The Best Social Media Platforms for Businesses
In today’s age, social media is a key strategy when it comes to your small businesses’ branding and marketing. But with so many social media platforms out there, how do you know which ones are best suited for your business? This list breaks down the basics of each social media platform so you know where to get started for your business.
No matter what business you are, you need to be on social media. From septic tank manufacturers to high-end fashion designers, everyone has a place somewhere on the wide world of social media. Trust me!
The key is just about finding which social media platform will work best for you and your business. You need to make sure you can not only succeed on the platform but also have the ability to create the right content for that platform. Some are easier than others and some have higher success rates than others. Every platform is different. Let’s break it down!
When it comes to Facebook, it’s a no brainer: every business should have a Facebook page. Whatever you may hear, it is the largest social media platform in the world and continues to grow exponentially. How there are still people in the world without a Facebook account, I don’t know!
Facebook is used to help build brand awareness and to provide customer service. Many people use it as a directory for businesses in order to find the latest business info, customer reviews, and to contact the company directly through messenger.
Due to it’s huge size and staying power, there are a ton of features on Facebook that businesses can use to their advantages including private and public groups, events, live, reviews, easy advertising, and tons of analytics.
However, Facebook isn’t perfect. It can be difficult to censor trolls and control the conversation surrounding your business. Customer service has long been an issue with Facebook and they can be frustrating should you need any assistance.
Overall, Facebook has a massive reach with more than 2.7 billion users. This makes it one of the best places to advertise affordably and see results.
By far my personal favourite, Instagram has also proved to have immense staying power. It is a lot more visually focused than Facebook, showing only videos and photos with captions. It is used largely to build brand identity, engage closely with followers, and show behind the scenes content.
Instagram has a lot of great features that can contribute to getting really high engagement. For business owners, you can utilize user generated content, giveaways, going live, in app shopping, influencers, ad opportunities, and tons of video content with posts, stories, IGTV, and reels. Stories became one of their largest additions which is a must when it comes to your Instagram strategy.
Demographically, Instagram is more popular than Facebook with a younger audience that skews to females (about 68% of it’s users are female). Industries that work the best on Instagram are ones that can show off beautifully curated photos and videos including weddings, photography, travel, makeup and beauty, real estate, interior design, DIY projects, home and garden, animals, baby market, and of course, fashion.
While it may appear easy on the outside, Instagram is not for the faint of heart. It requires a deep understanding of the algorithm and a strict posting schedule in order to see growth and engagement on Instagram. Just because you have followers, doesn’t mean you have engagement!
Other cons include its difficulty in linking to offsite content and its limited desktop use. In this day and age, Instagram has mobile first of mind.
Twitter is a place for conversations. Primarily, I would suggest Twitter to those who are looking for a place for frequent announcements, customer service, and to promote new content. This is best suited for larger companies or industries that deal with the general public frequently.
On the other side of Twitter is networking. It is a good place for individuals to connect with other individuals or companies and strike up conversation.
You can also easily keep up with industry and worldwide trends through Twitter by looking at trending hashtags and Twitter lists. Industries that work well on Twitter including personal brands, speakers, authors, influencers, financial services, healthcare, digital/print publications, and education.
Twitter does limit each tweet to 280 characters which can make longer announcements or conversations difficult. It is also easy to get lost in the feed, with each post only staying relevant for a short amount of time. This means your are required to be very active on Twitter to engage in conversations as well as replying to customers/followers.
When I talk to business owners who are active on Pinterest, many of them comment on how much traffic it brings to their website. Pinterest is a super useful tool for certain industries in getting clicks to the website.
Unlike a lot of other social media platforms, Pinterest encourages leaving the platform. It curates and searches through different types of content to bring you to a website they think you will like or find useful. People use Pinterest to look for recipes, DIY projects, how-to instructions, beauty tips and more. People want to find advice and inspiration.
Pinterest is not suited for all businesses. Industries that will work great on Pinterest include wedding, DIY, home and garden, baby market, animals, interior design, real estate, fashion, fitness, health, photography, travel, food, beauty, and all bloggers. Users on Pinterest are primarily female (71%) in the 25-64 range.
Pinterest is incredibly visual and requires high quality photos or graphics in order to work. While there is a ton of potential reach, it can be difficult to stand out.
Check out this recipe pin sample below.
