When first starting out on social media, knowing where exactly you stand, can be hard. The number of platforms out there is endless so, deciding which ones are beneficial for your brand can be tricky. Let’s jump in feet first on tips to help get you started.
Know your demographic
Demographics is the first consideration. Like most things, social media platforms have a higher concentration of a certain age, gender, and income. Narrowing down the target audience and finding out which platforms they are using more, is your first step.
Facebook typically is used more by the older generation aka young at heart, (when did that happen…didn’t Facebook just come out?) and platforms like Snapchat and TikTok are popular with the younger crowd.
Let’s clear out some of the noise for you. Here are a few of the most used platforms today:
Facebook is the most popular and widely used platform in the world and one of the best for promoting businesses. Facebook allows a brand to specifically target their audience by age, employment, interests, political affiliation, and other characteristics. A company can create a strong community this way.
Norton National would recommend using Facebook as a platform no matter what the business is or who the audience might be. Yes, Facebook is becoming less popular as a social media platform amongst the younger generation but many still use it as an e-commerce platform and if your purchasing power does not fall into the “younger demographic”, this is exactly where you need to be.
Twitter is an extremely popular platform for news outlets, politicians, pop culture, and trending topics. Twitter uses octothorps (hashtags for you hipsters), which is a way to “tag” terms to become searchable through the platform using the pound sign “#”. Know that tweets are limited to 280 characters per post.
Twitter is a great way to get the top news and to stay current on trending topics, letting business owners keep timely posts on their content calendar. The average age range of Twitter users is 18-30 with a majority being males.
Warning: unless you are planning to be active and consistent on this platform, we don’t recommend using it. This platform should be strongly considered an open invite to a customer for a continual conversation. If no one is answering the Twitter phone, do not continue to call this platform.
Having a company page is a fantastic way to get other businesses and business owners to see the company’s services. The average age of people who frequently use LinkedIn is 30-50 with an income of over $75,000 a year.*
Your personal LinkedIn profile should be comprehensive, current, and professional.
Instagram is a visual-heavy platform that allows users to publish photos and short video clips that stick with audiences. According to available studies, people remember 80% of what they see and only 20% of what they read.
As a business owner, one of the best things about Instagram is the ability to grow your follower base organically through the use of storytelling, good images, and hashtags. Authenticity goes a long way on this platform.
Instagram is predominately used by people aging between 18-24. Many brands advertise and sell their products on Instagram, especially if the consumer is an impulsive decision-maker. Many of our team members shamefully admit to having fallen into an Instagram ad trap where they bought socks customized with their dog’s faces or a mobile cereal dispenser. I mean who doesn’t need that? That could be your brand!
The ultimate bulletin board, dream board, help me homeschool my kids’ board. Pinterest allows users to “pin” images from around the web to your board. These images can lead to websites, blogs, videos, services, and products. We love to use Pinterest as a platform to post our blogs because everything links back to our website. SEO boost, anyone?
Pinterest began as a site for women to share recipes, home decor, crafting, fashion, and wedding planning ideas but has grown to be our next Google. Best time of day to post on social, ask Pinterest. Fifty meals to prep in under twenty-minutes? Thanks, Pinterest. Still predominantly used by women, this game-changer is slowly increasing in popularity among men.
Tinder
Just kidding, unless you’re into that kind of thing! Who knows, maybe in 20 years, Tinder will be the new LinkedIn.
As a business, you can have your pick of the litter with social media platforms. If your brand is just starting out on social media, pick two platforms to focus on and then branch out from there. Remember, social media is called social media, for you to interact, engage, and be social. Pick wisely and then once you have the flow for keepin’ up with the fans, then add more to your social plate.
For more tricks of the trade, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We are dropping all the knowledge for becoming a successful business!
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