Social media marketing is crucial for success in today’s competitive climate. However, sometimes it can feel like you’re just firing posts into the void, with little obvious return for your effort. You might begin to wonder if you’re missing crucial information about the platform or if you’re on the wrong social media platform altogether.
Focusing on the wrong social media network is a common mistake that can make even the most well-executed campaign fall flat on its face. For example, if your target audience is young college students, you’re probably not going to find them on Facebook anymore, no matter how hard you try. You’ve got to take your ball to where your audience plays.
In this article, we’ll explore why it’s important to market on the right social media platform. Then we’ll look at how to actually find those channels and make sure you get the most out of them. Let’s dig in!
Why your choice of social media platform matters
In an ideal world, you’d have an unlimited marketing budget and could saturate every channel with content. Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality for the vast majority of businesses. Unless your company is headquartered at One Apple Park Way in Cupertino, you’ll probably need to take a more nuanced approach.
Your social media marketing is likely limited by two things: time and budget. Let’s explore time first. Some social media platforms simply require a significant amount of time and effort. For example, Instagram and Twitter typically call for an aggressive posting schedule. With Twitter, more is almost always better, with no real upper limit on frequency.
The quality of content is also generally less important than other platforms. This isn’t to say that quality isn’t important on Twitter. However, because the platform is generally sorted chronologically on one feed, it’s more important to simply post. You’ll have plenty of chances to fine-tune the quality.
The best-performing brands on Instagram tend to publish about once per day. However, each Instagram post requires more effort than the average Tweet, since you’ve got both an image and text area to fill out. With the lower frequency, quality is also more important than Twitter. Again, this means more time involved in prepping each post.
Compare those numbers to the generally recommended LinkedIn and Facebook frequency of two to five posts per week and it’s pretty clear which platforms require more time. In a similar vein, platforms where video is involved, such as TikTok (or its alternatives) and YouTube, are almost certainly going to require a greater investment of time due to the video editing process.
When you add this together, you could be looking at a significant time investment to be present on multiple platforms in a way that’s actually beneficial – and we’re not even considering time spent engaging with followers. For many small businesses, the time just isn’t there, and it’s compounded by the second factor: budget limitations.
With enough marketing budget, you could have social media managers responsible for each platform. If this isn’t realistic, you’ll need to be selective about which channels you choose to spend your time and money on. Using the right channels will make your marketing dollars go further.
With enough marketing budget, you could have social media managers responsible for each platform. If this isn’t realistic, you’ll need to be selective about which channels you choose to spend your time and money on. Using the right channels will make your marketing dollars go further.
How to find the right social media platform for your business (in three steps)
Understanding why you should focus on the proper social channels is one thing, finding them is another. To decide which platforms are worth spending your time and money on, you need to follow the data. This analysis can be broken into three steps.
Step 1: Consider your demographic
First, begin with your target audience and consider where they spend their time. In short, don’t expect them to come to you – you need to go to them. If you’ve created customer personas to help narrow down your other marketing efforts, you can also leverage them here. Essentially, though, you’ll want to answer a few key questions about your audience:
- How old are they?
- What is their gender?
- What do they do for work?
- Do they have hobbies and interests?
With these answers, you can compare your audience’s demographics against those of the top social networks to find the best match. Like any other product, each social media platform has a different demographic and average user.
For example, Facebook seems like an obvious and easy choice for most businesses. However, if your audience skews younger, you might see better results on Instagram or Snapchat, as those tend to have a younger user base, according to Pew Research[1]. On the other hand, you’ll find more people in their 30s and older on Facebook.
As another example, if your product and audience are tech lovers, Reddit marketing could be a good choice. ‘Redditors’ tend to be a little more tech-savvy than the general population. Twitter is also popular among developers and others interested in technology.
Pinterest users tend to be women with an interest in fashion, food, and art. If this is your demographic, it could be a strong platform for you. Finally, LinkedIn is your source for all things business, with a slightly older demographic.
Step 2: Consider your brand
Next, take a look at your brand and the image you project (or want to project). You’ll essentially want to focus on platforms aligning with them. It’s also a good idea to make sure the content that typically does well on a social network makes sense with your company’s product.
Facebook is relatively generic – a wide variety of products can work well here, due to the diversity of users. Additionally, the platform lends itself well to several types of content, including text posts, images, and video.
On the other hand, Instagram and Pinterest are primarily image-centric. If you sell products that can benefit from this sort of visual marketing, these are good bets. If you primarily sell software, though, Instagram might not be the best choice.
Step 3: Look at where your competition spends its time
Finally, it never hurts to take a peek at your competition to see what they’re up to. It’s possible they’ve figured out something you haven’t, and by learning from them, you can position yourself to eventually outdo them.
This could be as simple as scoping out their accounts and looking at the platforms and posts that have gotten the most engagement. There are also tools available to help with this, such as the Buzzsumo influencer tool. This can give you a list of top influencers in your niche to check out:
Once you’ve gathered all this data, you’ll likely notice a couple of social media platforms that align with your audience, brand, and industry trends. These should be your first targets, as they represent the best opportunity to reach and engage your audience.
How to maximize your social media marketing
Once you’ve found the right channels, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting the most out of them. This means optimizing your social content to increase visibility and boost engagement. After all, if you’re dealing with time and budget constraints, every post counts.
At this point, you should have narrowed your social media marketing plan down to the two or three channels that make the most sense for your business. In other words, the channels your target audience uses that also align with your brand’s products, image, and goals. Now it’s time to actually start creating and posting content to meet those goals.
Start by making sure your content speaks to your audience. Focus on their challenges and pain points, and on helping them overcome them. A pain point is simply a problem a customer is facing, that they may be hoping your product or service can solve.
For example, if your company sells shoes, your customers may be looking for a stylish, high-quality product that doesn’t break the bank. They may have tried several brands in the past and weren’t satisfied – they were either too expensive, too old-fashioned, or didn’t last long enough. Maybe the last brand they bought from had terrible customer service, too. Those are the problems the customer is approaching you with, and your marketing should always aim to position your brand as the one that can solve those problems.
If you don’t know what problems your customers are hoping to solve, the easiest way to find out is to just ask. You can do this by conducting customer surveys. This information is essential for not just social media marketing, but all your marketing.
Next, work out the most effective timing and frequency for posts on your target social media platforms. We discussed posting frequency above, but each network also has an optimal time of day for posts to have maximum visibility. We’ve got a separate article diving into the best times to post on social media, but here are the cliff notes:
- Twitter: 3:00–5:00 p.m. on weekdays.
- Facebook: Around 12:00 p.m.
- Instagram: About 7:00 p.m.
- LinkedIn: 9:00–5:00 on weekdays (business hours, basically).
Posting during these times gives your content the best chance to be seen. More visibility means more potential engagement and clickthroughs.
Finally, use your analytics! If you find your strategy isn’t working, don’t be afraid to pivot. Try posting at different times and with different frequencies, and if a network just isn’t working for you, give a different platform a try.
Conclusion
Whether your business is just jumping into social media marketing, or you’re looking to breathe some new life into your efforts, choosing the right channels is critical to success.
Fortunately, finding them is usually a simple matter of knowing your audience and your brand.
To find the right social media platform for your business, start with examining your target audience. Then look at your desired brand image and make sure the two align. Finally, take a peek at your competitors and see where they’re having success. With this information, you can locate the right channels and work on maximizing your reach and impact.
What social media platforms feel right for your brand? Let us know in the comments section below!
The post How to Pick the Best Social Media Platform to Reach Your Target Audience appeared first on Revive Social.