Introduction
If you’ve ever asked yourself – “which social media is best for business?” then this post will be for you. We have personally used each powerful and mini social media platform individually, although we use several of them in tandem.
In recent years, social media has become an essential source of exposure for businesses. It allows them to promote their products and effectively grow their followers. Since there are so many social networks today, it can be overwhelming for a business to decide which platform to focus on the most.
Social media platforms have become a common way for marketers to reach new customers. The good thing is that you can find customers for different industries on social media. However, with the high number of social media platforms available, selecting the right one for your business can be challenging.
In this article, you will be learning about the top social media marketing platforms, the kind of audience they can help you reach, and the goals they can help you accomplish. You may want to use all of them, but the fact is that some social media platforms are more suitable for marketing than others. It means that you need to ensure that you’re using the right social media platform depending on the target audience for your business. This way, your marketing campaigns will be more effective in terms of reach, conversions, and revenue that your business will generate.
Why Market on Social Media Platforms?
The number of people using social media platforms globally has been rising for the past decade. The number of active social media users is expected to hit 3 billion before 2020.
Great marketing on social media can make your business successful by driving leads and sales. Some of the leading social media platforms in terms of population include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. These platforms have reshaped people’s lives in terms of how they communicate and exchange content on the internet. Your customers are already interacting with brands from your competitors on social media. You will miss out if you don’t speak to your customers on social media platforms.
Social media marketing platforms can help you achieve your marketing goals, such as:
- Increasing website traffic
- Raising brand awareness
- Building conversions
- Improving interaction and communication with key audiences
- Creating a brand identity and positive brand association
The more you engage your audience on social media platforms, the easier it will become for you to achieve other marketing goals.
Top Social Media Marketing Platforms
Here is the list of social media marketing platforms that you can consider marketing your brand on:
1. Facebook
Facebook has more than 2.27 billion active monthly users, making it your number one choice. With the Facebook Ads Manager, you can create ads that target users based on age, location, gender, relationship status, level of education, interests, job title, purchase behavior, device usage, etc.
A Facebook business page is a must for each company, but ensure that you update your page regularly. Facebook also allows you to create Custom Audiences from the list of phone numbers or email addresses that you’ve collected to reach the current customers. You can also use Facebook Pixel to target the customers who have visited your website.
2. Twitter
Twitter has an average of 186 million daily active users.
It is a fast-paced platform, and many users visit it to get new information. It makes it a good marketing platform for companies that publish original content regularly. Twitter also makes it easy for its users to share links to new blog posts and pages, and if you do it regularly, you will send users directly to your latest content. If you develop the habit of sharing valuable and informative content from other sources, you will create your reputation as an authority in your industry.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is known as the primary social networking site for professionals.
You can use it to update your customers on your business, recruit new team members, and connect with industry partners. Since it’s a professional network, it makes the best choice for B2B social media marketing. Forbes ranks it as the best platform for generating leads, and it accounts for 46% of the social media traffic that generates on company websites for B2B firms.
4. Instagram
Facebook owns Instagram, and it boasts more than a million monthly active users. It has similar advertising options as Facebook.
Instagram is a visual platform that allows you to showcase the personality of your business. It is not a text-heavy platform, and it doesn’t allow links within posts. The good thing is that you have access to several tools that you can use to improve the creative experience of your audience. Instagram is the best platform for your business if you need to reach your customers through photos and videos. You can post pictures of your products and ask your followers to do the same.
Instagram hashtags are also an excellent way for marketers to reach a wider audience, and this audience can be expanded further through the Instagram stories or Instagram Live Video feature. Instagram also provides advertising options for businesses, which are accessible through Facebook.
5. YouTube
YouTube has over 2 billion registered users. It is the best social media platform to highlight the company culture and create tutorials and demonstrations.
If your company is capable of creating its content, YouTube can be an excellent platform for connecting to users. Apart from the views you get directly on the forum, you can also use YouTube to host videos embedded on your site. Visual content is an effective way of engaging site visitors. It gives you a reason to create an account on YouTube.