The place for people in business, LinkedIn is one of the best networking sites for people looking to connect with people in their industry or those looking to hire. On the platform, you are much more likely to find business partners rather than customers.
Individuals can use the LinkedIn network to career opportunities, see what their business connections are up to, and to find industry news. Businesses can use it to connect with other businesses, share industry news, post jobs, build business relationships, and establish credibility.
If you’re a business that works in B2B, you need to be on LinkedIn. This is the best social media platform to link with the decision makers of other companies. LinkedIn is great for companies working in financial, talent/recruitment, digital/print publications, HR, information/technology software, and start-ups.
While there are a many professionals on the platform, people aren’t always active. You may see less engagement on the platform, but I believe the leads to be more qualified. The platform has a fraction of users compared to other social media platforms and it doesn’t reach the typical audience.
YouTube
Ask anyone below the age of thirty if they watch YouTube every day. Chances are, they will say yes. Online video has long replaced cable and YouTube is a major contributor to that. Youtube itself reaches more adults daily than any cable news network with the average viewer spending 40 minutes a day on the platform. That is a lot of potential for your business!
People use YouTube for entertainment and for learning. Your business will likely succeed most with using it to educate. You can share your own tutorials, behind the scenes content, interviews, reviews, products, and even give vlogging a try.
Youtube is a great search engine that you can optimize with SEO to get better results. Videos oftentimes get more conversation and can complement other marketing strategies well.
When it comes to their audience, it is the only social media platform on this list that has more male users (62%) than females. However, I think it is a great platform for all ages, genders, and demographics.
However, ranking your videos can be difficult, especially for broad topics. Users have high expectations when it comes to video quality. In order to get good views, you will need good quality content which can be time consuming and costly.
Snapchat
Snapchat for many businesses if oftentimes a mystery. The app itself is mostly a chatting app and used to connect with friends or follow influencers or media sources. It is great for influencers, giveaways, personal branding, and showing behind the scenes content.
70% of the users are female and 71% of all users are under the age of 24. If females under 24 are your prime target, that would be my only suggestion of businesses who should utilize Snapchat.
Industries that perform well on the app include beauty, animals, fashion, fitness, food, travel, and digital publications.
In my opinion, Instagram offers many of the same features of snapchat, including stories. I would focus my efforts there rather than Snapchat.
TikTok
The newest and shiniest of all the social media platforms, TikTok is growing at an exponential rate. It is one of the best ways to increase your reach and get your content seen by new people. Since it is new, you can ahead of your competition before the app and the algorithm change.
On TikTok, you don’t necessarily need to have a lot of (or any) followers in order to have your content seen. On my own personal TikTok, I don’t really follow anyone but I use the app almost daily as the For You page generates videos similar to ones you have interacted with. The algorithm certainly works because I never get tired of it!
A lot of industries can thrive on the app. Content that works well include advice, cool tutorials, fun facts, industry knowledge and tools, and of course, humour.
Trends don’t last long so you do have to stay on top of things in order stay relevant in the app. It also require decent video quality, so basic understanding of filming and editing will be helpful for creating app content.
What Social Media Platform Should I Choose for my Business?
Now that you’ve got the lowdown on each social media platform, it is time to choose which ones you want your small business to be on. My first piece of advice is not be on all social media platforms.
Many think it is a great idea to be in as many places as possible to increase their reach The reality is that not every platform is suited for your industry and you shouldn’t waste time and resources where you won’t see results.
Take a look at the list above and think about which ones you think your industry could excel in and also which ones you are capable of tackling. Starting off, I would suggest choosing 2-3 to really put your efforts into so they can succeed.
Pro Tip: Even if you decide not to use one of these platforms for you business, make an account regardless. This will secure the username in the future in case you want it.
You don’t have to post different content for each platform. Re-purposing content is the best way to keep your different profiles relevant and cohesive, and most importantly, allow you to keep up with a regular posting schedule.
While you can use the same content for each social media platform, you will want to customize your messaging and photo/video for each platform. For example, keep things more casual on Instagram while maintaining professionalism on LinkedIn. Each platform also has different sizing requirements when it comes to photos and posts that you will want to abide by.
ProTip: Make sure your username and profile picture is the same across all platforms. This will make your business easier to identify for users.
This is just the beginning. Now that you know what social platforms you want to be on, it is time to make your profiles!