Which Social Media Platform is Best for Your Small Business?

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Which Social Media Platform is Best for Your Small Business?

Which Social Media Platform is Best for Your Small Business?

Building and maintaining a social media presence for your company takes time, but it can have a substantial impact on your business. Custom, quality Social Media Marketing can help you increase brand awareness, stand out from your competition, and drive leads to your website, among other benefits. But to get the best results on social media, you have to reach and interact with your target audience. Do you know where to find them?

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest – there are many different social media channels that provide opportunities for businesses to build brand recognition and connect with potential and existing customers. However, your ideal clientele is likely to be more active on one or two platforms than spread out evenly across all of them. Why post to Instagram every week if most of your target audience is on Facebook? Plus, if you’ve spent any time on social media, you understand it can be a time suck. When you’re busy running a business, you may not have time to maintain an active presence on Facebook, let alone several other social media outlets.

If you’re trying to decide which social media platform is best for your small business, you’ll need to have an understanding of your audience, along with social media demographics (the audiences common on each platform). Here are some helpful stats and tips on the most popular social media platforms.

Facebook

  • Facebook is the oldest and most-used social media platform, with 1.62 billion daily active users and 2.44 billion active users, according to Hootsuite. Because Facebook is so established, many consumers expect legitimate companies to have an active Facebook page.
  • People of all ages, genders, and other demographics use Facebook regularly, which includes 69% of U.S. adults. In the U.S., 18-29-year-olds are the largest group on Facebook, with 79% of the age demographic, Hootsuite says, and there more women (75%) using it than men (63%).
  • Facebook ads and boosting options allow businesses to target a very specific audience. The ability to add links to organic and paid Facebook posts can also help direct traffic to your website and boost your SEO efforts.

Instagram

  • With more than 1 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active Stories users, Instagram is rising to become more popular than Facebook, according to some industry thought leaders. And it’s a great place for marketers – 62% of people say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Instagram Stories.
  • Instagram users tend to be more engaged than users on other social platforms. This may have something to do with the age demographics of the platform: 67% of Americans aged 18 to 29 use Instagram, compared to 47% of people ages 30-49 and 23% of people ages 50-64.
  • Instagram has a bigger international audience than some of the other platforms – 89% of users are outside the U.S. The gender mix is pretty balanced, with 52% female and 48% male.
  • Finding and using the right hashtags on Instagram can help ensure your content is being seen by as many followers as possible.

Twitter

  • While they are a smaller audience than Facebook or Instagram (330 million monthly active users), Twitter users are known for mobilizing and community building, which makes it a great option for small businesses catering to a niche market.
  • Like Instagram, hashtags are also important on Twitter.
  • A lot of Twitter users look to the platform for breaking news and important announcements, so it can be a great place for small business owners to share any updates their customers ought to know. That said, Twitter users expect prompt responses from brands, so if you don’t have a plan or time set aside for responding to tweets, having a presence there could do more harm than good.
  • Twitter has been around for a while, so it might surprise you that Gen Z is the biggest group using the platform – 44% of Twitter users are 18-24.

LinkedIn

  • LinkedIn is well-known for being the best platform for connecting with prospective employees and vice versa. But it’s also a place to reach one of the most affluent and educated user bases on social media – more than 467 million professionals are on LinkedIn.
  • 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content, and it’s rated as the top social network for lead generation. If your small business is B2B, LinkedIn is the best platform to connect with influencers, decision-makers, and executives who act on new opportunities.

Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube and More

  • Of course, that’s not all of the social media platforms. There’s also Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, and more. Each has its own unique audience demographics and potential benefits for small businesses; the best platform(s) for your business depends on where your target audience is present and engaged.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about choosing a social media platform and building a presence for your business, you may want to consider hiring help. Like we mentioned earlier, social media can be quite time consuming, which is why many business owners hire a social media manager or work with a digital marketing agency to create content and manage their profiles. Want some help? At Triton Commerce, we specialize in creating social media content that will capture the attention of your audience and help you grow your presence online. Contact us today to learn more!