Which Social Media Marketing Platform is Right for My Business?

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As a business owner or marketer, you don’t have infinite time and resources to be everything to everyone. You can’t afford to be on every social site, but you can’t afford to ignore them either. It’s more important to choose the sites that work for you, your business goals, and your customer wants – and then to engage on them well.

In this article, I’ll give a comprehensive overview of the 5 major social sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest) with tips on how to best use them.

Before we start, I’d like to make it clear that the sectors I’m naming are not the only sectors that will work for those social media marketing platforms, nor are those social media marketing platforms the only sectors that will work for those sectors.

There’s an exception to every rule for every platform. For instance, the Brimfield, Ohio Police Department has 135,000 Likes on Facebook (13 times the population of the city of Brimfield, Ohio). Can we learn something from the story? Yes. Does it mean your business will find the same success? I’m afraid not.

I’m going to back up every assertion I make with statistics, but even so, feel free to disagree in the comment section below. In fact, I encourage it!

Facebook


Demographics:

  • Facebook is still, far and away, the most popular social media marketing platform
  • It boasts 1.59 billion worldwide users
  • 73% of the US adult population
  • The most evenly-distributed demographics of any platform

While not the best platform for sales generation (in my opinion Pinterest has that honor, as long as your brand fits its niche) it is definitely the best platform for increasing awareness of your brand. The sheer reach of your brand’s content on Facebook makes it a must-use.

The targeting capabilities in the Facebook advertising tool have been changing the way we advertise online. Because users put their personal detail onto the platform, we can target based on those details. Imagine targeting your ad not just by basic demographics, but by job title, the age of a user’s kids, the fact that they recently returned from holiday. The list goes on.

Something to be aware of, however, is the dramatic generational changes happening at the top. A study by PiperJaffray of over 5,000 teenagers found that the number who consider Facebook the most important social media marketing platform has fallen 10% in the past year. The well-documented decrease in popularity has been widely put down to the increase of parents on Facebook – a fact that, understandably, has terrified 17-year-olds everywhere.

So keep an eye on Facebook if your market is teens! I’d recommend you put more time into Snapchat, Instagram and Kik for that particular target audience.

Which businesses should be on Facebook?

All of them. Facebook is the only social media marketing platform that you need to be on no matter what field your business is in. We at Wishpond have, over the past year or so, taken an in-depth look at Facebook for different industries. If you’re just wondering about how to generate more Facebook Likes for your business, check out our comprehensive guide.

4 Top Tip(s):

  • Facebook Posts with a photo generate 120% more engagement than simple text.
  • Posts shorter than 250 characters have 60% more engagement than longer posts
  • Thursday and Friday have 18% better engagement than other days of the week
  • Question posts have double the engagement of non-question posts

P.S. Wishpond’s Facebook Contest Apps make it easy to create sweepstakes, photo contests, Instagram hashtag contests & more. Looking for inspiration? Check out 25 Creative Facebook Contest Ideas You Can Use Today.

Twitter


Demographics:

  • Despite being arguably the second-most recognized social media marketing platform out there, Twitter is fourth in usage
  • 230 million monthly active users
  • Delivers 1 billion unique visitors to websites via embedded links

A great part of Twitter for business is that its users have a higher tendency to Follow brands there than they do on any other platform. Users are on the site to keep up-to-date about what’s going on, which is why celebrities and musicians do so well. In fact, so many Twitter-ers are there to listen and learn that only 60% are actually actively posting!

The majority of users who follow a brand on Twitter do so to take advantage of offers, contests and exclusive discounts. Keep this in mind when pushing your products. Instead, try pushing the deals you’re offering.

Which businesses should be on Twitter?

I recommend Twitter to all SaaS companies, marketing companies, sports-related businesses, and all news organizations. Here’s why: Twitter, more than any other platform, is inextricably tied to in-the-moment developments. If your sector or business is based around things that are happening now, you need to be on Twitter.

Generate interest in your brand by being the go-to source on Twitter for developments in your sector. Pay close attention to new technologies, case studies and reports, news events that will affect you

Twitter is also essential for relationship-building with influencers and communication with your customer-base. This makes it an important platform for marketers from every industry.

Top Tip: Since Twitter has added inline images, it’s become pretty apparent that including a picture in your Tweets increases engagement. Social media marketing platform Buffer has seen an 89% increase in Favorites with images over those without, and a 150% increase in Retweets.

As far as posting times go…

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Note the spike during the morning commute (when everybody on public transit is bored) and the fall between 6 and 7pm, when everyone is eating dinner. Thanks to BufferApp for the research!

Instagram


Demographics:

  • Has now exceeded the user base of Twitter with over 400 million active users a month
  • Instagram user base is skewed towards a younger demographic
  • Instagram has a user engagement rate of 4.21%, far exceeding Facebook and Twitter
  • A whopping 40 million photos are shared on Instagram everyday from a user based that is 75% outside the U.S.

The most important factor for Instagram marketers are the age demographics. If your business targets a younger demographic of 18-29 then Instagram is where you need to be.

Which businesses should be on Instagram?

Image-friendly businesses like restaurants, clothes and fashion, food, architecture, technology, designers, etc.

Because of the dominance of the 18-29 age group on Instagram, businesses with that target market should also be on the site.

Remember that Instagram users are all amateur-photographers, so you can’t just snap an image of your newest dessert and expect it to go viral. Put time and energy into your images and you’ll get far better engagement than otherwise.

