When choosing the best social media platform for your small business’s needs, there are 5 major platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn
No two are the same with platform specific advantages and disadvantages. However, many larger businesses can handle a business page on each of these social platforms. Smaller business on the other hand don’t have that kind of time to devote to social media advertising. Furthermore, even if a business has the time and resources to devote to these various platforms it may not be in the company’s best interest. The success of a particular social media platform depends on the target audience, the product or service the business is selling, and the content they’re trying to share.
Here’s a look at the top four competitors and their advantages and disadvantages.
Facebook is the reigning champion when it comes to social media giants. No other platform can boast over 1 billion users. If you want to make sure the greatest number of people have access to your social media site, Facebook is the way to go. Alongside that, the platform is widely regarded as a social media site for older generations as Millennials and GenZ utilize Instagram and Snapchat more frequently. With only nine percent of GenZ’ers regarding Facebook as a favorite.
Furthermore, 74% of Facebook users are on mobile daily. That means consumers are accessing Facebook on the go. Facebook has the furthest and most diverse reach. It’s ideal for text, images and videos making it extremely adaptable for any social media ad campaign.
While Twitter doesn’t have the same reach as Facebook, it does have its own unique advantages. When it comes to real time communication with customers, Twitter is the way to go. Because tweets are limited to 280 characters, they are very concise and somewhat easy on the eyes. For businesses looking to quickly let people know about the latest news concerning the company, Twitter is a great choice. The demographic is also known for having a higher educated, affluent user base.
The downside is that Twitter is text-based, it’s not ideal for businesses wanting to use a lot of images in their social media advertising. Video stands a better chance if it’s informative and provides a larger story rather than boomerangs and short “ad-like” videos.
40 Amazing Twitter Stats to Inspire Your 2017 Social Strategy. (Talk Walker)
Unlike Twitter, Pinterest is extremely image based, even more so than Facebook. It’s ideal for retail because of the huge emphasis on images. One thing to keep in mind with Pinterest is that it’s user base is mostly female (70%). If your product or service is geared more towards women, Pinterest may be a great choice for a social media platform. Recently, Pinterest made some updates to the site in which users are not able to purchase items making it a smoother funnel to drive sales, especially if you consider how users spend on average 98 minutes on Pinterest a month.
If however your product or service is geared more towards men, you may want to consider a different option.
Instagram is the new kid on the social media block. That doesn’t mean it should be ignored. In fact, 71% of the most recognized brands are using Instagram to market their products/service. A major advantage to Instagram is that it is very well integrated with Facebook. If you’re leaning towards using two social media platforms to market your business, the Facebook/Instagram combo is a very powerful one.
LinkedIn is the newest social media platforms. Some marketers may even believe it’s not a social media market platform at all. Professional services, brands, and companies that want to gain awareness among professionals must have a LinkedIn account.
Regardless of the platform(s) you start using, we recommend having a text message enabled phone number published that your customers, and consumers can reach you at. Today, customers text more than they call. They prefer to text brands and will often prefer to communicate with your company by SMS text message than over the phone.
48 Eye-Opening LinkedIn Statistics For B2B Marketers In 2019. (Foundation INC)
