People always ask us what is the most popular social media platform, and we tell them that it depends on their business. One of the biggest misconceptions among companies looking to utilise social media is that they need to find the platform with the most users. You don’t. It’s all about where your target audience is.
In this post, we’ll talk about the most popular social media platforms and uncover which is suitable for your business type. Whether you sell services or products, there’s a platform for you. But before we go into that, let’s look at the benefits of using social media for business.
Social Media Benefits for Businesses
There are many benefits of using social media for your business, including:
Communication – You can use social media to keep in touch with your customers and answer their questions. Facebook also lets businesses create chatbots to automate their service.
Networking – Social media is a great place to connect with others, especially if you’re a B2B company.
Ranking – When people like, comment on or share your posts, it can help to boost your organic rankings.
Reputation – According to Arise.com, 80% of customers expect a response within 24 hours, but using social media means you can often reply to comments and message a lot quicker. Not only does this help you close sales, but it also improves your reputation.
Competition – What exactly are your competitors doing? Well, with social media, you can see their pages, posts and Facebook’s Ads library has a search tool which enables you to view adverts from other companies.
The Most Popular Social Media Platforms
Now you know the benefits of social media for business, it’s time to look at the most popular social media platforms to help your company grow.
Did you know that Facebook is the most popular social networking platform in the world? With over 2 billion users a month, it attracts the most people, and it’s more than likely that most people have a Facebook account.
There’s a lot you can do on Facebook, including setting up a company page, joining groups, boosting your posts and using Ads to direct traffic to your website. If there’s one thing that makes the platform stand out, it’s how diverse both its offerings and users are.
You can find a group for pretty much anything on Facebook, and if there isn’t one? Create your own. The only real drawback of Facebook is it’s a competitive platform, with over 80 million business pages, you have to work hard to stand out.
YouTube
Everyone knows YouTube is the place to be for video content. It’s one of the largest search engines in the world, coming second only to Google. A common misconception is that YouTube is for watching music videos and comedic videos. While both are popular on the platform, it’s also great for promoting your business.
Video content continues to grow in popularity, so it makes sense for businesses to use it to their advantage. If you type in “how-to” on YouTube, you’ll find an abundance of videos helping people with makeup, marketing, cooking, business and pretty much everything.
YouTube is perfect to use as a teaching tool or to show off your products.
Twitter is a trendy social networking platform, especially with people aged 18-50. The most significant difference between Twitter and Facebook is that your posts must be 280 characters or less. While this might seem bad for businesses, it’s actually useful.
It would be best if you used Twitter to build brand awareness and share important news about your company. If you cater specifically to the Millennial generation, then Twitter can put you at the centre of your audience.
LinkedIn is the place for professionals. The once small social network is now a hub of useful content, businesses and highly-qualified people all searching for their next opportunity. Because of the nature of the platform, LinkedIn is most suited to B2B companies, and service-based companies do exceptionally well.
The biggest thing to remember about LinkedIn is the content you share can make or break you. With so many high-flying professionals using it, the platform can feel a bit like you’ve leapt into a shark tank!
When used correctly, LinkedIn is the best place to find clients for your business, and their unique features such as Sales Navigator can be useful marketing tools.
We couldn’t leave Instagram off our list, because the majority of its users are under 25. This social network doesn’t have the professionalism LinkedIn offers, but it’s ideal for companies catering to a young target audience.
If you have a cosmetics, clothing, or supplement business, then Instagram is the platform you need. The key to success is taking attractive photos and turning them into eye-catching graphics.
While Instagram isn’t the right choice for a service-based business, some have found success by showing their work. For example, a building company could use the platform to show before and after photos of their projects.
Pinterest is the home of visual content, and its unique platform is incredibly popular with women. Posts range from pictures of clothing to business infographics, so there’s an opportunity for all businesses to reach their target audience.
Graphic design skills are critical to your Pinterest success. The whole idea is people click on pins to reveal statistics, websites and blog posts. It’s so essential to make the most of your board and arrange your posts correctly.
Of all the social media platforms, we find Pinterest the most time-consuming. But, with so many users visiting the site, it’s worth it if you have the time and an artistic eye.
Honourable Mentions
Well, those are our top social media platforms for business, but we didn’t want to leave these brilliant platforms out.
Quora – An excellent site for businesses that want to build authority within their industry. Answer questions and users will upvote you if you provide sound advice.
Reddit – Not for advertising, but it’s useful for connecting with other business owners and sharing valuable information.
Things to Consider
Before you make a decision about which social media platforms to use, you should consider the following things.
Who Are You?
Before you even think about investing your time, money and energy in social media marketing, it’s crucial to think about what your business offers and who you offer it to. Is your brand a serious company, or do you take a light-hearted approach?
It’s essential to think about the impression you intend to make because sharing funny Gifs might not impress LinkedIn followers. Still, users on other platforms would appreciate the light-hearted approach.
What Do You Offer?
Are you a service-based business or do you sell products? A company offering IT solutions wouldn’t make an impression on Instagram or Pinterest, but they could find some useful connections on LinkedIn.
Think about how you can use social media to your advantage, and make a decision based on what you can do. Imagine you’re planning a post for your business and ask yourself the following questions:
- How detailed do I need my post to be?
- Is a graphic design appropriate?
- Do I want to catch my follower’s eye or offer them advice?
Where Is Your Audience?
As we discovered earlier, the majority of people over 50 don’t use Instagram. Similarly, as people reach a point in their career that they’re happy with, they don’t feel the need to use LinkedIn.
Your primary goal with your social media page is to connect with your target audience, turn them into followers and convince them to become paying customers/clients. If your audience isn’t there, then you shouldn’t be either.
Do You Need Help?
Social media marketing takes time and commitment. Merely writing a couple of sentences about what you had for lunch won’t do you any favours. People want three things from their social media use:
- Entertainment
- Information
- Connections
Some companies find it’s more cost-effective to use a social media management agency so that they can focus on other areas of their business.
The Bottom Line
Whether you choose to hire a professional agency or go it alone, social media can be highly rewarding for businesses of all sizes. All you need to do is choose from our list of the most popular social media platforms and look forward to growing your business.
Which social media platforms do you find work best for your business? We’d love to hear from you, so leave us a comment. You can also read our ultimate guide to the difference between web design and web development here.
