There is a wide variety of Social Media platforms out there, and we hear all the time about the benefits of Social Media Marketing. 54% of social browsers use social media to research products, meaning a significantly sized market is available on social media platforms.
However, which platforms should you be using? Each has its benefits and specific audience appeals, so it’s essential to figure out the best ones to invest your efforts in.
Here’s our rundown of the most popular social media platforms with information to help you decide which is the best for you.
Who uses it most?
44% female and 56% male, ages 25 to 34
Facebook is the largest social media platform and was the first to gain over a billion user accounts and currently has over 2.45 billion users. Facebook requires businesses to make a business page (and not doing so can get your Facebook shut down); However, personal pages limit you to 5,000 friends where business pages can have millions of followers. You get access to analytics, insights, and adverts.
There has been some controversy on Facebook in recent years due to its political adverts, privacy, and algorithm. This conflict has caused Facebook to shift to showing users’ content from friends and family and lowering the priority of brand posts and news outlets. However, there are still many good reasons to use Facebook for your business.
As it has so many users, you’re bound to find at least part of your target market there, plus its advertising lets you target the audience you want most and gives you a prospects list to target. The platform also allows you to specify the exact placements for your ad ranging from in-feed to story to reels.
Facebook groups have proven helpful for businesses too, allowing businesses to build a community for audiences and reach those that may miss organic posts. Facebook has been putting a lot more emphasis on groups as a result.
Who uses it most?
43% Male and 57% Female, ages 25-34
Instagram is owned by Meta (formerly Facebook) and has a billion users each month. It started mainly for photos but has recently introduced more video features such as stories, reels, and IGTV. It’s especially popular with younger audiences as according to Pew Research Centre, 76% of those aged 18-24 use Instagram (but it still has much popularity across many age groups).
One of the biggest perks of having an Instagram page for your business is its profound engagement for brands, and over 90% of users follow at least one brand account. If you’re an eCommerce platform, you can also tag your products in your Instagram photos, and accounts with 10,000 followers can add links to their Instagram stories.
Who uses it most?
32% Female and 68% Male, ages 30-49
There are over 500 million tweets sent out a day. Many use it to find out about events worldwide as they happen. Tweets have a limit of 240 characters and can be sent out with photos, videos, links, and animated GIFs.
The best way to utilise Twitter is to regularly share content as Twitter claims 80% of their advertiser’s inbound social customer service requests happen on Twitter. Many will often head to Twitter to talk about how much they like (or dislike) a product or service here too. This allows businesses to facilitate and encourage conversation between the brand and followers and between followers themselves. Many use it to see what the trending topics are within their industry.
Who uses it most?
49% female and 51% male, ages 46-55
A familiar platform for marketers and B2B businesses and considered one of the most powerful tools for these businesses. At one point, its primary purpose was as a recruitment platform, but it has evolved since to keep up with the latest industry news and network. Updates can be made and shared similarly to Facebook, with photos, videos, links, and comment sections.
There are many benefits to using LinkedIn for your business. If there’s anyone you may want to network with, it gives you a platform you can reach out to them. It also allows you to establish yourself as an industry leader and offer value. You can network in groups and share content to drive links to your website.
With LinkedIn, it is also worth mentioning their targeted advertising benefits. There are four ad types on the platform (Sponsored content, message ads, Dynamic ads, and text ads) but selecting your target audience works the same way whichever of the options you choose. There are more than 20 various attributes you can target by including skills, job title, company name, member schools, member interests, company size, and many more. This is a big part of why it’s such a powerful website for B2B marketing, as you can narrow in on a precise target audience.
TikTok
Who uses it most?
41% Male and 59% female, ages 18-24
One to watch in 2022, HubSpot’s number one prediction for Social Media trends this year was that TikTok would dominate the social media space. Its popularity has been growing fast and currently has 500 million users globally, and the average user spends 52 minutes a day on the platform. Video content is growing in popularity, and many other social media platforms are introducing more features inspired by TikTok, such as Instagram Reels, to try and appeal to this audience.
TikTok offers advertisers five tiers for big brands; however, many focus on its organic potential, and many have utilised this. For example, B2C brands such as Lush have been encouraging employees at various store locations to create their videos for TikTok of their products.
Who uses it most?
22% Male and 78% female, ages 30-49
Pinterest is a platform where users can ‘pin’ images, videos, and links onto bulletin boards, often with a theme to make an online mood board. B2C brands have dominated Pinterest to show off products, but there are ways that B2B companies can use the platform too, and there are many benefits.
The unique selling point of Pinterest over other platforms is that posts have a much longer lifespan. On platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, the lifespan of a post is minutes or a few hours at most. On Pinterest, the average post lifespan is over three months. While the platform’s user base is primarily female, the number of men signing up is rising too. Plus, in the average household, women are responsible for between 70 to 80 percent of all consumer purchases, making them a valuable target audience.
YouTube
Who uses it most?
72% of ALL internet users, ages 15-25
YouTube currently hosts over 2 Billion users, making it the second-largest social network and the second-largest search engine after Google. There are roughly 5 Billion videos watched per day on the platform, and every minute, there are 500 hours of video uploaded.
In the US alone, YouTube reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than all cable TV networks combined, making it a powerful tool for any marketing campaign. It’s also the second-largest search engine. Utilising YouTube can improve your social media strategy and SEO. It has some of the highest referrals and conversion rates with paid advertising. It’s a great platform to make interesting, informative information for consumers too, as many use YouTube to learn how to do something new.
Each platform comes with its unique aspects. You can, of course, sign up for all of them if you wish, but usually, it’s best to focus your attention on a few select platforms that will work best for you. Going from this guide as a starting point, take the time to investigate the platforms you think will help most and think about how you can use them.
If you need help with your social media efforts, our team of experts can help you create a strategy that connects with your target audience and promotes your Business to support lead generation and sales. If you want social media that works for your business, get in touch today.
