A brand's social media presence is an extension of a business and acts by conveying the voice, vision, and story for that business to the online world. Social media platforms serve as a helpful aid in supporting your brand’s website, SEO, ads, reach, and community. With so many platforms to choose from, figuring out the best ones for your business will ultimately save you time and effort. In doing so, you can focus more of your efforts on the business itself.

So, how do you determine which social media platforms are right for your brand?

Identify Your Audience

Attracting consumers with digital and social marketing is vital for a business’s success. A brand’s target audience is defined as a group of people that are most likely to use your product or service. Identifying your consumers is important when deciding how you should market your business on social media. Each platform’s audience is influenced by different factors such as demographics, gender, interests, and location.

Conducting market research is a great first step when it comes to learning about your brand’s target audience. You can narrow down your audience by first analyzing your existing customer base who have common characteristics and interests. By utilizing surveys, focus groups, and interviews you can conduct market analysis to better understand your primary market. Next, you can create a description of your target audience using demographic and psychographic information such as their age, goals, industry, and social media channels. Determining these characteristics can help you formulate a target buyer persona for your ideal customer. From here, you can decide which social media platform aligns with your brand’s needs and where your target audience is most active.

Understand Each Platform & Its Use

Each social media platform has its own way of sharing information and content to the public. Some share content through video and images while others utilize posts or messaging.

Some key questions to consider when beginning to decide which social media platform is right for your brand’s success:

• Which platform does your target audience use most frequently?
• What story do you want to tell your consumers?
• What kind of content does your audience engage with the most?

Below we explain the most popular social media channels and the benefits they can offer your brand as a means of helping to meet your business needs.

Facebook

One of the most popular and well-known social media platforms in this digital age is Facebook. This platform has the largest network of registered users and allows for anyone to post photos, videos, or written posts on the site. With 3.51 billion monthly users, Facebook is easily the platform that can connect you to the largest audience. Facebook also has the biggest age range for users with the majority of its audience being adults across all major age groups.

This platform is helpful for businesses who have descriptive ads or lengthy posts that may be too long for other platforms. Facebook also allows brands to create business pages at no cost. This page can serve as a business profile that can run paid ads to help boost likes, comments, and consumer engagement.

Instagram

With over 800 million users worldwide, Instagram is a popular social media platform that allows you to build upon your brand's image by using pictures and videos. Instagram can serve as a powerful marketing tool to promote your brand and products through visual means. This platform gives you the ability to showcase products and link these products to your site from the photo. Customers can see your photos, tap the picture, and then click the links to the product page on your site. This helps make selling products to your customers simple and easy.

This social media platform stays ahead of the curve with new features and tools that let you produce content that is more relatable to your target audience. Instagram’s main audience ranges from about 25 - 35 year olds which is attractive to marketers who want to target younger users. Because this age group is more likely to log on multiple times a day, your business can easily establish several touch points very quickly.

LinkedIn

If your business is looking for a professional and sophisticated audience this is the platform for you. LinkedIn is a particularly business-oriented social platform that allows brands to connect with other businesses and employees. This platform is better suited for content that focuses on achievements, job openings, and updates about your brand.

Because sales ads tend to underperform on LinkedIn, publishing business articles can be a much more helpful tool on this particular platform. These articles can drive traffic back to your brand's website while also promoting social engagement with your audience.

Twitter

Twitter is a platform that utilizes microblogging for post status updates or “tweets” up to 140 characters long. Even with shorter posts, Twitter is a strong tool for sharing quick updates about your company and engaging with your customers. With over 300 million users every month, this platform can be beneficial when trying to grow your brand's reach.

Utilizing Twitter can help your brand rank higher in search results pages because tweets often appear in relevant Google searches. Twitter also allows you to have a direct form of communication with consumers which increases the number of real-time questions and responses.

TikTok

This social media platform has quickly become one of the fastest growing apps with a wide audience of about 1 billion monthly users. This user-friendly app consists of short-form videos that can be uploaded and seen by various users. Due to the random placement of videos on the app’s “For You” page, your content can be viewed by anyone regardless if they follow your account or not.

TikTok does not have a place for traditional ads, so brands have become creative on how to market their videos on the app. Utilizing celebrities or micro influencers when creating brand-specific promotional content has become increasingly beneficial to businesses because of their insight on how the app works.

Be Creative

By taking advantage of some of these platforms your brand’s social presence can greatly improve in today's digital world. Success for your brand is possible on all platforms, but it is how you utilize your marketing creativity that will truly make an impact. Each platform offers valuable features, so do not feel confined to one specific site for your brand.

Here at Auburn Advertising, we understand how crucial social media is to a brand's marketing success. As experienced marketers, we will work alongside you to determine the right digital path for your business. For more information on which social media is right for your brand, contact us today!