Content Marketing, Small Business Life
With so many options, how to do you know social media channel is right for your business? Should you be on Instagram (or the Gram if you want to be one of the cool kids), Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, SnapChat, or another channel? Should you be on all of them or focus on one or two? What’s best to do? When choosing social media channels to use for your business, it can be tempting to want to try them all, but there’s a better chance of success with social media if you focus on one or two channels instead.
How do you know which channels to use?
You can focus on the social media channels you personally use or like the most. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners start this way. Another way to make the decision is based on user data. The different social media channels have different audiences. The Pew Research Center publishes a Social Media Usage report each year that shows us who’s using which channels. This can be a HUGE help in deciding as to which channels you’ll use. When you know who’s using which channels, it’s easier to determine which ones you want to focus on.
What do you need to know to make a decision?
You have to know your ideal customer well. Their demographic information will be important when making this decision because the Pew data is broken down by demographics. It will help if you know how old your ideal customer is, what their education level, income level, marital status, and if they live in the city, suburbs, or a rural area.
Popular among most groups, most popular social media channel
1.52 billion daily active users
Nearly equal split male vs female
68% of all adult social media users
75% of social media users with income over $75,000
51% of 13-17 year olds
81% of 18-29 year olds
78% of 30-49 year olds
65% of 50-64 year olds
41% of 65+
YouTube
Popular among younger and affluent social media users
1.9 billion monthly active users
73% of adult social media users
Nearly equal split male vs female
84% of social media users with income over $75,000
91% of 18-29 year olds
85% of 30-49 year olds
24% of 50-64 year olds
9% of 65+
Popular among younger social media users
35% of adult social media users
More popular with women than men
500 million active daily users
42% of social media users with income over $75,000
72% of 13-17 year olds
64% of 18-29 year olds
40% of 30-49 year olds
21% of 50-64 year olds
10% of 65+
Popular among middle aged/ mid-career social media users
25% of active social media users
Equally split male vs female
260 million monthly active users
45% of social media users with income over $75,000
29% of 18-29 year olds
33% of 30-49 year olds
24% of 50-64 year olds
9% of 65+
Popular among younger social media users
24% of adult social media users
Nearly equal mean vs woman
126 million active daily users
260 million active monthly users
32% of social media users with income over $75,000
40% of 18-29 year olds
27% of 30-49 year olds
19% of 50-64 year olds
8% of 65+
What do you use this information for?
Once you know which channel your ideal customer is most likely using, you can determine where you’re going to focus your efforts. If your ideal customer is on three or four channels, start with one or two and test to see how they work for you. You can add another channel later or stay with the two that work the best for you. Learn as much as you can about the best practices for each social media channel and follow a content creation and posting strategy that aligns with the recommendations for the channel.
Creating a Marketing Plan
Once you’ve decided which Social Media channels are right for your business, the next step is to start creating content and distributing it so your ideal customer can find you. You’ll need your notes on the best practices for the channels you’ve decided to use, and you’ll want to create a plan as to how often you’ll post on each channel and what type of content you’ll use. Consistency is key here. You want to ensure that you’ve got new content for your audience regularly. Map out your content for a month at a time and use a scheduling tool either within the social media channel itself or a 3rd party tool to schedule your posts so that you know they publish on time. Don’t try to do it all on the fly. It’s much better to pre-plan and pre-post. It’s easier to stay on track if you batch your content and updates. Not sure what batching content means? Check out this post.
Request a copy of my marketing plan template and get started creating a marketing plan for your business today.