Social media marketing is a vast and popular form of marketing that every business should leverage. If your business is not on social media then you might be losing out on a lot of money. So many users are on social media and your customers are surely one of them. Waiting to have you come to them before your competitors do so.
However, despite the need to get your business on social media, choosing the best platform is as important as choosing to leverage on social media. The number of social media marketing platforms existing today gives you a lot of choices. But that is the tricky part, you must not try to be on several platforms at once if your resources are limited.
There are strategies and points you should bear in mind when choosing a social media platform to get your business on. In this article, we will walk you through a guide to help you choose the perfect social media platform for your business.
Here are six(6) tips to help you make the right decision;
- Identify your audience persona
- Put your business into consideration
- Find out all you can about your competitors
- Identify your goals
- Understand the way each platform works
- Be conscious of your available resources
Six(6) Tips To Help You Choose The Right Social Media Platform For Your Business
1. Identify Your Audience Persona: The most important tip you must consider when working on your social media marketing strategy is identifying your audience. You must know who your audience is to choose the best platform to use for your business.
Where does your audience hang out on social media? What are their interests? What kind of content will they like to see? Are your audience members of gen z, millennials or gen x? How interactive is your audience on social media?
With this information, you should be narrowing your choices down to which platforms to consider. Randomly choosing any social media platform might cause you to create content for the wrong audience without result.
For example, if your audience prefers more visual content then you should be considering Instagram. If they are more professionally oriented then you should be considering LinkedIn.
2. Consider Your Business: Before you choose a social platform you must consider your business.
What kind of products or services do you offer? Are you more in the creative industry? Are you a more visual brand? Maybe you are into art or music. Or you could be a food brand, beauty brand. You could also be a large B2B corporation.
All of this should affect your choices. As a brand that deals a lot with pictures and visually appealing content, Pinterest, Instagram, etc should be on your list.
If you are more of a B2B company with a lot of professional inclination then LinkedIn should top your list.
Your brand specifications should affect where your business should be.
3. Find Out All You Can About Your Competitors: This is the part where you research your competitors and know what they are doing. You must not necessarily replicate what they are doing but it will serve as a guide.
Here, what you are looking out for is to know which social media marketing platforms your competitor are using. How much audience participation are they enjoying? Have they recorded success on these platforms? What kind of content are they sharing on the platform?
These and many others will help you decide where you should look. You could also spot a gap, probably a platform they are not using and yet holds much potential for your industry.
4. Identify Your Social Media Marketing Goals: Another aspect you should look out for is the goal you have set for your brand. Whether you are already an existing brand that wants to expand or a new brand, considering your goals are paramount.
Some social media platforms are better for building awareness while some are better for conversions. Some brands even use social media for customer support. For that reason, you should establish what you want to achieve with social media when starting.
5. Understanding How Each Platforms Work: For every platform, there is a way of communication and personality. To break even on a particular social media platform you must understand how it works.
For instance, Twitter is a great platform for trending topics whereas LinkedIn is one where you can share your brand’s professional expertise and information.
Both Instagram and Facebook have disappearing posts but Snapchat was the first to introduce them. Understanding how the different social media channels work will not only guide your decision but help you to communicate effectively in the channel.
6. Determine Your Available Resources: Social media is an industry. It is a commitment and it requires a lot of time to grow. You have to tend it, nurture and grow it. It will also soak up all your time and you will still wonder if you are making results at all.
Keeping in mind your available resources will help you channel positive energy where it should go. If you have only seven(7) hours in a week for your social media platforms then you need to keep your platforms to just a few.
But if you have a full-time person with more time for your social media platform then you could have several others. Before you open a new social media account on another channel ask yourself if you are ready and have the resources to manage it.
Bonus tip: Instead of opening several social channels, focus on just a few(one or two) that you can effectively manage. Achieve a certain level of success on that one then open a new channel and boost it using the influence of the first channel.
Final Words,
If you have more than one social media platform, then bear in mind that your communication pattern must be peculiar to each. You can not share the same content on all of your social channels. They must be tailored to what each requires. Social media marketing is an effective marketing strategy in which every brand should actively be involved. With the right marketing strategy on social media, you will be on your way to success.
Which social media platform do you think is best for you and why? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section.
