Too Many Social Media Platforms to Choose From? Here's What to Consider
Many social media platforms are available for marketers; as new platforms like TikTok begin to rise in popularity, marketers should invest their efforts into platforms appropriate for the brand’s needs. These various social platforms can help brands achieve several different goals. For example, Google Ads is ideal for users who have a high intent to purchase, whereas Facebook Ads can help build brand awareness and retarget previous consumers. Kim Kardashian and celebrities make launching your brand on social media look easy! Celebrities and influencers can announce their new brand via their personal Instagram and gain massive followings on various platforms for their new business account. Kim Kardashian recently did this for her new skincare company SKKN, which has gained almost 100,000 Instagram followers within twelve hours of her posting the announcement (Instagram, 2022). We, regular marketers, do not have the same power online as celebrities do with their fanbase.
How Should a Company Approach Social Media Participation?
The Sprout Social Index, Edition XVII: Accelerate, found that “88% of marketers report that their social media strategy positively influenced their sales and 90% agree that social media helps stay away from competitors” (Chen, 2021, para. 6). While there are many advantages to using social media for a business, marketers need to strategically choose which platforms to use. Before managing multiple platforms, a company should adopt one platform as its primary channel and source of focus. While marketers are trying “to figure out the best way to drive revenue and searching for the next silver bullet,” you need to find what fits your brand (Greenberg, 2009, para.1).
It can be hard to gain a loyal following that actively engages with your content, so businesses should adopt a primary platform before using multiple platforms. Building a loyal following and connecting with consumers on one platform can simplify expanding onto other suitable platforms. Not every brand is a good fit for each social platform. Several important factors are needed to decide if a business should use a social media channel. Before deciding on which platform would be best for the brand to use, marketers must ask themselves:
· What industry is the business in?
· What goals is the company trying to achieve through social media?
· Who is the brand trying to reach? Who is the target audience?
· Where are these consumers located, and how to reach them? (ex., do they frequently use Facebook)
· What type of content will these consumers respond to? (ex., video content, display ads, etc.)
· What platforms are competitors using?
· What resources are available? (ex. the necessary staff, budget, knowledge of tools, etc.)
The popularity of social channels differs between industries, so just because Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are popular social platforms doesn’t mean they’re suitable for a brand (Chen, 2021). Marketers must keep in mind what resources are available at their disposal. Not all companies have the number of staff, experience, or budget necessary to manage multiple accounts. Before adopting a new social channel, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with which platforms competitors and other businesses in the industry are using (ex., what platforms are being used, type of content, etc.). A competitor social media analysis also sheds insight into how loyal competitors’ consumers are while identifying strengths and weaknesses within their products and services.
Another critical factor is the goal’s the business hopes to achieve. Social media goals frequently align with a company’s business goals. These social platforms offer diverse advantages and help marketers achieve various objectives. Different platforms align with different goals. For example, if a jewelry company aims to increase sales, the brand might benefit from Instagram’s shoppable ads. Once a business has identified its social media goals, they can be used to narrow down the channel choices. Knowing the target audience is also critical. If a company is not currently on social media, web analytics such as referral traffic can be used to determine where these previous customers have come from. Once the target audience has been established, the information can be used to match the statistics of social platforms. For example, specific demographics such as age play a factor in what channel would be best suitable.
Is content vs. conversation a factor?
Yes, content vs. conversation is a factor that is a part of the decision process when deciding what platforms to use. To succeed on social media platforms, such as Instagram and Tik Tok, the brand must have visually appealing content. People will not read dense information on visually-based media platforms, and “the impact of your ads must also be very visual” (Burnett, 2022, para. 11). However, social media marketing is a two-way conversation between the brand and the user. You are not engaging with these consumers anymore as buyers but as people. The point is to have the content encourage the people to complete a goal, whether it gets the user to like the post, click the link, share the post, etc. You want the user to engage with the brand and participate in the conversation. It is essential to factor in the type of content the brand will be sharing across the platform and the discussion you want to create with the user.
