Whenever we start our businesses, the first thing that everybody seems to do is make an account on every social media platform. With the innovations over the past decade, a range of social media platforms has come up to support our businesses. However, signing up for each one of those just because everyone else does is not a valid reason. Every platform has a specific purpose to deliver and down below are insights on how different social media platforms can be of assistance to the growth of your business.
This platform is by far the leading social media platform with over 1.65 billion monthly users and annual growth of 15%. Facebook is probably the one platform that has revolutionized the meaning of social media for businesses. Previously it only allowed you to create a profile for yourself to share news and photos with family and friends. Now it has become one of the biggest marketing spaces with almost every company struggling to keep their fan following count up. Users spend an average of 40 minutes each day on Facebook making it a good targeting tool to make a brand name and audience for the company.
- Primary uses:
Facebook has users from almost every age group, however, young females between the age of 18-29 make up for 87% of the total users. The primary uses of this platform are to build the name of the company and a tool to interact with consumer queries via comments or messaging. - Best time frame:
The best times to post something on Facebook is between 1-3pm and the highest traffic is observed on Thursdays and Fridays. 1 or 2 posts are okay to build your company brand. - Disadvantages:
Facebook’s algorithm is ever changing and now, reaching your audience organically has become even more difficult. As of now, the platform favors only those posts from your page that have similar interests with the users. Not every one of your followers will be able to see each post. Only the ones who interact with your page regularly can.
Twitter:
This is the next best thing after Facebook. With over 750 million active monthly users, Twitter allows you to write posts, information, and news in 280 words or less. The channel can help your brand as 67% of the audience is known to buy products from the companies they follow on this social media platform. Known as “tweets”, the 280 character long messages have had an immense impact on the audience as the creative heads of companies find humor to be the best way to garner attention in the platform.
- Primary uses:
The social media has a good demographic of young adults aged between 18-29 years (about 37%) and has an audience of an equal number of genders. Primary uses include connecting with your customers vias tweets or messaging, answering their queries. Also, it is a good platform to follow your customers or similar Twitter users and divert them to websites with greater information about the company. It is also a good platform for building a fan base and relationships. - Best time frame:
The best time for B2B companies is on the weekdays which sees 14% more engagement than weekends. For B2C companies the engagement is more on Wednesdays and weekends. 1 to 3 tweets per day can help in the growth of the brand. - Disadvantages:
The lifespan of an average tweet is only 18 minutes unlike on Facebook. This means you have to constantly keep posting on this social media to be able to make a consistent performance.
Specifically designed for businesses and professionals, it has a monthly active user base of 347 million. This site is very popular among the community for its networking and professional connections.
- Primary uses:
The social media is widely popular among professionals between the age of 30 to 64 years (67%), about 50% of them are fresh college graduates and most of them are professionals with a higher income group than many of their counterparts. Primary uses are to connect with other professionals, let them know your experience of your workplace, recruit and hire employees and build a short profile of your career. - Best time frame:
By far this is the most efficient platform with only one post per weekday that is seen by 60% of your followers. - Disadvantages:
Being a purely professional community, this platform is good for businesses that target older users but isn’t of much help in connecting with the younger generation. A website building company may find a use for it but to an ice cream shop, this has no value.
Instagram is one of the platforms specifically designed to share visually appealing images and videos. It has an active user base of 300 million and more than half of its users are between the age of 18 and 29.
- Primary uses:
Its primary uses include sharing visually appealing content with respect to the business. - Best time frame:
The best time frame to post an image or video is after 5 pm when people start leaving their offices. In the morning between 2 am to 5 am is also a good time when there are lesser publishers. 2 posts per day should help increase your brand. - Disadvantages:
This platform doesn’t have a feature that allows the embedding of links in organic posts. This means if you wish to lead the customers elsewhere, it won’t be possible organically. Also, if your content is not appealing visually, you’ll face a hard time finding success here.
Knowing which social media platform is best for your company is one of the most important aspects to decide when you are building a brand. Understand that prioritizing a platform over the other is a better option if the previous provides you with better engagement and success rate.
About the author:
Algo Soft Technologies is a digital marketing agency that provides marketing services in SEO, SMM, PPC, and services in Mobile app development and website development.