How To Pick The Best Social Media Platform For Your Business

Social media has become a key part of any business and marketing strategy, but with so many to choose from, it’s important to focus on the platforms that serve your business best. Here are 4 quick tips to picking the best social media platform for your business. 

Know your audience

To know which social media platform is best for your business, it’s essential to know your audience and which platform you’re likely to find them on. Social media is a great tool for promoting your business to potential customers, but if you aren’t on the right platform, even the savviest social posts won’t have an effect. Demographics are key when pairing your audience to a social media platform. If your target audience are young people, you may want to use Instagram, whereas Facebook’s demographic has now evolved into more of a platform for older users.  

Define your goals

Once you know your audience, you need to define goals for that audience. Your primary goal is likely be to drive sales by attracting customers, however this can differ from your creative goals to be carried out on social media. For example, some brands use social media to drive brand recognition and engage with potential customers. Fast food chain Wendys has become very well known for their punchy, funny social media on Twitter that has increased their brand profile. This modern relevance is great for a brand that has been around for a long time! 

Other brands  use social media as an additional touchpoint for their customers or potential customers to make contact with them. Netflix uses the Twitter handle @Netflixhelps to address customer service issues. Not only does it free up their phone lines, but it gives satisfied customers an opportunity to promote their brand.

Examine the type of content you create

The type of content you create will depend on a number of things, including your industry, your brand, and your target audience, but content types you may focus on include:

– Blog posts

– Podcasts

– Testimonials

– User-generated content

– Webinars and livestreams

– Ebooks

– Whitepapers

– Videos

– Photographs

Different types of content work better with certain social media platforms, so it’s integral that you consider the type of content you like to create and that works best with your brand. Instagram is a very visual medium, so may suit businesses who specialise in design or landscaping, or anything where you can show off striking images and wow people. If your content is long-form, like whitepapers, then you’ll certainly need more than just caption space so a platform like LinkedIn may be a better fit.

Research Your Competitors

You should always know what your competitors are doing. Check the social media pages of your competitor set and note content they’re posting, how often they post and how much engagement they are gaining from that content. You can use this information to inform which social media platform you should be on, as well as seeing the kind of content that yields the best results. It’s also a great opportunity to see what content your competitors aren’t creating, and see if there is a gap you can fill.

For assistance on setting up your social media channels or tips effective web design have a look at our blog or get in touch with us at info@helloslate.co.uk