Nearly every person in the world today uses social media in one way or another, and it can be an excellent tool for broadening a business’ influence. What better way to show people what you’ve got to offer than from the ease and comfort of the device they carry in their back pocket wherever they go? But there are many to choose from, and while it can be tempting to throw your company logo at all of them, it might be wiser to first examine each and determine where your efforts would be best spent.
Research Your Market
Conducting thorough market research will help give you a better understanding of the business’ target audience and the demographics of its consumers. Further research into different social media markets will give you a baseline understanding of each one’s user demographics. Using this knowledge, you can determine which social media platform would align best with your own business’ demographic and you would be able to cross the target audience.
If your business happens to be in the fashion industry, it might reach a wider audience by using social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat; whereas a toy company might benefit more from a platform that has a larger number of younger users, like Youtube–that’s not to say adults can’t use Youtube and kids don’t use Facebook, but this is a good reason to perform marketing research. Research America is a great example of a business that conducts marketing research, such as within the healthcare marketing industry.
Choosing Platforms
There may not be a need to advertise on every single platform, but it’s also not a bad idea to branch out as long as it’s useful, whether that be one platform or five. Facebook is the largest social media platform at nearly 2.9 billion active monthly users as of 2024, making it easy to reach people from all over the world.
Instagram is an excellent platform for advertising photos and videos, as is Snapchat, where the photos and videos are deleted after 24 hours–you’re also able to see how many views each post has gotten. Twitter is another platform that allows users to share ideas, links, photos, and videos, with over 330 million users.
There is also Youtube, a terrific platform for advertising between and during user’s videos with over one billion users–your business could even start a channel to better promote its brand or promotional offerings to subscribers. The best part about advertising through these social media platforms? People are on them as often as fish are in water.
Have Fun
It’s important to remember that not every post needs to be shoved into user’s faces with the intention of getting them to buy something. Use the platform to reach out to the community and show that you care about them and value their support. Consider doing a Livestream and showing off new moves within the company, give promotional news, and give back to people.
Whichever platforms your business decides to venture into, all are easily accessible and have their own unique ways of spreading the word of the company. Don’t be afraid to utilize some or all of them if necessary.
