What social media platform should I use for my business?

Do I need to be on Social Media?

Yes you do. Why? Because everyone is on Social Media,  well not everyone but there are 2.8 billion social media uses!

Thanks to mobile devices, It’s become a habit for people to check in on their socials all throughout the day. People spend on average 2.5 hours a day on socials, that’s a whole lot of time and it continues to rise every year.

https://www.jeffbullas.com/hootsuite-vs-buffer/

https://www.spredfast.com/social-media-tips/social-media-demographics-current

You need to be on Social Media if:

You have something to offer

This is extremely important. Whether you sell products, offer a service, write a blog, have a Youtube channel, it’s important to understand what value you are adding to someone. What problems are you solving for your customer, client, reader, viewer? If you don’t have something to offer that is of value to someone, then what are you going to share on social media apart from the odd selfie?  So if you have content that is valuable then you need to be sharing it on social media, if you don’t have content that is worth sharing, you need to start creating content that is valuable to your customer.    As they say “Content is fire and social media is gasoline” Jay Baer.

What do I mean by valuable content?  When you are looking at your Facebook feed, what things make you stop and look at or read or watch?  Is it a beautiful image that makes you grateful to be alive? Is it content that inspires you to be a better person?  Is it a yummy looking donut that makes you want to get in your car to find your nearest donut shop?  Is it a really awesome offer that you can’t pass up because it is going to solve a certain problem you are having or make your life simpler or more streamline. No matter what industry you are in, you really need to think about the content you are adding and if it is of any value to your customer or potential customer.

So in response to “Do I need to be on social media?” if you have a business and you want to find new customers,  then social media is definitely a good place to hang out on, provide valuable content for your customer and start engaging with your audience.

So what social media platforms should you be on?

To figure this out we first need to understand who your target customer is, then we need to understand what demographics hang out on what social media platforms.  And finally we need to understand the purpose of each social media platform and why people hang out on each one.

Who is your target customer?

This is such an important step not just to figure out what social media platforms to hang out on but to figure out your complete brand, from how you communicate to your customer in person and online what words you use, how you say it. To what your brand looks like, your logo, what colours, fonts and images you use. But since we are just looking at Social Media today, if you know and understand your target customer it will help you figure out what social media platform they are hanging out on and therefore where you should be spending your time on social media, building your presence and engaging with your audience.

So make sure you figure out who is your target customer. You can download this Customer Avatar PDF to help you get started in thinking about your target customer. I will be doing another Blog on how to work out your target customer so watch out for it.

What are the Demographics of each platform? Or who hangs out where?

Understanding who hangs out on what social media platform is super important in figuring out where you should hang out. Just imagine, your business is all about selling amazing tour packages for grey nomads, so people retiring in their  60’s and 70’s.  You decide to spend a load of money advertising and posting content on Instagram because it’s a great place to show images of all the amazing places you are going to visit on your tours.  You might start to wonder why you are not getting any traction. The reason is only 8% of that demographic use Instagram. Whereas over 65% of people in that age group are on Facebook.

Another example. You have a range of natural makeup and want to show young girls how to do their makeup so it looks fresh and natural and since you love Linkedin you decide to post your content on Linkedin. Not realizing that no one in your target market hangs out on Linkedin, they are on Snapchat and Instagram.

Check out these great infographics below for each Social Media platform by Spredfast

They make it easier to understand who is hanging out on each social platform

What is each social media platform used for?

Now that you have figured out who your target market is and you have a bit better understanding of what demographics hang out on what platform, the next thing to consider is what each platform is used for. I just love this comical illustration by Wrong Hands that relate each social media platform to how we use to do things back in the day.  There is no Snapchat on there though, so maybe snapchat is like the passing of a rainbow in the window, that only last 5 secs then it’s gone from your life.

So lets have a brief look at what each Social Media Platform is predominantly used for and who should be on it.

Facebook

Facebook was initially used for connecting University students.  It has changed a lot since then and is now used for sharing everything and anything.  For business, it can be hard to have a large reach due to all the algorithms but if you have a marketing budget you can reach quite a large audience with paid Facebook advertising as long as you are providing valuable content for your audience.

Facebook is great if you are targeting Baby Boomers (born early 1940’s to early 1960’s), Generations X (born early 1960’s- early 1980’s) and Generation Y also known as Millennials (born early 1980’s-early 2000’s) because they are generally most engaged on this platform and the average age of users on Facebook is much higher than other social media platforms.

