Which Social Media Platform Should You Use?

There are so many social media platforms out there that it can be hard to know which one to choose. You might ask yourself should I just use Facebook? or is this YouTube thing a fad? Here I take a look into the different types of social media to see what might work best for you. 

Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with your family and friends but it is not a good way to grow an audience. If you're looking for exposure, Twitter might be the better choice for you - but what if your customer base all hang out on LinkedIn? Read on to bring some order to the chaos!

Statistics on 2018 user demographics

According to information from Statista, Facebook is by far one of the most popular social media platforms used in 2018. Facebook has more than 2 billion monthly active users across all age groups and demographics. 

As reported by Forbes in 2017, 79% of adults have an account on Facebook. These numbers are projected to keep growing as there's no real sign of slowing down anytime soon, especially with the particular circumstances generated by the pandemic in the past 18 months.

This figure is followed closely by Instagram, with just over 700 million monthly active users in 2018. Currently, Facebook owns both of these leading social media platforms. But what should you do if you want to reach people in different age groups or locations? That answer lies somewhere between LinkedIn and Twitter. But which one is better for marketing? We're going to explore that now but as ever with digital marketing - it depends!

Reasons why you should use each platform

The platform for you depends on two things - your purpose, and your audience. If you want to keep in touch with friends and family you might use a different platform from if you want to develop a following or promote your work.

Some headline facts are:

- Facebook is used by more than one billion people every day. 

- Youtube has 1.5 billion active users each month and 800 million hours of video watched daily.

- LinkedIn is business oriented and built around professionals who might be looking to find employment or want to promote themselves within their profession. It is also great for developing B2B relationships.

So each has its strengths!

The key is to test your options, respond to what works and ensure that you are going where your customer base hangs out (trying to sell high value items via Facebook is going to have limited success and it is worth developing a following on LinkedIn where higher worth individuals are likely to be more engaged is an example).

What platforms I use myself

I tend to use LinkedIn more than other sites. For my personal use I keep in touch with my real life network on Facebook but I'm more engaged by the content on LinkedIn - if you want to get my attention, that's the place! 

I am very precise about my business activity too. Although Facebook is used by more people than any other platform, I have yet to generate a decent lead on it. Facebook leads tend to want to compete on price and when I track successful conversions, these come from individuals and businesses like those I meet on LinkedIn.  It makes sense to spend most of my efforts there.

That's not to say that any site is inherently better than another - just that LinkedIn suits me. Other businesses will do very well on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or others. It takes research and testing to ascertain which will be best for you.

Can someone be successful without using any platforms at all?

There are very few people who succeed with no social media. However, it is possible to have success on social media without using any platforms at all. If you are very well known outside of that sphere, that is. For example, some celebrities who do not maintain their own accounts still reach millions of followers on public fan pages that they've done nothing to help create. If you aren't a movie star or a world class sports person, among others, you will need to put some effort in though. You should attempt to develop a following on one platform initially - broadening your reach further down the line. This avoids diluting your impact and allows you to maintain a sensible workload.

Checklist and conclusion:

Ask yourself theses questions -

• What do you want to achieve - business or pleasure?
• Where do your target audience have accounts and engage with content?

For pleasure - go where your friends are or where the conversations interest you. Test platforms and stick with the ones that inspire you. My personal hint - if being on the platform makes you angry or sad, it's not your place. Find another one that gives you energy and enjoyment.

For business - remember that the platforms you enjoy for pleasure might not be where your customer base hangs out! Test and believe the data - it might not please you that engagement is 10 times higher on LinkedIn than it is on Instagram - but it's a very good indication that you need to develop a LinkedIn first strategy.

As with all our articles - we can help! Get in touch and book your free audit now and we will point you in the right direction - no strings!