Posted: July 6, 2020
Social media is now an important component of any solid digital marketing plan. However, we at Four Tens don’t believe that means that everyone has to create an account on every social media platform available. Relevance and efficiency are also key to crafting feasible and scalable content creation campaigns.
When you start your digital marketing strategy, choosing which social media platforms to start out with is crucial. Choose too many platforms and you may not engage with any one community enough to grow a following. Elect to use too few platforms and you could be missing out on key demographics.
1) Use your buyer personas’ demographics
After more than fifteen years, Facebook is the reigning champ of social media. It’s second in the U.S. in usage only to YouTube, with 69% of adults using Facebook (Sprout Social). 18-29-year-olds and 30-49-year-olds are the two top demographics for Facebook.
But what if your persona skews younger? Maybe Facebook isn’t the first social media platform that you may want to consider. Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube are much higher for the 13-17 and 18-29 demographics on a daily use comparison (Sprout Social).
Create a list of the top 3-5 social platforms that fit your personas demographics and then continue to compare your options from this pared down list. Haven’t created your personas yet? HubSpot provides a step-by-step walkthrough.
2) Different content types thrive on various channels
With your 3-5 social channels picked based on your buyer personas’ demographics, now we can pare down the list even further. While you probably don’t have your content strategy completely drawn out yet, you most likely know what types of content you have an affinity for creating and sharing. Or, if you are a new business or completely new to digital, you can think about the types of content that you see working best for your company.
Video content is king across nearly all types of content and social channels. Most social media platforms have pivoted to prioritize video content as well, since it has the highest engagement. But YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are all great channels for video content.
If you see your digital marketing strategy including social media as a tool for customer service offerings, then Twitter and Facebook Messenger are great candidates. Both make it easy to connect with customers in platforms they are already familiar with.
3) B2B vs. B2C
The divide between B2B and B2C continues to blur. Every popular social media platform began as a tool for users to connect, and then morphed and evolved as businesses found ways to connect with customers and promote ads, products and services.
But what about if your business is B2B? LinkedIn is a natural choice since it’s a platform specifically designed for professionals looking to connect. YouTube could be another channel if your buyer personas demographics fit.
Whether your company is B2B or B2C, there isn’t a hard and fast rule for which social media platforms you shouldn’t use. TikTok is still in its infancy and growing massive amounts of younger users across the world every day. Nearly 70% of their users are teenagers and young adults (HootSuite).While that may not make it top of the list for a B2B company just starting out, it could be a great way for a more established company to start to build a following in a new and creative way to stand out from the competition.
4) To Ad or Not To Ad?
By now, you should have 2-3 solid choices when it comes to social media platforms. These are your options for organic engagement and content sharing.
But what about social media advertising? If you are planning on putting your ads on any social channels, you’ll want to ensure that you are cultivating a strong brand presence on that platform so that visitors who search for you or click your ads are compelled to learn more.
If you are a B2C company with products geared towards young adults, and you’re thinking of buying Instagram ads, you’ll need an Instagram business account. Instagram would have been one of your selections based on the first demographics exercise, but since you’ll be pursuing ads, you’ll need to choose it as one of your channels.
These four considerations will help you narrow down your social media platform options to a short list of where to begin as you start on your digital marketing journey. Naturally, as you start to build your confidence and have more content to work with, or even hire an agency to handle your social media for you, it can be more feasible to add more platforms to your strategy. This guide is a primer for those looking to start with the basics.
Not sure how to get started? Reach out to us here at Four Tens and we’ll talk through the property listing together to see how to best market it via property video.