Which social media platform should my business be on?

F​or many businesses, social media is an indispensable tool for finding and engaging with customers, improving sales, advertising and promoting products and services as well as gauging trends and offering customer service.

Social media has a significant role in helping businesses as it:

• facilitates communication with customers thus enabling the blending of social interactions on e-commerce sites.
• offers the ability to collect information and thus helps focus marketing efforts and market research.
• helps in promoting products and services by enabling the distribution of focused, timely and exclusive sales and coupons to would-be customers.
• can assist in relationship building, such as through loyalty programs linked to social media.

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While 76% of direct sellers use social media for promotional purposes, 55% use it for recruiting new distributors and 42% use it for reactive purposes. Consumers are the most popular target for social media, followed by distributors and communities. Social media has evolved into a driver of strategy, and will become even more important in the future as customer relationships are improved and  developed by listening and reacting to concerns. The transparency created by social media is enhancing trust and ethical organisational cultures. In addition, consumer brand communities are emerging that are increasing brand value.

1 – Facebook
This is easily the largest social networking site in the world and one of the most widely used.

Facebook was perhaps the first that surpassed the landmark of 1 billion user accounts.

An average Facebook user has 180 friends.

Apart from the ability to network with friends and relatives, different Facebook apps can be accessed to sell online and market or promote a businesses brand and products by using paid Facebook ads.

Facebook has incredible insights about their users and can target very specific demographics with very specific ads. Facebook ads are shown more regularly to advertisers who are willing to pay more than other advertisers targeting the same people.

This creates a bidding war and makes advertising campaigns that focus on a small niche more profitable.

Number of active users per month: approximately 1.7 billion 

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• It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Facebook is in the number one position on the list of social media sites used by businesses. With 1.5 billion daily active users, Facebook is the most widely used social platform with 2.167 billion users as of January 2018.
• Whether your business goal is brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation, or online conversions, Facebook should (and more than likely will) make a notable difference in reaching your goals when used properly.
• Facebook’s wide user base and demographic of users is the main reason it’s at the top of our list; almost anyone can find their target audience on this platform and get in front of them.
• Facebook’s advertising platform is by the far the most developed of all of the social media platforms (out performing Twitter and other channels that have been around a lot longer!).
• On Facebook, you can target by age, gender, employment, interests, purchasing behaviours, relationship status and so much more! This gives you the power to target your exact audience and put your ads and content in their newsfeed where they are already scrolling.
• If you’re wondering if Facebook is for you; our answer is yes. There are only two instances when we may suggest another platform over Facebook: the first being if you do not have a social media advertising budget, and the second being if your type of business is prohibited to advertise on Facebook based on Facebook’s ad policies (i.e. a vaping or tobacco company etc.).
• It can be difficult to get organic traffic on Facebook, but doing giveaways and other contests can help. Be sure the giveaway is relevant to what you're selling. You want to attract the ideal audience, so don't give away something random; give away something that your ideal buyer would want.
• Facebook allows you to create events as part of your business. You can invite anyone to these events, and pay extra to promote them to a targeted audience on Facebook. Events can be a smart way to engage your audience and turn them into customers.

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2 – Instagram                                                
Instagram was launched as a unique social networking platform that was completely based on sharing photos and videos.

This photo sharing social networking app thus enables you to capture the best moments of your life, with your phone’s camera or any other camera, and convert them into works of art.

This is possible because Instagram allows you to apply multiple filters to your photos and you can easily post them to other popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. It is now part of the Facebook empire, with 1 billion registered users.  

More than 80% of Instagram’s community lives outside of the U.S.

More than 300 million users check Instagram Stories daily.

Number of active users per month: 500 million approximately

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• On Facebook, you have to pay for advertising campaigns to grow your followers and increase the reach of your page and posts. On Instagram, you can grow your followers organically and therefore grow the reach of your profile and posts organically as well!
• This makes Instagram a great option for both businesses with and without an advertising budget.
• Instagram is also a visual platform, as you can only publish posts that include photos and videos (as opposed to posting copy without a visual element to it). This works to your advantage as a business since people remember 80% of what they see as opposed to what they read or hear!
• If your business wants to capture a young audience and has the ability to create high-impact images, you should make this platform a priority.
• Instagram is owned by Facebook, so they have a lot of the same features and ad targeting options, which makes it a great option for brand awareness and engagement. Be careful, though - Instagrammers expect high-quality imagery that tells a story. Posting stock photos isn’t going to work. If you don’t have a visual product or access to quality photographs, try a different platform.
• Like other social channels, businesses have the option to advertise on Instagram. There are three formats for advertising:
• Photo ads: These look like regular photo posts, but they have a Sponsored label above the photo. They also have a Learn More button in the bottom right corner under the photo.
• Video ads: Like the photo ads, these look like regular video posts, but with a Sponsored label on top.
• Carousel ads: These ads look identical to photo ads but feature multiple photos that users can swipe through.
• Instagram is best for business to consumers (B2C)
• TOP 10 INDUSTRIES: Travel and Hospitality, Fashion, Health and Wellness, Arts and Crafts, Food and Beverage, E-commerce, Beauty, Photography, Auto, Event Planning

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3 – Twitter     
This social networking site enables you to post short text messages (called tweets), containing a limited number of characters (up to 240), to convey your message to the world. With the growing craze for online shopping, Twitter makes it possible to promote your business and  shop directly through tweets.

