In this day and age, it’s highly improbable that you’re not on some form of social media. Maybe not professionally for your business, but definitely personally – right? Well, either way, if your business is on social media or not, you’ve probably asked yourself whether or not you are on the right track, have you chosen the correct platforms, and more importantly, what exactly is TikTok?! As a startup or MSME, chances are you want to be everywhere all at one time, but that’s going to be difficult. So to get the ball rolling, let’s try and identify the best social media for business.
Each platform has a purpose
If all Social Media were the same, people would not have multiple profiles, nor would so many platforms exist. Each social media platform has a distinct purpose, and understanding that purpose is key to identifying the best social media for business. If you consider Instagram, you will find that it is a very visual medium, and popular with a younger click-a-pic generation. The same goes for Snapchat.
Facebook, on the other hand, encourages community building through pages and groups and is great if you’re targeting local communities. So before you start creating multiple profiles across platforms, first take a moment to understand the different social media platforms and their purpose.
Check the data
Following from the previous tip, you can get a step closer to choosing the best social media for business by taking a closer look at numbers and types of users on different platforms, vis-a-vis your business goals.
A good example of this is if you’re in an industry such as fashion or makeup. According to Pew, a platform like Pinterest has 93% active pinners who use the platform to plan purchases since it is a visual medium. Also, 81% of Pinterest users are female. Knowing this kind of information is crucial for choosing the best social media for business.
Be where your competition is
If you’re looking to work with an agency such as Creometric, the first thing you will want to do is have a thorough competitive analysis to answer questions like, ‘What is your industry’s competitive landscape?’, ‘Is there a particular social media influencer or brand that catches your attention?’ ‘Who’s following them?’ ‘Who are they supporting?’
By doing this, you will be in a better position to assess where your competitors are and which platform would be best for your business based on industry. Understanding your competitive landscape gives you a clear advantage in formulating a strategy for targeting influencers, brand ambassadors, and an audience to purchase your product. After all, your main goal is to create a campaign that will make people remember your brand on social media.
Be consistent, be memorable
As we mentioned in the previous point, your main goal is to create a campaign that will make people remember your brand on social media. Doing this will requires more than just fancy artwork. After all, the devil is in the details. It’s important to pay attention to proper online hygiene like making sure all your profiles have your business logo as a profile picture, header or cover images are the correct dimensions so as not to get pixelated, and one of our personal recommendations, ensure all social handles are the same. It just makes it easier for your audience to remember.
Treat each platform differently
We have already established by now that different platforms have their own features and advantages that make them unique. That being said, if you are on multiple platforms, you need to treat them differently by not sharing the same content across different social media. Sharing the same content on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles make you look lazy, uninspired, and most of all, it’s just redundant.
What you want to do instead, is to share the same campaign across all social media, but customise the content to suit the platform. A blog post on Facebook, a 30-second video on Instagram, and a picture on Pinterest make more sense than just a poster everywhere. Makes sense?
By taking into account these five basics, choosing the best social media for business shouldn’t be too difficult. If you have any thoughts on the topic, feel free to drop a line in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!