Difference Between Five Popular Platforms
Instagram is a visual-based platform used to share photo and video content. On this platform, it’s critical to know your audience and to choose the right audience to target; engagement is what matters (Burnett, 2022). Marketers can post organic content by posting in-feed or using the Instagram Story and Instagram Reels features. There are various options available for ad placement and targeting. Another essential aspect to consider when deciding to use Instagram is that “approximately 55% of Instagram users are under the age of 30” (Burnett, 2022, para. 10). Businesses can also set up shop on the platform! Instagram users can also buy items directly from the company, and companies can set up shoppable ads. It is also a great place to team up with celebrities and influencers for endorsements.
Facebook is the leading social network, with 2.9 billion active users worldwide (Burnett, 2022). The platform is excellent for marketers looking to build brand awareness, retarget consumers, and track consumers, yet it has a lower click-through rate for advertisements than most major websites (Burnett, 2022). Facebook Ads give marketers the ability to target consumers through demographic and psychographic information. Marketers can target attributes related to the consumers’ values, personalities, lifestyles, interests, etc. Facebook Ads also has placement options to help marketers reach their target audience and maximize their budget. Page managers can post organic content such as photos, videos, website links, etc., to the business’s page.
Twitter can be described as “a word-of-mouth channel from an advertising perspective” (Burnett, 2022, para. 5). Twitter can be an excellent tool to monitor social listening and learn what consumers are saying about the business and its products, services, etc. It can also be used to respond to customer complaints and questions directly. Marketers can sponsor tweets from the brand and place advertisements on the platform. Twitter ultimately gives users the ability to converse with their users and start a conversation about the brand; hashtags are heavily used. Twitter is more conversation-based than visual, although images and videos are often used on the platform.
Tik Tok is a relatively new platform that is solely short-form high-quality video content. Tik Tok can boost brand awareness, generate new leads, and drive results. Users can organically discover a brand using trending hashtags, sounds, and effects/filters. It’s essential to use hashtags that are relevant to the content to boost the odds of success on the platform. The platform also has paid options available that allow marketers to promote videos and target specific audiences. Videos on the platform must be kept under 3 minutes long, and videos under 30 seconds are most likely to end up on the “For You Page” (McLachlan, 2022). The “For You Page” is where Tik Tok’s algorithm finds content that the user might like, often accounts that the user was not previously following.
YouTube is another platform that is video-content-based. Videos on this platform can be longer than three minutes. Users can search for any video, comment, and share with friends. Marketers have the option to set up a business channel to post organic content as well as several available advertising options. For example, YouTube Ads can be placed before, during, or after a video. YouTube offers insights into many analytics such as views, demographics, and traffic sources; it can even act as a search engine (Burnett, 2022).
Conclusion
Managing multiple accounts and keeping followers actively engaged on all available platform choices can be challenging. Not every platform is suitable for each business’s needs, content, and intended conversation. It would be wise for a company to adopt one platform as its primary channel and source of focus. To decide which platform is best suited for the business, several factors need to be considered, such as what competitors are doing, the target audience, the type of content, the intended goal, and more. The decision to invest in a platform is a strategic decision that needs to be researched before going forward. Before adopting a social media platform, consider if the platform will match your target audience, the intended conversation, and the content while aligning your business's needs and goals. Once the brand has established a known presence on a suitable platform with a loyal following, it can consider expanding to more platforms that align with the brand.
References:
Burnett. (2022). Week 3 Lesson: Social Media Analytics & Advertising Channels. eCampus . Retrieved June 1, 2022, from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/
Chen, J. (2021, September 2). Choosing the right social media channels for your business. Sprout Social. Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-channels/
Get started on TikTok ADS manager. Get your business discovered on TikTok. (n.d.). Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://getstarted.tiktok.com
Google. (2022). Google. Retrieved June 1, 2022, from https://www.google.com/
Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. Multichannel Merchant. Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://multichannelmerchant.com/marketing/content-is-king-of-social-marketing/
Kardashian, K. (2022). Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian) is on Instagram. Retrieved June 7, 2022, from https://www.instagram.com/kimkardashian/
McLachlan, S. M. L. (2022, May 27). How to get more views on TikTok: 14 essential strategies. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-get-more-views-on-tiktok/
SKKN By Kim. (2022). Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://www.instagram.com/skkn/?hl=en
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