Which Social Media Platforms Should Your Business Be On?
Confused on which social media platforms your business should be on?
It seems like another “must be on” platform is launched every year! And while FOMO is real, so is the overwhelm of keeping up with it all.
But do you really need to have a presence on all of these platforms?
Nope!
It depends on what you offer and who you offer it to.
In the post below, we’re breaking down the pros, cons, and demographics of each of the major social media platforms, along with which types of businesses do well on them, and what types of posts do best.
(We dive deeper into which social media platforms you should be on as well as what to post on each in Module 6 of my online Marketing 101 course, so be sure to check it out.)
Before diving in…
The main goal of marketing is to get people on your website so you can make sales. Be sure to include calls to action that lead people to your website.
Stats
Active users: Facebook is the top dog with over 2.797 billion monthly users. It’s the third most visited website, after Google and YouTube.
Time spent daily on the platform: 35 minutes. 54% of Americans say it’s the social media platform they use the most often.
Cons
The cons of Facebook include a low organic reach – blame that algorithm – and how you have to “pay to play” through advertising. Check out my Facebook Facelift online mini course to learn how to get around this.
Demographic
The largest age group of users (32.4%) is between 25-35 in age, with the next most popular age range (23.5%) aged 18-24. Men outnumber women at 56.3%.
Recommended For
While Facebook engagement is seriously dropping, it is still the most popular social media platform. Not only that…
72% of users have used Facebook to make restaurant or retail decisions, relying on comments and photos shared by other users.
Restaurant guests are also more likely to leave a review on Facebook over any other review site.
So, to put it simply, if you have a business, it should be on Facebook.
Source: https://www.reviewtrackers.com/blog/restaurant-social-media-statistics/
What to Post
Facebook is great for sharing blog posts, news updates, large photo albums, live videos, links, and other people’s posts.
Events perform best on Facebook, and you can even post jobs. (If your company is a large brand or offers professional services, however, it’s best to post on LinkedIn.)
Because Facebook owns Instagram, there is overlap between the two platforms, including its users. Instagram typically has a higher engagement than Facebook and a similar ad structure, but that doesn’t mean you need to have an Instagram account. This section will help you narrow down your decision.
Stats
Active users: 1.287 billion
Time spent daily on the platform: 30 minutes
Cons
Instagram’s algorithm is constantly changing with new features added often. It can be difficult and overwhelming to keep up.
What started as a photo sharing app is now placing precedent on video, particularly Reels.
Demographic
The largest age group on Instagram is 25-34, followed by 18-24. Female users slightly outnumber males at 51%.
Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/
Recommended For
Visual-based businesses, such as creatives (photographers, designers) along with brands and makers.
What to Post
On your feed, keep it to higher quality images of your product/what you do. Feel free to intersperse graphics containing quotes, promotions, testimonials, and helpful tips.
People like to be entertained and informed on Reels, while behind-the-scenes looks are best for Stories. They’re also an ideal place to show your face on video, which really connects with your audience.
Looking for help developing your Instagram Strategy? Check out my Instagram Insight online mini course.
Recent posts from @missmegabug
TikTok
Stats
Active users: 732 million. TikTok ranks as the top app downloaded from the Apple Store for five consecutive quarters and counting.
Time spent daily on the platform: 33 minutes. 90% of users log onto TikTok everyday.
Cons
A 2020 survey by GlobalWebIndex asked respondents how they mainly use TikTok. The majority replied: “to find funny/entertaining content.”
This finding - and the very nature of TikTok - proves that people browse the app to be entertained. Not informed or sold to.
Though some businesses have been able to successfully market on TikTok, they do so by placing an emphasis on creating entertaining videos.
The con here is that if funny and entertaining videos aren’t a main part of your marketing strategy, it’s one more thing to do. And if the bulk of your target audience is outside of TikTok’s demographics, it’s most likely not worth being on the platform.
Demographic
The vast majority of U.S. TikTok users falls into the Gen Z demographic, as 62% of U.S. TikTok users are 10-29-years-old.
Recommended For
Larger brands, makers, creatives, and coaches.
What to Post
Entertaining or informative videos. Limit is 60 seconds, though TikTok is rolling out the ability to post 3 minute videos.
Snapchat
Stats
Active users: 528 million
Time spent daily on the platform: 28 minutes. Snapchatters open the app an average of 30 times a day.
Cons
There is a very narrow demographic of Snapchat users, and the majority of users are on the platform to connect with friends and family.
Demographic
Snapchat most appeals to the under 34 crowd, with 82% of users being in that age group. It’s the most popular social media platform amongst teenagers, with 59% of all U.S. internet users aged 13 to 24 years having a Snapchat account.
The majority of users are female (61%).
Recommended For
Businesses with a main target market in the 13-17 age range.
What to Post
Snapchat is like Instagram Stories in that you post photos or videos and they disappear after 24 hours. Like Instagram Stories, posting behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business, teases of new products, news, fun happenings, etc.
Twitter’s algorithm is much friendlier than Facebook and Instagram. It uses a chronological feed so people are more likely to see your posts (err, tweets).
Stats
Active users: 396 million
Time spent daily on the platform: 3.39 minutes
Cons
Not as popular. Twitter currently ranks 16th in the world’s most popular social media platforms.
Users tend to not be as engaged, only spending an average of 3.39 minutes on the platform per day.
Not only that, 80% of tweets come from 10% of users.
