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Social Media Platforms

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8 Social Media Platforms for Marketing

People are spending more and more time on social media apps, and a lot of those people are potential customers for your business that are waiting to discover your brand.

As of 2021, the number of active users of social media is over 4 Billion and these users spend at least 2 hours on their social channels of choice every day.

For small businesses, that is a 2-hour window every day to promote products, build brand awareness, and engage with loyal social media followers.

For businesses that successfully harness the power of social media, they will gain the following benefits and more:

  • Increased brand awareness
  • Increase in sales
  • A closer bond with customers
  • More opportunities to expand and improve customer service efforts
  • Access to targeted marketing campaigns

Social media will continue to play an ever-increasing role in helping businesses drive sales and improve brand awareness, and that’s why we wrote this article to help you discover the best social media sites for your marketing campaigns.

Marketing Your Business With Social Media Platforms

It’s one thing to recognize the importance of social media marketing, it is a different thing entirely to know how to pick the right social media channels for your marketing campaign.

A business that primarily sells its products to teenagers may succeed with an Instagram marketing campaign, but a B2B business may not gain any traction on the platform.

The social media channels you select for your campaign must be popular with your target audience, and the content you share on those platforms must resonate with your audience.

Below, we will outline the 8 major social media platforms and explain how you can promote your business on each platform.

1. Facebook

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Facebook is the king of all social media platforms with over 2 Billion monthly active users and a diverse demographic – a presence on the platform is a must for every business.

Every business will find its target customers on Facebook due to its share size and the diversity of communities on the platform.

There is a wide variety of advertising options and Facebook provides extensive tools to help businesses create ads that are targeted towards a specific demographic of customers.

  • Create a professional Facebook business page for your brand: your page should include relevant information about your business, a cover photo, photos of your business & products, posts, and 5-star reviews from loyal customers.
  • Post a variety of content regularly on your page: the secret to creating brand loyalty is engagement, and you can only engage your followers when you regularly post interesting, quality content.
  • Build a community around your brand by starting a Facebook group: start a group about your business or a cause relevant to your industry and use it to create a community of people that are associated with your brand.

2. LinkedIn

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LinkedIn is the social media network for business professionals and 4 of 5 people on the platform drive key business decisions. This makes LinkedIn the perfect social media platform for B2B businesses.

If your business sells products/services to other businesses, your social media marketing strategy should prioritize LinkedIn.

It is also a great platform for advertising job openings and recruiting talent for your business.

  • Create a well-optimized LinkedIn company page: your company page is your showcase page on the platform and it must represent your business well by displaying useful and engaging information about your brand.
  • Post thought-provoking content regularly: LinkedIn users are primarily interested in content that will provide actionable value or invoke discussions about new industry trends or events. This type of content can go viral and build awareness about your brand.
  • Join LinkedIn groups and stay active: search for groups that are relevant to your industry niche and join them. Post helpful content regularly on these groups and actively participate in productive discussions. Doing this will boost your visibility and expose you to potential customers.

3. Instagram

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Instagram is a highly visual social media platform that lets users post photos, videos, and short-lived stories. Users cannot post text-heavy content.

The highly visual nature of the platform makes it suitable for product-based businesses. The dominant demographic on the platform are people between the ages of 25-34 and they spend an average of 29 minutes on the platform every day.

If you are looking to market your products to teenagers & young adults, and you sell highly visual products like food, cosmetics, fashion goods, and others – Instagram should be part of your social media strategy.

  • Create a professional Instagram account: your account should include a descriptive username, a bio that effectively communicates what your business is all about in a few words, and your logo.
  • Regularly post top-quality images & videos: this will be product images, interesting & relevant short videos, behind-the-scenes images, and anything that will resonate with your audience.
  • Encourage engagement with Instagram contestscreate contests that will excite your followers and drive engagement with your brand.

4. Twitter

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While Instagram is the social media platform for visuals, Twitter is a microblogging social platform that drives global conversations.