Twitter

Twitter is a platform to keep you up to date with current news and events happening around the world in short 280 character posts’.  Twitter is a great place to respond to your customers directly and answer questions. It’s a great place to engage with other industry leaders, so if B2B (Business to Business) is your game then this is a great place to hang out.

Instagram

Instagram is used for sharing photo’s, and now you can also share video’s. Instagram is great for any industry that has something visually pleasing to look at, such as travel, fashion, beauty, food, home and interior design. Lifestyle topics perform the best on Instagram, especially if your target audience is women between the ages of 16 and 40 years old

Linkedin

LinkedIn is a great place for professionals to network, find jobs and showoff all of your knowledge and skills. This platform is great for sharing content specifically for professionals and it a great place to be if you target are other businesses.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a platform where users can share photo’s and video’s in real time to give them a live perspective of what they’re doing. Snapchat content disappears after it is viewed, or if it is added to the user’s story, it expires after 24 hours.

It is considered the best way to reach teenagers  So, if your target customer is younger Millenials (born early 2000s’) and Generation Z (born mid 1990’s – mid 2000’s), this is where you should be.

Pinterest

Just like Instagram, Pinterest is all about the visuals. Pinterest users engage and interact with content on the platform by uploading their own pins, pinning content from a website they love or by repinning content that is already on the platform. It’s a great platform for finding content to create dream/mood boards for your design goals for your home, wedding, colour.

If you are in the Interior, home, design, food, travel or wedding industry then you should be on Pinterest. The lifestyle industries do well on Pinterest because users are collecting inspiration for their own design goals. 

Youtube

Youtube has a very captive audience with users spending the most amount of time on this platform at any given time, generally because they are watching How to video’s, entertainment, current affairs etc. If your target are males over 40 then Youtube is the place to be. It’s also just a great place to host your video content that you can then share across your platforms.

So what social media platform should you be on?

Gary Vee will tell you to be on all of them. And eventually, you should be. However when starting out it is OK just to start with two and then get really good on them, then add another one, and another and another. 

My advice is to be on the two where your target customer is and focus on creating great content that adds value to their life.

So if you have a home decor business that target women 20-40, pick Instagram and Pinterest.

If you have a fashion label for teens – get on Snapchat and Instagram

An Accounting firm that targets medium-sized business – get on LinkedIn and Facebook

Software as a Service – Twitter and Linkedin.

Social Media Scheduling Tools

Social media marketing can take up a lot of time, so allocating time to work on your posts instead of just doing it here and there can definitely help your brain cope.  Set aside an amount of time to work on it each week and get 5, 10 posts done at one stage. These can then be scheduled to post every day, second day or every week depending on how many posts you have created. You can then go in and add spontaneous photos or live video’s in between.

How to schedule your social media posts?

You could get a calendar just for social media and write down on each day what you want to post. You can relate the post to relevant events happening at that time of the year or holidays such as Christmas or Valentine’s day. Then during your allocated time each week go and make those post, whether it be taking photo’s, styling rooms, creating an infographic or writing a quote. Mix it up, do 4 value adding posts, then a spontaneous post or video and then a sales post. 

Tools to schedule your social media content

Two of the most well know scheduling apps are Hootsuite and Buffer

Hootsuite 

Hootsuite has a free account for only 30 days, then it will cost about $30/month. You can post for up to 3 platforms to and up to 30 posts. The tool lets you manage your social media strategies across multiple networks from one single dashboard. You can schedule, publish, source content, respond and easily monitor all your social media activity using this tool. The Hootsuite auto-scheduler even understands the optimal time to post on your social networks and schedules your post accordingly. It does not cover Pinterest. Hootsuit is great for Larger Scale businesses.

Buffer

Buffer has an option for a Free account for life. You can have up to 3 platforms to schedule and up to 10 posts. Buffer can post images direct to Instagram – but you will have to upload video’s.  I have played with Buffer and it is a really nice interface. Buffer is a more affordable option for Sole Traders or small businesses.

Facebook

Facebook has its own scheduling tool which is probably the best way to schedule for Facebook. You can create as many posts as you like and then schedule them to post at a certain date and time.

PLANN

PLANN is an Instagram only scheduler and it stores your posts you’ve created and reminds you when to post through notifications. It has a grid layout so you can see how your posts will look in the grid format. There is a free version and paid version.

Remember, Sanity is better than Insanity, so take your time and don’t compare yourself to what others are doing. Go your own pace and provide real value to your customers. I believe Quality is definitely better than Quantity. 

Leisa