With almost 4.5 billion users in 2021, social media has become an essential part of marketing for many businesses. When properly managed, social media is a powerful tool to reach the customers you want, while deepening relationships with your current customers. And with new social media channels emerging left and right, it can be enticing to sign up for every single one.
However, it’s not about being on every social media platform available, but choosing the right ones for your business or brand.
What are your goals?
Before you sign up for any social media platforms, establish the goals you want to achieve. Your goals for social media should align with your overall business goals. After you establish the goals of having a social media account, it will be easier to find the right platforms that will help you achieve them. Goals can include:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Building a community
- Generating sales and/or leads
- Growing a brand’s audience
- Generating web traffic
What resources do you have available to you?
A key factor to running a successful social media account is consistency. Social media is a powerful tool, but if you want to reap its benefits, you need to invest the time and effort to keep it going. Before you consider which social media accounts you should run, consider the following factors:
- Who will be responsible for running the social media account? This includes creating the content, publishing, and staying active and engaged with the community you are building.
- How much time are you willing to put in? Video-focused platforms such as TikTok and Instagram will take more time to create content compared to platforms like Twitter.
- How many social media channels can you and your team handle?
As a team of social media experts at Legendary, we understand how much work it goes into running just one account. From organizing photoshoots to creating written content, and then scheduling and keeping up with the community – it’s a full-time job!
Who is your audience?
Knowing who your target audience is will help you figure out which social media channels will best suit your business. Some audiences will have a heavier presence on certain social media channels than others depending on their interests and demographics. Therefore if you are in a super niche industry, you may just want to focus on the platform where the majority of your target audiences are.
For example, Pinterest is great if your business is related to design, nutrition, fitness, and can sell globally. If your business is local, Pinterest’s usefulness becomes very limited.
If your company is B2B and relies on networking to generate leads, LinkedIn is a great channel to be active on. And if you are in the science, news, or finance industry, Twitter is worthwhile to check out!
Other platforms like Facebook and Instagram are suitable for a general consumer audience, and form the core social media platforms that most businesses should be using.
What types of content do you already have?
Choosing the right channels may also mean evaluating what types of content you already have. Social media content types can include videos, photos, text, or live videos. For example, if your business has a blog that’s active, you can repurpose that content for posting on other accounts like Facebook. If your business has a lot of videos, then YouTube or Instagram might be a great platform to take on.
Repurposing content will help save time and money and give you an idea of what future content to create.
Final thoughts
We hope you found these questions helpful in choosing the right social media platform(s) for your business or brand.
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