The platform has over 300 million users and 500 million tweets are sent every day on the platform. It is the ideal platform for brands that have a content-centric marketing strategy and want to be seen as an authority in their industry niche.

With Twitter, you can tweet links to your content, share your opinions on trending events, and hone a unique voice for your brand.

  • Use great headlines and Twitter cards: millions of Tweets are shared on the platform every hour and the only way people will click on your Tweet is if you have an eye-catching headline. You should also use Twitter cards to make your shared posts stand out.
  • Use relevant hashtags: hashtags help ensure the right people will discover your tweets. You can use a tool like Ritetag to find the perfect hashtags for your Tweets.
  • Engage with influencers in your niche: popular influencers in your niche already have a dedicated audience of your target customers – reach out to them to help promote your brand.

5. TikTok

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This Chinese social media app went global in 2018 and it has managed to acquire 1.2 billion active monthly users in just a few years.

The platform lets users create 15-second short videos which can be combined into a 60-second long video. The platform is popular among teenagers & very young adults (60% of users are aged 16 to 24), and you will find all sorts of content on the platform including viral music videos, dance videos, comedy skits, tutorials, and more.

It isn’t a social media platform for making sales pitches, instead, it is a great platform for engaging creatively with a younger generation of buyers and building brand awareness.

  • Post creative and authentic content regularly: TikTok is not about perfection, it is all about creating fun content that is entertaining, inspirational, and useful to your audience.
  • Create a hashtag challenge to boost engagement: the best TikTok challenges tend to go viral like the #OwnTheCurve challenge by Addison Rae. Leverage trends and sponsor hashtag challenges that will capitalize on the vibrant interest in a trending event or cause.
  • Work with influencers: the vast majority of TikTok users are teenagers and they tend to respond better to recommendations by influencers than traditional ads. Leverage influencer marketing to get your brand discovered by your target audience.

6. Snapchat

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Snapchat is another visual social media platform that is popular among young adults. Users can post videos and photos that will only stay live for 24 hours.

The platform is mobile-only and 67% of users in the U.S are between ages 18-29. If your target customers fall within this demographic, you can use the platform to generate awareness about product updates and to promote events.

  • Use Snapchat to build anticipation about your upcoming event
  • Work with influencers on the platform to build your following
  • Advertise your coupon codes on the platform

7. Pinterest

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This is a discovery social media platform where users find creative inspiration and concepts for personal interests, design work, and hobbies.

The platform lets users pin (post) images and videos on a theme-based board that will be accessible to other users on the owner’s feed.

The platform is filled with boards about food recipes, interior decorations, fashion, weddings, design themes, and more. Users can add links to their pins which makes it a great avenue to drive traffic to your site.

84% of users are female, and people of all ages use the platform. This is an ideal social platform if your target audience is predominantly female and highly visual content will resonate with your customers.

  • Create boards with rich pins (images & videos) that people will want to share with their friends and follow to your website
  • Use relevant keywords in the titles and description of your pins
  • Collaborate on community boards in your industry niche

8. YouTube

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Research shows that 85% of internet users consume video content every month and 56% want to see more video content from businesses that they patronize.

Video is the future of marketing and YouTube is the dominant social video platform. The platform is the second most visited website on the internet and it attracts 2 billion monthly active users.

Buyers use YouTube videos to better understand the features of the product options available to them. 80% of customers that used YouTube in their research said they watched the videos at the start of the purchase process.

YouTube provides you with an opportunity to reach customers during the decision-making stage and influence them to pick your products over other alternatives.

  • Upload “how-to” videos to show customers and prospective buyers how your products can be used to solve problems and perform tasks.
  • Upload customer testimonial videos to build social proof around your products
  • Optimize your videos for SEO by integrating relevant keywords into your titles and using the correct video tags.

Final Thoughts on Social Media Platforms

You have discovered the 8 best social platforms for promoting your business, the key features and dominant demographics on each platform.

Now, it is up to you to select the best social channels for your brand and build out an active presence on those channels.

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