Over 4.74 billion people in the world are currently active on social media, making it the ideal avenue for you to grow your brand and generate sales prospects. However, with new social media platforms surfacing every day, choosing the right social media platform for your business can be a serious challenge.
Here are 5 tips to help you choose the right social media site for your brand.
- Know Your Audience
Different age groups and socioeconomic cohorts gravitate to different services. So, identifying your marketing demographic is a vital part of choosing the right social media platform for your brand. A Twitter profile, like this one, might be perfect to market a finance institution, while TikTok may be a better choice for a teen fashion brand. Find out where your ideal customer hangs out and focus your efforts there.
- Establish Your Business’s Goals
Although the major social media websites offer similar features, not all platforms are alike. If your goal is to build brand awareness and customer loyalty, an interactive platform like Facebook or Twitter is a good choice. These platforms allow for a high degree of engagement, through comments, polls and other interactive media. If your objective, however, is to increase traffic to your website, a social sharing platform like Pinterest is often more effective.
The type of media you’ll be sharing is also relevant. Platforms like Pinterest don’t lend themselves well to videos, whereas TikTok and YouTube are exclusively for this type of content. Research what types of media the platform supports before signing up.
- Scope out Your Competitors
A good way to determine which social media platforms appeal to your customer base is to monitor your competitors. By checking their likes and follows on each platform, you can easily establish where the greatest engagement comes from and which platforms aren’t worth your time.
- Monitor Analytics
Social media marketing success often involves a degree of trial. A successful marketer understands the importance of taking risks and trying new strategies. Establish what works and what doesn’t by utilising a robust analytics program. With a free basic service and a formidable number of features, Google Analytics is a firm favourite among small businesses. Analytic programs can tell you more than just which of your social media profiles is getting the most traffic – it can break down the performance of individual posts and even help you establish the most active time of day on each platform.
- Understand Trends
A recent report from Wall Street Journal indicates that Instagram is experiencing a significant drop off in user engagement, while relative newcomer TikTok continues to thrive. The Internet moves at lightning speed. To keep your brand relevant, you must constantly reassess which social media platforms are on the rise and which are falling out of favour, then align your content strategy accordingly.
Your social media marketing strategy can make or break your business. By following these 5 simple tips, you can choose the right social media platforms to meet your brand objectives in 2023.