When starting out on social media it is important to start small with one platform and dominate your niche on that platform first. If you spread your resources too thin across multiple platforms, you risk not performing well at any of them. It is important to choose the right platform for your target audience and focus on that initially. So let’s go over the major players in the social media field, and help you choose the best to start with!
YouTube
You may be thinking, “I don’t have the time to create video content” and “isn’t YouTube just for funny videos and ‘how-to’ tutorials”. Yes and no. Video content can take a little bit longer than putting out a tweet, for instance, however, it has a lot of benefits that need to be considered:
- YouTube is directly linked and owned by Google, so YouTube videos will help your SEO. Google understands that people prefer video content and will prioritise your videos in their search engine if it is related to the searched topic. This can drive a lot of brand awareness.
- It lasts forever. YouTube is not like a Facebook status or Instagram post that appears in the feed for a little while and then is essentially never revisited from a user. You can see views flowing in from old content pieces forever (or until it is removed).
- Youtube is a great platform to store all your video content in a library and link this to your other social media platforms, whether this is in a LinkedIn post, or as a tab on your Facebook that takes the user directly to your youtube playlist.
- For service industries, in particular, it is a great way to display your skills and knowledge in a punchy, easy to digest form. This builds your social proof as a leader in your industry.
Something that needs to be considered is you will need to upload at least once a week on YouTube to remain relevant, and for Google and YouTube to prioritise your content to your audience. However, even if you cannot post weekly, YouTube is a great addition to your social media strategy to store all your video content and link back to.
Facebook is by far the biggest platform of them all, which results in a wider audience reach. The biggest demographic group being millennials aged between 25 – 34 years. Facebook is a safe starting point for most businesses as you have likely had some experience with Facebook in your personal life, and it has the largest reach.
Things to consider:
- There are 2.70 billion active users on Facebook, with 2.65 billion of those being mobile users, therefore, it is paramount that you optimise your Facebook page for mobile view and desktop.
- Facebook’s key objective is to keep its users on the app, for as long as possible. So it does not like you including external links in your posts which drive traffic away from their platform. This is important to consider if your main objective is to drive traffic to your blog or to share articles.
Instagram has 1 billion active users, with the largest demographic being people aged 18-24, making up to 75% of the users on the app. With Instagram reporting 90% of the users on the platform follow a business account!
- This is a great app for visual marketing and is a favourite for B2C.
- Instagram was designed from the start as an app, unlike platforms such as Twitter and Facebook which were first launched as desktop sites. Therefore, it has a more sleek and enticing style for mobile phone users, which is important when the majority of social media users are viewing through a smartphone!
- Even though Facebook has a wider audience reach, Instagram has a much higher engagement rate for content.
If your brand is B2C, and your target audience is millennials/ Gen Z then this just might be the app for you!
LinkedIn is known to be the best B2B platform. LinkedIn is essentially a giant database of business people. A lot of people struggle to use LinkedIn as they may be using it in a similar way to Facebook, and not to its full potential. Things to consider before diving into LinkedIn.
- A great feature in LinkedIn is the ‘search’ function where you can specifically search for a person’s job title and bring up everyone in your network that has that job description, this is such a powerful tool to utilise to find leads and business opportunities.
- Another positive is LinkedIn is ‘link friendly’ by allowing you to link your blogs and articles to drive direct traffic to your own website.
- One downside we have discovered is that you do need to be active daily on the app to gain traction and see growth, which can be a time-consuming task.
Twitter is a real-time information share network. A great way to think of Twitter is as a text message to the world.
- Twitter opens up the opportunity to interact with customers and build a community, rather than just promote your goods and services.
- Twitter is also great for monitoring your competition, and also your customers. Using the Twitter search function you can quickly find out what people are saying about a particular topic (or product), enabling you to easily social listen. This can present you with valuable data that you can use to improve your business.
- Another way businesses are using Twitter is to create a business network. Similar to LinkedIn, Twitter can be used as a networking site that allows you direct access to people you never thought you would be able to speak to or form a meaningful connection with.
Twitter can make OR break your business, as a poorly timed tweet could do irreparable damage. Therefore, we recommend leaving the tweeting to a social media professional!
Conclusion
We hope this wrap up of the major social media platforms has given you a more clear direction of where to start on your business social media journey. If you need help developing your social media strategy, we highly recommend engaging a digital marketing agency to take the pressure off and allow you to focus on what you do best, running your business.
Are you looking for help with your social media? Contact Patch Agency today.