If you’re struggling for content for your Instagram profile, just think about making your business look awesome. Show the fun stuff you’re doing, how exciting and innovative your office is. Also pay close attention to current events and holidays, as Instagram (like Twitter) is closely involved into what’s trending.

Top Tip: User-generated content gets better engagement than content generated by businesses (and takes some of the strain off social-media managers as well…) Why not try out an Instagram photo contest to generate leads and create a catalog of great images you can use down the line?

Pinterest


Demographics :

  • Pinterest has, in the past year, vaulted its way to the #3 spot as most popular social media marketing platform
  • 21% of all US adults using it.
  • 84% of those users are female – which makes it the second most popular site by far for this demographic.

Pinterest’s demographics are interesting not just because it’s so astoundingly female-dominated, Pinterest also has the second-highest percentage of internet users in the 50,000+/year income bracket, and 34% of Pinterest users have a household income of 100,00+.

In fact, Pinterest has far and away the best ROI for those businesses that fit its demographic base. 70% of Pinterest users use the platform to get inspiration on what to buy (compared to, for instance, 17% on Facebook). So, if your business fits – your business should most definitely sit.

A report from Piqora in November found that the average Pin has a real-world value of 78 cents – making it by far the most valuable social media action that users can take.

The same report found that each pin drove, on average, two website visits and six page-views. This is especially interesting given that last year jewellery retailer Boticca found that Pinterest traffic to their website spent, on average, more than twice as much as traffic from Facebook ($180 vs $85). And Sephora went further, saying Pinterest users spent 15x as much as Facebook users.

Pinterest is perfect for ecommerce businesses, as not only is a pin worth more than any other social endorsement, they stay influential for a substantially longer period of time. This is because, with Pinterest, users simply keep scrolling down their search results (as the page is never-ending).

For example, let’s say someone types in ‘hosting ideas’ in Pinterest’s search. Because Pinterest’s algorithm is almost completely un-anticipatable, your product will get engagement if it matches those search-words and is awesome. That’s it. Those are the only requirements.

Which businesses should be on Pinterest?

Fashion, photographers, jewellers, home-hardware stores (DIY). The female-dominated, image-dominated facts of Pinterest make it easy for those brands which naturally lend-themselves in that direction, and very difficult for those brands which don’t.

Top Tip: Brands with rich pin integration have a 82% higher repin to pin ratio than normal pins. Rich pins are brand pins with more information than normal pinned images. Most businesses looking to get sales from Pinterest will be most interested in product pins, which include more business links, the price, availability, and where you can purchase the item.

LinkedIn


Demographics:

  • The platform touts itself as the ‘professional’ social media marketing platform, and in that respect it’s accurate with 414 million users
  • 38% of internet users with an income of more than $75k are on the platform.
  • 79% of LinkedIn users are aged 35 or older, making it the oldest platform in this list.
  • 107 million American users
  • The three dominant sectors on the platform are high tech (14.3%), finance (12.4%) and manufacturing (10.1%). Worth noting is that the legal sector makes up a meager 1.4% of users.

People use the platform to check up on business partners, find jobs, and occasionally network – things they do periodically, rather than on a hourly basis like hardcore users of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

It is this, despite holding the #2 spot as world’s most popular social media marketing platform, that makes LinkedIn notoriously difficult to find success with for businesses.

LinkedIn is increasingly losing the business networking battle to Google+, whose Community tool is, somewhat inexplicably, winning next to LinkedIn’s groups (despite them being very similar in nature).

All this said, most social media marketing experts are convinced that LinkedIn will grow and thrive – simply because it’s the only social network that is (in the words of the Wishpond CMO) “needed”.

What did he mean? Well, LinkedIn doesn’t have the same ‘fun’ factor that many of the other platforms have. It’s not about spending an hour scrolling through your ex-girlfriend’s pictures from South East Asia, or about adding a filter to your New Year’s pictures, or chiming in on the latest development between Kim Kardashian and… (I don’t even know, Justin Bieber?).

LinkedIn is for professionals, and it’s about professionals. It’s hugely influential in the job hunt, both for employers and applicants. It’s great for networking, and the content sharing function is getting better on a weekly basis.

However, is it a revenue-generating platform like Pinterest and Instagram or a brand awareness increase-er like Facebook and Twitter? I’d say no. But feel free to convince me!

Which businesses should be on LinkedIn?

All professionals should be on LinkedIn, as individuals. I also recommend all professional businesses to be on LinkedIn, though the effort you need to maintain your presence there is significantly less than other platforms. Check in periodically to ensure your profile is stable – but focus your valuable time and energy on the more revenue-generating or awareness-increasing platforms.

There is room for some small businesses to start a conversation or become a trusted source of information with the groups function. I’d recommend all free-lance marketers, bloggers, journalists, designers, etc., to have a significant presence on LinkedIn.

Top Tip: Before joining a LinkedIn group, check its statistics (in the ‘More’ tab below the group’s name). Make sure the demographics match yours, and the group is as active as you’d like it to be. Otherwise you’ll be wasting your time looking for social endorsements that aren’t going to happen.

Article Sources


Conclusion


Hopefully you have a better idea of the nature of the top 6 social networks. I recommend most businesses find the one or two platforms which provide the best return on investment and devote time and energy. However, do your research and watch as these platforms develop. Will Pinterest find a way to break into other sectors? Will LinkedIn develop a tool or facet of its platform that engages with younger demographics or will it fall by the wayside?

Further Reading:

What do you think? Did any of the statistics or demographics surprise you? Start the conversation below!

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