or using.
What are they interested in other than your product and service? That will be the content of interest to find.
To answer these questions, a more detailed profile of your audience can be generated, and then target the right spots where they are most active.
Step 2: Define Your Goals
Now that you have identified your target audience, you can set your social media objectives.
Although the primary goal for almost all businesses is to make sales, the one reason to utilize social media is brand awareness, which means increasing the presence and recognition of your brand for potential customers.
Customer Engagement: You are nurturing relationships with your audience through interactive content.
Customer Service: Leverage social media to answer customer questions and complaints.
For example, Netflix has leveraged the Twitter handle @Netflixhelps to answer customer service issues.
This channel would save the company lines, but it is also a hub where happy customers could share their love for the brand.
As you think through your social media goals, consider that the use of traditional and non-traditional engagement techniques may be what your brand needs.
Step 3: Finding Your Audience
Now that you know who your audience is and what you want to achieve, it’s time for you to discover where they spend their time.
That is pretty straightforward: you need to find out the demographics for each platform and statistics on user engagement.
Take a look at a breakdown of some big social media platforms for an idea of where your audience might sit:
More than 2.7 billion users across the globe highlight the immense potential for brands on Facebook, but for people to realize how people use the platform will always matter.
People generally log onto Facebook to check their relationships and reconnect with friends.
It is, therefore, a superb way to keep your existing customers happy.
Pros: Brilliant for community building and customer loyalty.
Cons: It is challenging to target new audiences due to algorithms.
The last step to deciding to apply Facebook to your brand would also depend on how ready you are to get new customers or maintain relations.
If you belong to the latter, you would be interested in Facebook.
What makes Twitter stand out is its real-time updates and trending conversations.
This is one piece of equipment that will enhance the awareness of a brand.
For example, using a particular hashtag enables the brands to track what people are talking about.
Pros: Great for active, real-time conversations and monitoring trends.
Cons: Character limits can limit the depth of the message.
Twitter could be the way to go for brands trying to drive live conversations or get the word out about upcoming events.
Pinterest is the electronic version of the bulletin board where users can “pin” images and videos.
The board tends to have mostly women and works well with images that should be seen, like recipes, DIY projects, and fashion ideas.
Pros: Such high business conversion rates, especially in retail.
Cons: It heavily relies on strong visual content to attract viewers.
If your brand is in lifestyle, home decor, or fashion, this could easily be a goldmine for driving traffic to your website.
YouTube
YouTube is the second-largest video-sharing site globally, with 2.3 billion users.
It is also a vast search engine where many people look up the “How To” type of information.
Businesses that have worthwhile educational or entertaining video content can make a success of this.
Pros: Great reach and engagement opportunities through video content.
Cons: It requires a commitment to high-quality video production.
The service business or tutorial service providers will find YouTube to be a base place to raise brand awareness and produce quality and valuable content.
LinkedIn is a professional website and thus more suitable for B2B businesses since it has the most significant users in the 30-49 age bracket, networking, and professional development.
Pros: This service is good for B2B lead generation and professional networking.
Cons: Not that suitable for consumer-focused brands.
To the B2B space or talent acquisition, LinkedIn is a must-have on your social media mix.
Instagram is a visually-driven network that is witnessing massive growth in popularity.
Brands with sectors in food, beauty, and fashion can prosper on Instagram as it has an undertone of beautiful graphics.
Pros: It has a high engagement rate and potential for image storytelling.
Cons: It requires quality and excellent visuals and should be updated frequently.
This platform is handy for brands targeted at youth.
TikTok
This is the newest platform to hit the world and is mainly used by users who like short-form video content.
Most consumers are the younger generations, specifically for the creative industries such as art, fashion, and food businesses, where clients can tell a story through video content.
Pros: A rapidly growing platform with high potential for engagement.
Cons: Content has to be highly creative and engaging enough to cut through the noise.
If your target audience is Gen Z or younger millennials, TikTok is an excellent opportunity to introduce them to your brand in a fun, engaging way.
Putting It All Together
Now that you have understood more about each of the above social media platforms and who your target audience is, you can make some informed decisions about where to place your efforts.
As a quick recap of the process, here is the:
- Knowing Your Audience: Know who your customers are, their demographics, interests, behaviours, etc.
- Knowing Your Goals: What are you trying to get from having a social media presence awareness, customer engagement, or more?
- Research Platform Audience: Examine the profile of where your audience spends most of their time and how they interact with any content on each platform.
Conclusion
Every social networking site has its niche level, so it is important to choose the right ones that would work well for your brand and reap the maximum returns of an effective marketing campaign.
It all boils down to understanding the dynamics of your target audience, clearly defining goals, and studying the demographics of each platform.
Remember, it’s not about being on every platform but working on those that will yield a great return on investment.
Through this targeted approach, it is possible to create a robust social media platform that engages your audience toward the success of your brand.
FAQs
How will I select the social media most appropriate for my business?
To discover the best-suited social media platform for your business, you can begin by researching your target audience’s demographics, interests, and online behaviours. You must consider which kind of content interests your target audience most and where they spend their time. Examine every platform’s user demographics and average engagement statistics to determine which best suits your brand’s objectives. For instance, if your target age group is the younger generation, you can use Instagram and TikTok much more than you would for LinkedIn, which makes sense primarily for B2B interactions.
Do you have to be on all platforms?
While being present on multiple platforms can increase your presence, it’s not always necessary. Quality still prevails. Rather than distributing those resources across many platforms, spending time and energy on a few prime platforms will yield the most activity for your target audience. Try to choose those platforms that will help you meet your objectives and connect with your market at its best.
What content should I share on which social networks?
The type of content you would create on which medium will depend on the specific characteristics and preferences of the users on that platform. Therefore, whereas Instagram and Pinterest mainly thrive on high-quality pictures and short videos, Twitter is excellent for a short update and real-time discussions. Articles about professions, news of specific industries, and much other content to be used while networking will fit best on LinkedIn. Matching your content with what type suits each platform will lead to much more robust engagement and effectiveness.
How often should I post to gain maximum engagement via social media?
Optimum posting frequency varies with the channel and with the audience engagement level. A general benchmark is possibly three to five posts per week for Facebook or Instagram, though arguably more frequent updates should be considered for Twitter because of its fast-moving nature and because, well, average. Quality will, of course; all your posts should add value to your audience. You need to monitor engagement metrics frequently and adjust your posting schedule as they best relate to your target audience.
Which metrics should I track to gauge my social media performance?
Suppose you want to evaluate your social media performance correctly. In that case, you need to monitor critical metrics about engagement rates, including likes, shares, comments, reach, impressions, and click-through rates. Even if looking for a sales driver, track follower growth and conversion rates. Each platform has analytics tools through which you can measure such metrics and adjust your way of doing things according to what suits you best.
How can I get the audience to participate with the posts on my social media?
Here are a few strategies to improve your engagement on your social media posts:
- Create exciting and relevant content that resonates with your audience.
- Use tempting visuals.
- Evoke interaction by asking for opinions or asking them to take a specific action.
