How to Choose the Right Social Media Platform

In today’s world, social media is an integral part of the marketing mix for many businesses and there are lot to choose from. With so many platforms available, a company should approach their social media participation armed with key audience demographic and internal branding information.

Knowing your audience is the most important principle in marketing. This is even more important when choosing a social media platform. Every channel has their target audiences and a company must make sure that they are aligned with whatever channel they may choose. “One of the greatest innovations of technology is social media, not just in our ability to communicate but in our ability to market directly to those we want to reach” (Sachs, 2017). A marketer needs to know everything about their audience from age to race to behaviors and they must find the social network that gets them directly in front of their audience. “Discover all relevant communities of interest and observe the choices, challenges, impressions, and wants of the people within each network” (Solis, 2010).

For example, if you are marketing your business and products to millenials, Facebook may not be the best place to find them. “60% of snapchat users in the U.S. are under the age of 24 and with more than 100 million users consuming 30 minutes of content every day, it's a goldmine for businesses targeting millennials” (Wertz, 2017). While a huge juggernaut in the industry, Facebook attracts slightly older audiences. “American women and men between the ages of 25 - 54 make up 32% and 29% of Facebook users, respectively” (Wertz, 2017).

Another factor in choosing a social media platform is the brand image of the company. More visual businesses work better on highly visual platforms such as Instagram or Pinterest. “Determine the identity, character, and personality of the brand and match it to the persona of the individuals representing it online” (Solis, B). For example, an energy company would choose LinkedIn because of the networking and business atmosphere. It would understand that their brand image is of a more serious nature, so having staff members posting pictures with filters on Snapchat is just not beneficial for them to spend the time and money on a social platform that goes against its brand image.

Once a company has figured out what social media networks work for their audience and brand, the decision on how many to use comes into play. The key to finding the correct answer to this question is making an honest assessment of how much the company can handle. Social media takes work. Not only is content being produced, but there is a requirement to engage with the audience that needs to be considered. “Content without conversation is just broadcasting, or just advertising” (Novak, 2010).

If a company cannot be consistent with this, it may be best to stick with and master one social media platform until they are ready to use another. “More than anything, you have to think of yourself as a publisher. If, say, BusinessWeek just decided to skip a week, most readers would freak out. You have to take the same mindset when you’re doing content and social” (Greenberg, 2009).

For most small, local businesses, one platform may be all they can handle when also dealing with the task of running a business. An example of this would be a bakery that I freelance for. The owner is very interested in social media and is excited to be on them all. My suggestion to her was to first master Facebook to get a handle on the time commitment needed. After a month of working with her on her social media presence, she agreed that with her focus being on baking, she did not have the time or money to do more than one social platform. My recommendation to her for Facebook went back to that audience and brand analysis that is needed from the beginning. Based on her target consumer being female, between the ages of 30-50, with a household income of around $50-$100,000, I knew that Facebook, with an estimated 1.6 billion users, with 32% being women between the ages of 25-34, and with 72% of users making above $75K, would be the platform with the most exposure to her audience (Aslam, 2017).

Once my client felt she could handle more with social media, I would suggest Pinterest because of its visually enticing web design that would better highlight her cakes and its ability to attract more of a female audience. “For female-focused companies, Pinterest is the way to go because of its significant reach among women; 42% of online women are Pinterest users. 34% of users are between the ages of 18 - 29 and 28% are between 30 - 49, which creates a wide demographic of women who can be reached on this platform” (Wertz, 2017).

For larger companies whose manpower and budgets are larger, then using multiple platforms that work for their audience is encouraged. One example of a company using and engaging on social media in a large way is Southwest Airlines. Based on their need to be on almost all of the social platforms, they have created a special department just for that. “One year ago, Southwest started a 30-person “social business” department that would be at the center of the entire company’s operations. The people in the unit also work with every single other department at the company, including operations, logistics and even human resources” (Pathak, 2015). The airline makes sure that they are not only posting about themselves, but solving customer issues, creating conversations about various topics, and most importantly, listening to all talk on the net about themselves, their competitors, and the industry as a whole. ““The litmus test, of course, is the bandwidth,” said Midkiff. “There are three times as many social platforms as resources, so the worst thing would be to get somewhere and not have people to be on it full time” (Pathak, 2015).

In summary, companies should first decide on what best suits their brand and their customers before they commit to any one social media platform. Once that is determined, then they must assess what they can handle. There is nothing wrong with a company using only one social media because that gives them a better chance to develop their audience in a more organic way.

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References:

Aslam, S. 2017. Facebook by the Numbers: Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts. Omnicore. Retrieved from https://www.omnicoreagency.com/facebook-statistics/.

Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. MultichannelMerchant.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/1020-content-social-marketing/.

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king.

Pathak, S. 2015. How Southwest Airlines turned social media into social business. DigiDay. Retrieved from https://digiday.com/marketing/southwest-airlines-turned-social-media-social-business/.

Rosenberg, J. 2017. With many social media options, small businesses need focus. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/small-business/2017/05/17/many-social-media-options-small-businesses-need-focus/101804946/.

Sachs, J. 2017. The 7 best social media channels for business marketing. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-entrepreneur-council/the-10-best-social-media_b_11654820.html.

Solis, B. (2010). 21 rules for social media engagement. Mashable. Retrieved January 2, 2011, from: http://mashable.com/2010/05/18/rules-social-media-engagment/.

Wertz, J. 2017. Which social media platforms are right for your business? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2017/02/18/which-social-media-platforms-are-right-for-your-business/#288e27d712a2.