5 BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
You have started a business or planning to and you are undecided about which platforms you should create your business’ profile. A bit of research shows that there are over 20 social media platforms in the world, how many do you know?
There are over 20 social media platforms in the world.
That is such a large number to choose from considering a small business takes up the majority of the time and energy to try to take it off the ground. Handling 5 social media pages can be a bit handful, let alone 20 of them.
You’ll need content and we’re talking about quality content. Always remember quality over quantity. You need to track analytics to see how you are performing and how to improve your content. Engaging your customers is important too as you need to reply to their issues in a fast, respectable and efficient way. So how do you do all that?
Before you create any profile, you need to ask yourself;
- What is your target audience? This is a very crucial step. You cannot create content for an audience you don’t know. You have to understand your audience, who they are, what they want and what they need.
- Where can your target audience be found. In this day and age, it is important to meet your customers where they are. Find the platforms that they are subscribed to and post your content there.
- What are your goals for joining the social media platforms? Your goals should be aligned with your business goals to avoid losing the sense of direction.
- What will be your key performance indicators (KPI)? You have probably heard of these before, but goals are usually long-term or stretch over a period of time. In the process of meeting your goals, you need to have indicators that show the progress you’re making. Think of it as marking points before you get to the final destination of your journey.
- What type of content you will upload on all these platforms? I will insist that quality over quantity. What are you going to be posting on your pages? Have a theme unique to your pages. When your audience visits your page, let them get a feel of what it is about. If you have too many themes on your pages, your audience might be confused about what exactly you do.
Once you have answers to all these questions, you can go ahead and open and choose what platform or platforms suit you best. In this list, we will outline some of the best social media platforms for any business.
According to datareportal Facebook is the largest social network right now. With 2.94 billion monthly active users by April 2022, this is a platform you should definitely consider. The number of daily active users stands at 1.96 billion by April 2022. The number of Facebook users that have joined the platform in the first three months of 2022 is 24 million, that’s mind-blowing.
Facebook also has the largest advertising audience of any social media platform. There are more than 6 million active advertisers on Facebook. More than 200 million businesses use Facebook both big and small businesses.
The average age of Facebook users is 33 years which means a more mature audience. This will vary according to the region too. Men make up the majority of users standing at 56% while women make up 44%.
Facebook supports all types of content, in recent times, they are really focused on video reach. Visual content will always have greater reach than plain content.
When coming up with content, identify in which way the majority of your users access your content i.e. through mobile phones, desktops or tablets. More than 90% of Facebook users access the platform through mobile phones and more than 80% of users access the platform using phones only. Ensure you optimize your content for mobile use unless your insights show different.
When you hear Instagram, the first thing that comes to mind is bomb photos. Instagram has 1.4 billion monthly active users, this may be half of Facebook’s MAU-monthly active users but this is still a very large number. Take into consideration that it is under Meta which is the parent company of Facebook. Instagram is the 4th most active social media platform coming closely behind YouTube and WhatsApp.
The age group of 18-34 makes a total of 895 million users which is 60% of Instagram users. Instagram users are fairly young. Men make up 52% of the total platform users and women 48%. Figures will vary according to the regional location.
Marketing on Instagram is definitely productive, research states that 50% of people will visit a website or page from an Ad on Instagram. 80% of Instagram users follow a business. There are different formats of advertising which are similar to Facebook and they are; Videos, Images, Image carousel and collections. Choose the one that outlines your product well and the format that always gets the majority of responses.
Instagram popped up on the scene as a photo-sharing platform but that has changed. Instagram’s head clearly stated that it is no longer a photo-sharing platform. They are encouraging creators to use video content which is awarded more exposure. In your content strategy, make sure to add video content and upload them under Reels which is Instagram’s video category that seems to be doing really well compared to IGTV.
As the case is with Facebook, the largest majority accesses Instagram from their phones. Optimize your videos and images to dimensions that suit mobile phones. In reels use vertical videos which seemingly do better than horizontal videos.
LinkedIn is synonymous with professionalism for many individuals. LinkedIn boasts over 800 million monthly active users. Similar to the other social media platforms, men make up majority of users at 56% and women 44%. 60% of LinkedIn users are between 25-34 years.
LinkedIn is the go to platform for B2B companies. The platform is professional and will lead you into corridors that have the decision makers for majority of the companies. You may be also looking at hiring skilled professionals for your company. Always check LinkedIn to find suitable candidates.
Being a professional platform doesn’t mean there are no Ads, marketers see up to 2X more conversion on LinkedIn Ads.
Have a linked in profile if you are a B2B company and see the magic.
Twitter stands slightly over 400 million MAU. Compared to other social platforms, it comes in at number 15, sounds bad, right? NO! 50% of consumers are on Twitter and the majority of searches on Twitter lead to a purchase. Twitter users are said to generally have a higher income compared to those on other platforms.
For that personal relationship with your audience, Twitter is a good place to create a rapport. Instagram or Facebook may be crowded with messages in your inbox but the good thing with Twitter is you can easily get tagged and respond right on the page. This is also a good platform to have in-depth conversations with your audience on relevant topics using hashtags or Twitter spaces.
Twitter has more Millennials on the platform than Gen Z. 30% of the total users are women and men make up 70%.
Tweets that have videos perform 6 times better than plain tweets. This is your sign to use video content especially when advertising.
WhatsApp which is under Meta is the biggest messaging platform. WhatsApp has 2 billion monthly active users. WhatsApp has users of every age in large numbers hence it is the go-to messaging application.
As a business, have a profile on WhatsApp. The platform has made it even better since you could display your products/services and have automatic responses. This is a very great platform to be in touch with your potential customer. The platform seems more relaxed and you can interact with your users in an environment that’s easy to create rapport.
Conclusion
It is important to note the demographic of your users and their preferred platforms. Example, China banned Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. To get through the Chinese population, you could use WeChat which is a messaging platform that has involved to incorporate shopping and even payment methods.