Which Social Media Channel is Right for Your Business?

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.

Facebook

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+

Instagram

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+

LinkedIn

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+

Twitter

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.