What Social Media Site Your Business Should Use
Every business should be on social media.
But, not every social media platform is going to work for your business. What social media site your business should use depends on a lot of factors, such as: Is my ideal client using that social media platform? How hard will it be to reach my client if I use it? We’re going to walk you through the major players so you can decide what social media channel(s) your business needs to use.
Graph via Pew Research Center
But, before we start we want to have a quick social media use overview. It will come as no surprise that Facebook is one of the most highly used social media platforms in the world. But, Facebook is no longer the top dog. Youtube is now the most used social media platform for adults, as well as teens. After Facebook and Youtube, all user rates drop significantly to less than 35% of US adult users.
Nearly every one of these social platforms allows businesses to create paid ads to target their followers or other users. We’ve extensively covered how you can target audiences of people on Facebook, and many of these platforms work in a very similar way.
The last thing we want to warn you of, before getting into the nitty-gritty, is not to spread yourself too thin. It’s much better to really excel in one social media platform than to have six wishy-washy accounts that rarely get updated. Start off small, and once you master one channel, then start adding on other social media sites. Each social media channel is different and it’s usually not wise to just copy posts from one platform to the next, so make sure you have the resources to invest before you decide what social media platform should be next for your business.
Frankly, there is no reason not to be on Facebook. Nearly every business can reach prospective clients on Facebook, as well as grow their relationship with current clients. As of 2017 Facebook experienced nearly 2 billion active global monthly users. And even though the platform saw a dip in users in early 2018, they still have a huge user base.
Teens and young adults through adults and even the elderly are likely to be at least somewhat active on Facebook. Nearly 70% of all adult Americans use Facebook (68% to be exact). It’s downright ubiquitous. This social media site is popular among all demographic groups but used more often by women, and, it’s more likely to be used in an urban area over rural.
It’s not just that most people have Facebook profiles set up. A whopping 74% of users say that they check Facebook at least once a day, which is the most often compared with Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.
Users: Most adults and teens, favors women and people living in urban areas.
Ease of Use: Easy. Facebook lends itself not only to organized posting but off the cuff sharing as well.
Best For: All businesses and non-profit organizations.
Youtube
Youtube is currently the most popular social media site for both teens and adults, rising just above Facebook. Although slightly more American adults are Youtube users (73% to Facebook’s 68%) people check Facebook more regularly.
Although we love the high reach of Youtube, it requires a great deal more effort to participate. Sites like Facebook and most of the other social media channels are much easier. Creating high-quality Youtube videos requires tech equipment and editing know how (or requires hiring a videographer and editor) as well as an ease on camera many people don’t instinctively have.
If you have the time and videography background to make regular Youtube videos, go for it! Videos are easy for users to digest. Plus, the videos can be used elsewhere (like Facebook and Instagram TV too) to help you grow a passionate fan base around the web.
Users: Most adults and teens.
Ease of Use: Difficult. Even short videos can take hours to make, and creating them consistently can be expensive for your business.
Best For: Businesses with bigger budgets (both time and expense), and a love of the camera!
Pinterest still has a relatively large user-base with 29% of US adults utilizing the platform. That being said, when deciding what social media platform to use, it is important to know that almost all of Pinterest’s user-base, over 80%, identify as female. Another thing to keep in mind is the median age of a Pinterest user is 40 years old, but the majority of active users are younger than that.
Pinterest is only well suited to two types of businesses: sellers of physical goods that are aesthetically pleasing, or for sharing informational material (think food bloggers and fitness coaches).
Although we love Pinterest, it can be a time consuming social media platform if you really want to grow a following. You need to curate a visual aesthetic and pin content regularly (upwards of 30 pins per day) to really make an impact on Pinterest. You also need to consider what kind of content your customers are interested in seeing so you’re pinning relevant material.
Luckily, Pinterest is all about sharing, you don’t have to (and shouldn’t!) pin only your own content. Plus, if you have a bevy of blog posts, products, or images to use, you can repurpose content you already have to create great Pinterest content.
Pinterest does have the benefit of allowing businesses to create shoppable pins, as well as utilizing pins to send users straight to your product shop page.
Users: Women aged 25-45.
Ease of Use: Moderate. Although using Pinterest is inherently easy to use, it can be time-consuming to grow a following.
Best For: Aesthetically pleasing products or information sharing.