More political leaders use Twitter than any other social platform. 276 heads of state, government and ministries in 178 countries use Twitter.

68 million monthly active users are located in the U.S.

262 million monthly active users live outside of the U.S. (roughly 80%of all users).

42% of Twitter users use the site daily.

8% of US Companies use Twitter for marketing purposes.

74% of Twitter users follow small businesses to get product updates.

Number of active users per month: 330 million approximately

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• ​Twitter is one of the older social media platforms (created in 2006) and it has 330 million monthly active Twitter users. You can post photos and videos along with character-limited copy, but Twitter is most known for its feed of real-time updates. Is the term “live-tweeting” ringing a bell now?
• Twitter is also great for engaging new potential customers through its use of hashtags. Similar to Instagram, you can search a hashtag and find other posts from consumers and businesses alike that have used that hashtag.
• This means that you can find consumers searching for something that your company offers and vice versa!
• For example, if you’re a car wash company, you can literally find people tweeting about how they need to get their car washed depending on how they’ve used hashtags in their tweet. You can then tweet them with a discount for your car wash, and you will most likely get a new customer.
• Twitter’s value lies in its ability for your posts to go viral: the more people share your posts and “retweet” your content, the more followers you will attain. You also retweet people who have many followers to increase the likelihood of them following you back. 

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4 – Google+    
Owned by the tech giant Alphabet (Google), this interest-based social networking platform enables you to stay in touch with people by sharing messages, photos, videos, useful links to sites and so on. It is estimated that it has a total of 2 billion registered users.

It also extends support for video conferencing through Hangouts and allows businesses to promote their brands and products through Google+ business pages.

Top 5 countries using G+ are USA, India, Brazil, UK & Canada.

Number of active users: 395 million approximately

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• ​Google Plus, like YouTube, is another social media platform that is owned by Google. Unlike the other social media sites for business on this list, Google Plus can play a role in boosting your SEO rankings organically on Google.
• Posting on Google Plus regularly will not only expose your company to its 395 million monthly active users, but is also helps Google get smarter at knowing what your website is about, and what it should rank for on Google!
• There’s one business sector in particular that can’t afford to ignore Google+. Google+ is a favourite with tech industry people and engineering types. This is reflected in the top brands on the platform: Android, Chrome (perhaps no surprise that this list includes top Google services) and Mashable. This audience favours photos, videos and long posts compared with a Facebook audience that likes shorter status updates.
• And of course, Google+ offers an unprecedented opportunity to get face to face with your customers via Hangouts.  

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5- LinkedIn
LinkedIn is easily one of the most popular professional social networking sites or apps and is available in over 20 languages.

It is used across the globe by all types of professionals and serves as an ideal platform to connect with different businesses, locate and hire ideal candidates and more. It also boasts over 500 million members.

The more precise demographical data about people you are connected with is usually behind a pay-wall (a tool to monetize digital content securely and efficiently) such as on LinkedIn. 171 million users are based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The U.S. has the largest national user base (146 million members), followed by India, China and Brazil.

49% of college graduates use LinkedIn.

45% of adults making more than US$75,000 per year are on LinkedIn.

More than 46 million students and recent college graduates use LinkedIn. They are the networking site’s fastest-growing demographic.

Number of active users per month: 250 million approximately

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• ​LinkedIn has 250 million monthly active users, most of whom are in the working world or close to it.
• Because LinkedIn is considered to be a social media platform for business, people often include more accurate information about their employers, job roles, work email addresses etc., than they do on other social media platforms that are utilized more for personal use.
• LinkedIn’s advertising platform is not as advanced as Facebook’s in terms of its campaign functions, but it does give you a lot more job positions to target than Facebook does. This can be crucial if the bottom line of your business is dependent upon targeting specific businesses or job titles.
• LinkedIn is best for business to business (B2B) or business to consumer for employment.
• TOP 10 INDUSTRIES: Financial, Employment, Science and Technology, Legal, Manufacturing, Marketing, Education, Professional Services, Health and Wellness, IT.
• TARGET AGE AND GENDER: 25 – 45, both men and women.
• If you are B2B, the main social media channel your business should be on is LinkedIn. Why? Four out of five LinkedIn members drive business decisions, and LinkedIn’s audience has 2 times the buying power of the average web audience.
• LinkedIn is a great platform for finding top talent and painting yourself as an industry leader as well as promoting your business.
• Because LinkedIn is a professional platform, it's the best place to post job openings and information about company culture. You can join industry-specific LinkedIn Groups to ask and answer questions. This helps your brand, paints you as an industry expert, and brings people to your company's page and website. 

Love them or loathe them, social media platforms are a must for all business owners to use. Denying your business a presence on the right social media platforms could lose you leads, revenue and repeat custom.

If you are overwhelmed with where you should start, give Perfect Layout Digital Marketing a call to see how we can help build the right social media strategy for you.

Speak to the team now