Demographic
The majority of Twitter users are male (70%!) with the largest age group (28.9%) being 25-34 years-old. Also, 65% of U.S. adult Twitter users are or lean Democrat. Not sure if that sways your decision, but I found it interesting!
Recommended For
It’s more of a thought sharing and news platform, so excellent for journalists, writers, celebrities, etc.
If you’re not sure if Twitter is right for you, it’s interesting to note that 82% of B2B content marketers used Twitter for organic content marketing in the last 12 months. Twitter ties with Facebook for this stat, with LinkedIn leading at 96%.
Twitter has been losing popularity lately, but it can still be advantageous, depending on your business. About 49% of Twitter users are on the platform daily, and over 500 million tweets are posted per day!
What to Post
The platform is ideal for sharing blog posts, news updates, retweeting, live event updates, and for customer service/important announcements. Just be sure your tweet falls within 280 characters!
The latest tweets from @missmegabug
Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social media platform, making it an excellent way to boost organic traffic to your website. 2 out of 3 users head to Pinterest to find new ideas, products, and services.
Its premise is to save ideas, recipes, articles, and inspiration for later. Basically, you “pin” a graphic to one of your boards. The graphic is clickable, so if you pinned a recipe, someone would click on your pin and be brought to the recipe on your website.
Stats
Active users: 459 million
Time spent daily on the platform: 14.2 minutes
Cons
Pins take 3.5 months to reach 50% of their engagement, so it’s a bit of a time investment at first.
Demographic
Over 60% of users are women, and nearly 80% of all millennial women are on Pinterest as well as 80% of U.S. moms.
Also, pinners spend 80% more on retail than non pinners. Wow!
Source: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/pinterest-statistics/
Recommended For
Brands, bloggers, online service providers (website designers, coaches, anyone who uses blog posts to boost traffic to their website).
Psst! Pinterest has some seriously cool stats on their business blog.
Products, recipes, blog posts, freebies, etc.
Believe it or not, LinkedIn can be super effective for the self-employed. It allows you to network with others in your community, thus building your connections. LinkedIn is also primarily used by influencers and decision makers.
Stats
Active users: 310 million
Time spent daily on the platform: Less than a minute, totaling 17 minutes per month.
Cons
Engagement is low, as less than half of LinkedIn’s 756 million users are considered active.
Not only that, just 3% of members post more than once a week.
I have a page for my business on LinkedIn where I share blog posts. Unfortunately, it is harder to get people to follow your business page on LinkedIn than it is on Facebook, so I tend to post blogs to my LinkedIn business page and then share them to my personal LinkedIn profile.
Demographic
The largest age demographic on LinkedIn is 25-34 (59.9%), followed by 18-24 year-olds (20.3%).
The majority of users (57.5%) are male.
Source: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-october-global-statshot
Recommended For
I think everyone should have a personal LinkedIn profile. (It makes it super easy to share more of your professional experience, especially if you don’t want your full resume on your website.)
You don’t have to post actively if LinkedIn isn’t the best platform to promote your business, but it’s still easy for people to find you if you’ve optimized your profile. You never know what opportunities are out there!
When it comes to creating a company page, however, larger companies who have plenty of professional news to share, brands, and online service providers benefit most by having a page.
What to Post
Company news, statistics, and other professional-related content. Blog posts and informative articles do well on LinkedIn, along with job postings. More than 40 million users apply to jobs on LinkedIn weekly, so it’s worth posting an open position on this platform.
YouTube
Video allows you to better connect with your audience. You can post tutorials, product reviews, and more. While making videos can be intimidating and even time consuming, it’s the most effective form of marketing.
70% of viewers bought from a brand after seeing content on YouTube
Stats
Active users: 2.291 billion
Time spent daily on the platform: 41.9 minutes
Cons
Demographic
YouTube’s largest age demographic is 25-34 year-olds (21.2%) with 35-44 year-olds following (17%). Males outnumber females at 54.2%.
YouTube has this awesome tool that tracks the demographics of your video viewers.
Recommended For
Coaches, course creators, product makers, brands.
What to Post
Since 82% of users search YouTube to learn how to do something themselves, tutorials are where it’s at. Recently, beauty tutorials, how to raise chickens, bike maintenance and repair, learning guitar, and container gardening have been popular.
Post how to’s relating to what you do, product features, how to use your product/how it fits into someone’s life, etc.
So, Which Platforms Should You Be On?
Now you may be feeling overwhelmed by the thought of having to be on allll the social media platforms, especially if you’re targeting millennials. Don’t panic!
To start, I recommend only focusing on the platforms your audience is on. Then, work on one platform at a time. Learn that platform in and out and get into the habit of posting before you add another to your list.
If there’s a platform you’re averse to down to your core (that would be TikTok for me), don’t do join it. If you truly want nothing to do with it, your strategy on that platform won’t be effective and you’ll constantly be overwhelmed.
At the core you can post the same thing across all platforms (like blog post links), but add some variety. This provides your fans incentive to follow you on each of your platforms.
And be sure to push back to your website whenever possible. That is the main purpose of marketing after all!
Still Overwhelmed?
Enroll in my online Marketing 101 course to learn my social media, as well as how to create an effective marketing strategy tailored to your business.
Follow me on social media!
Major Sources
https://www.emarketer.com/chart/244118/average-time-spent-per-day-by-us-users-on-social-media-platforms-2020-minutes
https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
