Social media can reap a lot of benefits, but with there being over 100 different social media platforms it can be tough to decide which one is best for your marketing strategy. social media for marketing is constantly changing and understanding the future of social media might help you better understand which platforms you should be focusing your marketing efforts.
Social media for marketing – The purpose of different social media platforms
Each social platform has unique functions that can be more beneficial depending on your marketing goals. Twitter can be great for brand visibility through hashtags, Facebook works well for promoting to your followers, and Instagram can allow you to reach new people with Reels and sell your items right there on your Instagram account. Here we will take a look at the top social media and their primary functions.
YouTube
YouTube is regarded as one of the best social media platforms for marketing. YouTube is varied in its audience and, with people watching 16 hours of video per week, it’s a great platform to get your business name out there and build a following. YouTube does offer paid ads with in-depth targeting on your audience making it easy to get in front of the right people. One of the biggest benefits of YouTube is having a company YouTube channel. YouTube videos could be used to provide entertainment, give tutorials, be informative and so much more!
Instagram have recently adjusted their focus to promoting their “Instagram reels” feature which has created a huge opportunity for businesses to promote products to the 600 million user base Instagram has. The new reels feature has allowed businesses to quickly grow their following and reach a new consumer base. However, reels are short videos meaning that some businesses may not see this approach as relevant for them. If this is the case, Instagram allows you to post standard feed posts and story posts but this has less reach.
Facebook pulls in the biggest numbers when it comes to user base, sadly this follows the same system as Instagram. Facebook has a main focus of videos (not short videos) that have a high reach whilst their main posts are mostly limited to those who following the page. Similar to Instagram, if your company is not producing video content then Facebook might not be the best approach for your marketing. On the other hand, if you’re producing video content, you could see fast quality growth through Facebook.
LinkedIn is a great professional social media platform. As a form of marketing for your business, this social media is a must. Whilst it might not have the reach of YouTube or Instagram, LinkedIn let’s you get in front of business, professionals, and a large amount of potential customers. LinkedIn has a great audience for businesses and a good amount of organic reach is possible on this social media without videos.
Twitter is another social media with good reach that is not video focused. Twitter’s hashtag focus system allows you to identify trends and find growth opportunities using those trending hashtags. Another great feature of Twitter is their retweet system which allows for huge reach starting from your follows retweeting (sharing) your content.
So, what is the best social media?
There is nothing that works for everyone. We have to figure it out and decide on what platforms will suit your needs. This question helps people decide on which social sites to choose: Happy postings! There seems to be more Facebook pages. It can be difficult for small businesses to find social media. There are just too few hours for a person sitting at every platform.
Each social media has its own advantages and disadvantages. At the end of the day, the social media that is best for you is dependent on what you’re offering. To better understand which social media is going to work best for your business, there are some things you should consider.
What are your social media goals?
Goals vary across businesses and it’s important that you’re on the right social media that is aligned with your goals. Some businesses want to utilise social media for sales, some businesses use it for awareness, whilst some businesses use it to simply provide information on their business functions to customers.
Take a data-based approach
If you already have social media accounts up and running, you could dive into that data to find out what is and is not working currently. If you’re yet to start a social media or have very little insights into what social medias are best for you business, a good tip is to look at your competitors. What social medias do they focus on? What content do they post? Understanding what your competitors are currently doing will give you great insight into what you should do with your social media.
What’s working for you now?
If you do have social media currently running, this is how to identify what is working for you:
Check referral traffic from Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the best way to understand where website traffic is coming from. To understand which social media is driving the most traffic, go to “Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium”.
Identify high-engagement platforms
Once you’re on the source/medium section of Google Analytics, you can identify the high-engagement platform and that could be a key insight into what is going to work for fast results when trying to grow your socials.
Final Thoughts
Every business will find different social media platforms better for the growth of their business. Understanding what is working for you, for your competitors, and what social media is best aligned with your goals is the best preparation you can take to starting your social media growth journey. If you want to experience consistent growth on social media, reach out to social media experts for advice.
