On the go? Listen to a voice recording
Reading time: 6 minutes
Republished: 2022 | Author: Claire Warin
Social media platforms are numerous and ever-evolving. This can create confusion for business owners not knowing which social media platforms to be on and how to manage them all effectively. It’s not unusual to hear comments such as ‘can I just post the same content to all the social media platforms?’ `How can I keep up with comments on every channel?’ or, most recently, ‘Should I be on TikTok?’
Is there one simple answer to these questions? It depends. If you are a large organisation, being on multiple social media platforms and listening to the conversations may not be a problem. However, for most small and medium businesses, being across every platform is a luxury and even though social media is here to stay, most businesses have to be selective about whether they should engage in digital marketing on social media and if so, which ones and how.
The good news is that you don’t have to be on every platform. Phew! In fact, trying to do it all could mean doing a poor job across the board. Instead, you’re better to focus on using one or two platforms and using them well. But which ones are right for your business? In this article, we’ll focus on highlighting the most popular social media platforms for business in 2022 so you can determine which would be right for your business.’
Facebook remains as the world’s biggest social media platform and arguably the most comprehensive and advanced in terms of what you can do with it. With personal profile, business pages, open and private groups, an advanced advertising platform and clever integrations with your website, Facebook has it all. But even Facebook doesn’t suit every business.
If you’re wondering whether Facebook is right for your business ask yourself:
- Is your product or service usually for personal use rather than for businesses e.g. fashion, travel, entertainment, community groups?
- Does your business have a large volume of customers and a reasonably broad target market e.g. retail, food?
- Do you want to stay in touch with your customers when they are not shopping with you?
- Do you want to create awareness with potential customers?
- Have you got the resources (time and skill) and budget (internally or externally) to manage the content and respond in a timely manner to enquiries and comments?
If you answered yes to most of these questions, Facebook may be the best social media platform for your company. The key will be to unlock HOW to use Facebook effectively rather than just having a presence on it.
What started out as a relatively simple social media platform for posting images has morphed (since its 2012 purchase by Facebook) into a social media behemoth which is focussed on the sharing not only of images but also video – whether they are short videos (called reels that are shorter than 90seconds), live streams or videos as long as 10 minutes. Imagery and video is at its heart and it provides a robust advertising platform for visual marketers.
If you’re wondering whether Instagram is right for your business consider:
- Does your business sell products that are visual in nature? Eg food, make up, fashion?
- Do you have the potential to provide plenty of opportunities for photo and video content? e.g. fashion, visual merchandising products
- Do you have staff I trust who can take pics that are within the brand guidelines?
- Is there time to produce regular photo and video content? Or money to pay someone to do it?
- Are you interested in attracting new followers and exposing them to your brand?
- Can your business benefit from an international audience? e.g. ecommerce business?
- Do you have the propensity to become an influencer?
Instagram is a great way to create a community that wants to know what’s happening behind the scenes of a brand. So it’s a great choice of social media platform to build brand ‘love’ with a large group of individuals or to build your brand as an influencer.
LinkedIn is designed to be a social media platform for professionals and business to business. Features include sharing information, connecting with other professionals, recruiting and generating leads.
The following questions will be helpful in answering if LinkedIn could be the right platform for your business:
- Your products or service are used in a business situation or by businesses (e.g. business coach, ERP systems, marketing)
- You want to attract individuals already in business or entering or changing employment
- Your company provides a service that is intangible to businesses – e.g. accountancy, outsourced IT services
- One of your aims in using social media is to generate leads and sales for your company
- You would like to maintain connections to your network and communicate or engage with them in a casual manner.
If the answer is yes to most of these questions, then LinkedIn may be the answer for your business. LinkedIn has recently released data showing that Brands have seen a 33% increase in purchase intent from ad exposure on LinkedIn and 40% of B2B marketers surveyed indicated LinkedIn as the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads. In fact, LinkedIn is the top social network for B2B marketers with 96% of B2B content marketers using it for social media marketing. Furthermore B2B marketers have said that 80% of leads sourced through social media come from LinkedIn.
YouTube
YouTube is the original social media video platform and unlike some of its recent competitors, YouTube is the one best suited to long form and in depth videos. It is also the second most popular social media platform after Facebook. YouTube is usually the place we all think of if we want to watch a video tutorial on how something is done, follow a vlog, or even catch up on an obscure sports event. With advanced live streaming capability, free and paid subscriptions and a robust advertising platform, YouTube is by far the largest video search engine in the world.
Wondering if YouTube is right for your business? Here’re the questions to consider:
- Does your business have the skills to create videos or already have a library of videos?
- Do you have the necessary resources and budget to create interesting video clips? Or have the skill to curate a video from available video resources?
- Are your products or services suited to interviews, Q&As, product demos or tips?
Twitter is the ‘on the go’ social media platform. Highly mobile-focussed, Twitter is all about brevity and is well suited to brands, celebrities, influencers and news outlets. It’s not the place to post a long from how-to blog but a quick snippet on what the day entails for your business will work well. Recently, Twitter has become popular again as it has become the main social media platform for Crypto currency and NFT holders. In NZ, Twitter lags behind in popularity to the other main social media platforms in this article.
When it comes to Twitter, consider the following:
- Is your target audience international or mainly in America?
- You or someone in your business is able to write interesting, to-the-point snippets
- You’re ready to become ‘the person’ behind the brand e.g. celebrities, founder/ creator
- You don’t mind life becoming more of an open book
- You’re willing to dedicate time daily to manage this channel.
- You intend to use this channel to offer some exclusive promotions or specials
- You’re able to manage a fast pace/ fast response channel
- Celebrities and influencers are part of my target market
If you have answered yes to most of these questions, then you’re fit for Twitter! From our experience, a number of businesses have successfully managed to get their products or services to celebrities and opinion leaders using Twitter.
TikTok
The latest super star on the block to grace our phones and take the world by storm is Tik Tok. Businesses are fast realising that there is major sales potential on this highly engaging video platform. Think of TikTok as similar to Instagram but without the images and solely focused on video.
The platform is not yet saturated like the other major social media platforms so it’s cheaper to advertise on.Over 1 billion users are active per month making it a potential engagement goldmine for your business.
Consider if the following applies to you:
- Your product or service appeals to early adopters and Gen Z/ millennials around the world
- You have more time than budget when it comes to advertising spend
- Your products or services are suited to be showcased in videos and attracting user generated content
- You’re comfortable creating a large volume of videos
- You want to become an influencer
If you have answered yes to most of these questions, then you should look at including TikTok in your marketing mix.
Pinterest is a fast growing medium and people spend a lot of time on the site. Numbers from SimilarWeb, show that users spend an average of 5 minutes and 28 seconds on a Pinterest scrolling session. Again, this is a platform where we have observed conversion to sales if used properly and the size of the platform means it is still relatively easy to contact an account manager at the channel for assistance with advertising if you’re looking for a more personal service than the likes of Facebook or Instagram.
When considering if your business should be on Pinterest think about the following:
- Your products or service translate well into photos (eg. architecture, landscapers, weddings, fashion)
- One of your goals is to drive traffic to your website or drive awareness of your products
- You have lots of original photos, graphic design or images to express your brand
- you have the resources and discipline to regularly upload images on a weekly basis
- Your target market is mainly women
- Your products are for personal use rather than for a business
- Your products or service have wide appeal and a broad delivery area (i.e. nationwide or global)
These are the main social media platforms widely used today. While some social media platforms will come and go, some of the ones on this list can be a good investment of your time if you choose wisely.