6. Pinterest
Pinterest has over 400 million monthly active users, and it’s a social media platform for sharing products.
If you have an eCommerce business, Pinterest is a MUST for you. 87% of pinners have purchased an item because of Pinterest. You can upload individual photos alongside short descriptions and links to the product page. Pinterest also has a built-in shopping feature that makes it easier for businesses to promote their products on their site.
The marketer can use rich pins to give context to a product, article, recipe, and app pins and use their advertising options to reach more users. It gives marketers an easy way of directing traffic to their product pages and connecting with potential customers.
7. Reddit
Reddit has more than 430 million monthly active users.
It is a good platform for audience or content reach and interacting with niche audiences. Reddit provides users with similar interests with a platform where they can share ideas. The users can share links and content or ask questions on topic groups known as subreddits. The good thing is that there are subreddits for nearly any topic.
Marketers can use Reddit as a research tool to know what their audience is talking about and then create content based on that. Besides research, Reddit provides its users with advertising options to help them get their businesses in front of interested users.
8. Snapchat
Snapchat has more than 238 million daily active users.
It is a good platform for sending real-time updates and promoting events. Snapchat allows its users to post photos and videos that remain active on the platform for 24 hours. It makes it suitable for businesses that need to promote timely events, like product launches or conferences.
It also allows marketers to create custom; branded geotags to promote events in particular locations during a specific period. Snapchat is a well-known platform for an audience that skews younger, making it the best platform to target college students.
9. Tumblr
Tumblr is a microblogging platform that does not perfectly fit in the list of social media platforms, but it’s a site to help you reach a target audience aged between 16 and 34 years.
Tumblr has the youngest demographic of all social media sites, and its users are very active. It has 507.2 million registered blogs. However, if you’re not familiar with the platform, it can be challenging for you to market your brand on it.
10. TikTok
TikTok social media platform has more than 689 million monthly active users from across the globe.
It is an excellent platform to help you give users a peek behind your business scenes and take part in viral trends. It allows its users to share short videos for various purposes. These short videos can be viral dances, quick tutorials, and comedic kits. Besides sharing videos about your business, you can also use TikTok’s advertising features to promote your business.
Limitations of Using Social Media Marketing Platforms
Although social media marketing platforms allow marketers to expose their brands to potential customers, they are associated with several challenges.
Some of the challenges of using social media marketing platforms include the following:
- Not Built for Business
The social media marketing platforms were not built for business but for connecting two or more people. Social media users don’t have “buying intent.” - Costly
It’s costly to create and run marketing ads on social media platforms. The ad costs also increase as you target a wider audience. - Time-Consuming
A lot of time is required to run social media marketing ads. One has to stay active and engage potential customers constantly. - Technical Expertise Needed
Technical know-how is needed for one to design, create, and run social media ads. If you don’t have it, it may be a challenge for you to market on social media marketing platforms.
Conclusion
In this article, you’ve learned why you should use social media marketing platforms and discovered today’s top social media marketing platforms. But, if you want to integrate your marketing data from multiple platforms and then analyze your performance.
For many businesses, choosing which social media to focus on or add to their marketing plan isn’t easy. Most companies have already established a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but beyond those three options, it gets murky. Most companies don’t want to be caught dead on Reddit or TikTok (or at least they should not), and they rarely consider LinkedIn marketing because they don’t want to look like job seekers.
We know that social media is a crucial tool for most businesses, but how are you supposed to pick just one social media site to focus on? Well, the good news is that you aren’t. As we’ve seen above, there’s no denying that these social media sites have unique qualities and abilities to offer. But if you’re still torn as to which one you should be focusing on, don’t fret—your business can probably benefit from all of these platforms. By following this principle, your business will have access to an even more well-rounded reach than it would otherwise have. And if you really can’t decide where to start? Go with Facebook—it’s the do-all king of social media platforms.
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