BLOG

What Social Media is Right for Your Business?
  • Contest Factory
  • January 21, 2020

What Social Media is Right for Your Business?

With the advent of social media platforms becoming more valuable and essential in business for 2020, it is hard to decipher the many networks and determine what is right for your business. Social media can play a major role in the success of your marketing media strategy by understanding which media platforms will serve your business the best.  Factors to consider are your industry, brand, audience, and product can all influence which network to use.

It is necessary to understand the various platforms available and how they function in different industry sectors and target markets.  Many small businesses don’t have the band-width or manpower to have a social media department to make it a success. One of the main causes of a failed social media strategy is using too many or the wrong platforms.  Social media is ever-changing and it becomes tiring if not impossible to stay on top of new trends, best practices, and channels as well as new niche platforms like MeetUp and Nextdoor and the next 10 that are coming.

In order to understand which media is best for your business, you must answer the following key questions;

  • Is your business B2B, B2C or both?
  • Who is your target audience?
  • What is your overall goal using a social platform? Is it brand awareness, new products, building a following or revenue?

Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing:

Before you get ahead of yourself and begin building accounts on every social media platform there is, let’s look at the pros and cons of using social media:

Pros;

  • Highest engaging platforms you will find where people welcome pictures and actively, “LOVE” brands. Don’t miss out…
  • The only place where enthusiasts can find high context with imagery that is not “Selling”. You are giving inspiration and pleasure that gets shared and eventually turns into conversion.
  • Average FB user has 400 fans – Imagine your reach with a campaign that encourages likes and shares.
  • Imperative to building your demand generation strategy.
  • Driving more traffic to your website. Social media is a way to gain new and more visitors to your site.  You open a new world to people that didn’t know about your products or services.
  • Brings increased brand awareness by using these new channels for your content and your brand’s voice on products and/or services you provide.
  • Improved brand loyalty as you will have a direct line of communication with your target audience.
  • A better understanding of who your target audience is by observing suggestions, comments, and concerns.

Cons;

  • You cannot be everything to everyone – you must be excellent at what you do. Find your audience and appeal to them and be great. You cannot share the same content on each platform – it’s dismaying and causes more damage than benefit.  Content must be written and produces for each channel and their audience as they are as unique as you.  It’s a lot of work!
  • Not every channel will bring new business. It takes time and effort to become visible.  You should be consistent in your posts on a daily basis.  One post a week or month will not gain the followers you desire.  Many companies post many times a day – you must post daily.
  • All posts should be new, fresh and engaging content, not just taken from your website. This takes work, time, analysis, and effort.  There are tools that you can leverage like BuzzSumo to help, but this is work.

If you understand what social media is and how it can help grow your business, then you’re a step ahead of most small business owners.  To help you choose which platform is best for your business, we have outlined the top 5 platforms for marketing with the top industries that use these platforms:

  • Facebook Facebook is the most popular of the social platforms in the world with more than 2+ billion users. This means that almost everyone in your customer base has a Facebook account making this the top social media platform for businesses.  Facebook’s demographics range from men and women between the ages of 18-65, therefore, making it easy to target your audience.

Facebook is the leader in providing context to imagery…NEVER miss this one!

Top Industries:  Auto, E-commerce, Fashion, Real Estate, News and Information

  • LinkedIn – LinkedIn is the top social media site for B2B especially in terms of professionalism. LinkedIn is a community of business owners and workers that connect and share at a professional level.  LinkedIn has over 300+ million users of men and women between the ages of 25-64.  This demographic responds better to B2B than B2C.  Meaning, companies that seek business clients will have more success than companies that market directly to consumers.

Top Industries:   Finance, Employment, Science & Technology, Legal, Manufacturing, Education, IT, Professional Services

  • Instagram – Instagram is the youngest of the social media platforms with a staggering 1+ billion users. Though the majority of users are under 30, 33% of users between the ages of 30 – 49 are increasing as more and more B2B businesses begin using Instagram and are reaping the rewards of gaining a new audience.  Instagram is a great platform if you have a visual product that tells a story. Since Facebook owns Instagram, there are a lot of features and ad targeting options that make this great for brand awareness and engagement.

Top Industries:  Health & Wellness, Fashion, E-commerce, Food and Beverage, Beauty, Retail, Pets

  • Twitter – Twitter is great for engaging your audience and leave them wanting more as information is shared in short messages. As long as your message is engaging and intriguing, your audience will be wanting more and this gives your brand a great community for building loyalty and awareness.  Twitter allows you to post articles, links to articles, share news, quotes, product tips and comments on a variety of topics.  With over 330 million users and demographics of men and women between the ages of 18-49, it gives your brand a steady stream of information to build upon.  And, it is the most accessible network on the planet.

Top Industries:  News and Information, Telecom, Finance, E-commerce, Health & Wellness, Sports.

  • QuoraQuora has become a fast-growing niche for small businesses. It’s a question and answer forum where users can ask questions and everyone can answer them.  From finding out customer issues on your products or services to helping create new and fresh content.  Quora has been gaining traction in the last few years with over 300 million active users and 34.9% of those users are from the US.  This little platform niche, allows your business to reach a larger group of people who are looking for industry-related questions.  Business owners using Quora ads have seen up to 4x more conversions than other social platforms.

Top Industries:  Technology, Business, Learning, Travel and Marketing

 

Final Thoughts for 2020:

Though social media may seem daunting with the details, it will serve  you well beyond your expectations. It’s up to you to infuse your brand on new interactive platforms with innovative creative efforts. You can build a sophisticated strategy and gain followers, build brand awareness, loyalty, and increase revenue.  Remember, social media is about being social and we recommend you spend at least six hours per week posting, responding and monitoring.

Remember that marketing fundamentals do not change, consistent messaging and persistent, reliable frequency works over time; it’s a marathon, not a sprint, plan your campaigns well and you will reap the rewards.

Spread the love

Engage Your Customers with Gamification and You Will Have Them Lining Up for More!

SUBSCRIBE NOW

To gain more insights into our services and stay updated with our blogs.

You have successfully subscribed to the newsletter

There was an error while trying to send your request. Please try again.

Contest Factory will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing.