Knowing which social media platforms best suits your brand is extremely helpful. It can help you maximize your brand reach on social media, engage with the right audiences and achieve your brand goals. These are the best social media platforms consumer brands should use in 2022:
Although usage is still high with roughly 2.91 billion monthly active users, engagement on Facebook is at an all-time low. The platform is useful with ads for Brand Awareness and Purchases, and with an over 40 age group. According to Sprout Social, 86% of internet users with $100k+ income use Facebook. On the other side, those who earn $60–$70k make up the lowest percentage at 81%. Facebook users also almost exclusively use mobile to access Facebook, which is important for brands to know when designing Facebook ads.
Instagram can be argued as the most rapidly-evolving platform, with no shortage of changes implemented each year. In fact, the app made an announcement in 2021 that they will be focusing on pushing out short-form video content and that it’s no longer just a “photo-sharing app”. With more than half of Instagram’s user base being female, Instagram is the primary social media network for beauty brands and consumer marketing. Instagram still offers decent engagement opportunities, as well as opportunities for B2B connections, discoverability, and paid placement for Brand Awareness.
TikTok
This is the fastest-growing social media network. It started as a popular platform for under-20s, but soon, moms started joining to keep an eye on their kids. There are about 689 million monthly active users on the platform, and 58.8% of TikTok users identify as women. While the app’s user base skews female, the platform is rapidly growing and has plenty of opportunities for brands of all niches to connect with their audiences. TikTok also announced a partnership with Shopify in early 2021, opening opportunities for eCommerce brands to expand their reach. Overall, advertising here is emerging, but organic engagement is high.
YouTube
YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users and is the second-largest search engine in the world – making it the most widely used social media platform. According to Google, 68% of YouTube users have used YouTube to help make a purchasing decision, which is why the app is excellent for paid placement (commercials) and influencer content. However, producing videos for YouTube requires significant investment and effort (planning, talent, production, editing, etc). The video format on YouTube is also different from Instagram and TikTok, making it challenging to repurpose content here.
Pinterest has been seeing serious growth! According to Sprout Social, Pinterest’s monthly active users grew from roughly 320 million monthly active users at the beginning of 2020 to now 459 million monthly active users – which is more than both Twitter and Snapchat combined. 85% of Pinners access the app via mobile, so it’s important to craft posts suitable for mobile viewing. While Gen Z is steadily showing interest in the app, female millennials are still the app’s biggest fans.
Popular with bloggers, news sites, finance and the scientific community, Twitter is a platform for thought leadership and conversation. Twitter is great for customer service, engaging with customers and monitoring what people are saying about your brand. However, the amount of effort put into Twitter should be minimal if you’re a consumer brand. It’s also important to note for Canadian brands that the majority of Twitter users are American – with approximately 73 million US users as of July 2021 compared to Canada, which only has 6.9 million users.
Snapchat
While some claim that Snapchat is a dying app, it remains popular with the younger generation, with 75% of users falling between the 13-34 age group. As of Q3 of 2021, Snapchat had 306 million daily active users, which is up from 293 million in 2020. That’s why it’s important to note that Snapchat Ads for Business should be considered for reaching the younger demographic – especially when fewer of them are using Facebook.
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