Social Media is a popular and inexpensive way to market your small business and reach new customers. However, with a variety of platform options, it can be hard to know exactly which social media platforms your business should focus on in order to get the best return on your time and investment. Here’s what we recommend:
Facebook is the most popular social media site, and right now the demographics of Facebook users skew towards the Baby Boomer Generation (Between 55-75 years of age). This is a good place to start if your ideal clientele is older, more established people.
Posts that tend to do well on Facebook include graphics, pictures, and video-heavy with some supporting text. Generally, if you’re hoping for user interactions like comments, reactions, and shares, this site is a good choice. For small businesses, this platform is useful for connecting with customers on your page and sharing information about your business and brand with a wide audience.
Instagram is arguably the next most popular social media site right now. This platform tends to attract Millennials and Gen X (Late 20s to early 50s)the most. As an entirely visual platform, Instagram is famous for being a good platform to post pictures, although recent algorithm updates indicate that short videos may do even better. The other notable feature of Instagram posts are hashtags which are clickable and searchable, and so make a great way for more people to find your posts on the platform. For small businesses, this platform is a great way to showcase your products and gain new customers who are interested in your brand.
Both Facebook and Instagram are owned by Meta, and they work with the Meta Business platform to allow you to preschedule posts and videos to each space. They also allow you to leverage the built-in advertising features to easily create ads (or “boosts”) to show your content to a wider audience. Savvy marketing includes creating targeted audiences to show the boosts and ads you create to just the right potential customers.
TikTok
TikTok is the newest popular social media platform. Mainly attracting GenZers (teens to early 20s), this platform is entirely video-based, and allows for videos generally between 1 and 3 minutes long, though some creators are able to get videos as long as 10 minutes. For small businesses, this is a good platform to use to attract customers of a younger client base, as well as to connect with customers directly. Videos that do well on this platform have the potential to “go viral”, and do best when following trends and using popular sounds. This platform can be a good option, but it requires a lot of user dedication to see real results, so many small businesses tend to shy away from using it for that reason.
YouTube
YouTube is the most popular video website in the world. While not generally thought of as a “social media” site, it is highly useful for businesses that have information to share about how to use their product or connect with more customers. The biggest “win” on YouTube is that it is owned and integrated by Google, so videos on this platform tend to show up on Google Searches and can get in front of more audiences. For small businesses, using this platform should include a strategy to have a good mix of long and short-form videos that are both educational and entertaining for their audiences. Useful video names and descriptions help a lot with the SEO of this site, so users should think carefully about how to leverage any text associated with their video content.
Twitter is mainly text-based, though some pictures and links are allowed. The biggest thing to note when posting on Twitter is that there is a limit to the number of characters you are allowed to use in each post or “tweet”. Short, pointed tweets tend to do better, and tweets with hashtags can show up in searches for broader audiences. This platform is popular with business-minded people and skews towards GenXers (40s and 50s). For small businesses, this platform is useful for connecting with your clients, and for putting information out that may be useful to people who are searching through the hashtags you include.
Linkedin is a business-centric platform that allows pictures, video, text, and links in posts. The reach on LinkedIn is a little more limited since it mainly reaches people who follow you, and only goes further than that if they interact with your posts to allow their followers to see them. Many users see LinkedIn to network and grow their connections within their industry. For small businesses, the best use of this platform is to attract new applicants when you’re looking to hire, as LinkedIn has a variety of tools that get your job posting to people who are looking for jobs.
If you need help navigating the different social media platforms and deciding what is best for your business, TwinRose Services is here to help! We want to make your business stand out online from social media and beyond! If you're ready to learn how TwinRose Services can help your business, reach out today!
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