If your goal is to reach a younger audience, and you don’t have the time for Youtube, Instagram is the place to be. Instagram is the second most popular social media channel among teens with 72% of teens as regular users. For US adults, that number is much lower at just 35% regular users. In general, we would hesitate to use Instagram unless your audience is younger than 30 years old.
Instagram, like Pinterest, is all about the visuals. If you don’t have the most beautiful product in the world (or an intangible or informational product) it can be a place for you to connect with users based on your business personality and culture.
Instagram is another great place to share informational content with your users, for free. Proving to new or prospective clients that your information is valuable is helpful in gaining their trust, making the final sale easier. You can share this information on IGTV, your Instagram Stories, or share it on your feed with a running hashtag.
Users: Men and women 30 years old and younger.
Ease of Use: Easy. Anyone with a smartphone can take and share excellent Instagram content.
Best For: Businesses targeting people 30 years old or younger.
LinkedIn is the place (really, the only place) to be for Business to Business (B2B) connecting. Just 25% of US Adults are on LinkedIn, but it’s fantastic for reaching other business people. You can easily connect with people you know personally, and grow a personal following as well as your company page.
With its focus on mostly corporate jobs and businesses, it’s maybe unsurprising that the majority of LinkedIn users are college graduates. In fact, 50% of college graduates in the US utilize LinkedIn, as opposed to 9% of high school graduates. It follows that many LinkedIn users are in high-income households.
LinkedIn also allows you to use their site to share ads, but they are on the pricey side. The lowest cost per day at $10 (Facebook is typically $1 lowest cost per day).
Users: Upper middle class, college graduate, business people.
Ease of Use: Easy. Sharing on LinkedIn is similar to sharing on Facebook. Just make sure to keep the content business related.
Best For: B2B businesses.
Twitter gathers just 32% of US teens and only 24% of US Adult users. Although we may hear a lot about Twitter in the news and other media, a significant portion of the US population doesn’t use the platform. That being said, if you’re looking for what social media channel is the easiest to use, this very well could be it.
Twitter is great for scheduling content in advance but is particularly good for off the cuff content. Twitter is one of the more interactive social media channels and, being mostly text-based, is great for intangible products. It is a great platform for reaching niche sub-cultures and for interacting with media outlets. It’s also an excellent tool to use for customer service and for opening communication with your customers.
Users: Teens and young adults.
Ease of Use: Easy.
Best For: Growing trust with current clients as opposed to finding new clients.
Snapchat
With a whopping 69% of teens using the app, Snapchat is really only useful for reaching teens and very young adults. Although Snapchat recently lost a great deal of it’s fan-base by changing their algorithm several months ago, it’s still very popular with young audiences. The update made the content no longer in chronological order as it once was, and more likely to intersperse ads with friend’s content.
Snapchat works exactly like Instagram Stories, but without the permanent feed like Instagram. This requires more consistent updating rather than Instagram where you can save more content.
Users: Teens and young adults.
Ease of Use: Easy.
Best For: Sharing fun, teen-centric content.
We don’t recommend any business to bank on Reddit as a way to gain new customers. In fact, we recommend avoiding Reddit except for using the platform to host an AMA. An AMA (short for Ask Me Anything) is a staple of the culture of Reddit. It can be useful for larger businesses when you have a new launch, or particularly interesting skill set to allow Reddit users to ask you questions. These AMAs are typically done live in real time but scheduled in advance to gather attention ahead of time.
Otherwise, Redditors (Reddit users) typically frown upon businesses using the platform for promotion. Many subreddits (subgroups on the site) can explicitly ban the practice.
Users: Adult males.
Ease of Use: Easy.
Best For: Not recommended for business.
Tumblr
Tumblr is a platform somewhat similar to Instagram and Pinterest, but with a great deal fewer users. Again, this is a platform most often utilized by teens rather than adults. Tumblr is used mostly as an image sharing site as well as a blog host. We do not recommend blogging on Tumblr because its options are very limited. Because many teens are more likely to be found elsewhere, it’s likely to be a better use of your time to focus on a more utilized social media platform like Instagram.
Users: Teens.
Ease of Use: Easy.
Best For: Not recommended for business.
At Get Online NOLA we live for social media marketing. Want to chat about where you need to be online? Lets set up a free strategy session!