How to Choose the Best Social Media Platform For Your Business

Should your business be on on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or all of the above?

Once upon a time, advertising and branding used to be easy. Radio jingles were easily planted into listeners ears, women actually read the advertisements for products in the latest edition of Marie Claire and massive billboards captivated the attention of every passing car. Nowadays? Not so much.

You might be one of those proactive types, who smiles proudly and says: “Why yes, I know this. My business is already on Facebook.”

That’s great, but what about Instagram? Twitter? Or Snapchat? Can your ideal customer find you there?

Or more importantly, should they?

Times have changed. We live in the age of information where any source of information we desire to know more about is literally at our fingertips.

Technology has reinvented the static billboard, giving way to digital canvases that parade commodities in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colour. Magazines continue to sell ridiculously high-priced real estate between their covers but we all know digital advertising has exploded and revolutionised the way we do business.

In this blog we’re going to go deep into the world of social media and figure out just how far down the social rabbit hole your business should go.

The Worst Question to Ask

Before deciding on a social media platform to showcase your company, you might think the first question we would ask you is: “What type of business do you have?” NOPE! STRIKE OUT! This question is totally irrelevant. In fact, one of the best reasons to post on social media to build a community of followers and fans is precisely the fact that anything goes (obviously no nudity/vulgarity etc, we are all mature adults here).

Whether your company makes artisan soaps, custom woodwork benches, made-to-order artwork, organic beauty products or craft beer: there will be people out there dying to know more about your products.

Are you a divorce councillor, yoga instructor, blogger or DIY-fanatic? The internet will love you. Do not over-think this. There are billions of people accessing social media daily, and a portion of them want what you sell.

If you don’t believe us, we did a 30 second Instagram search for the first random word we came up with, and discovered that “Yarnologist” has 19.5k followers. You read right – YARN. Almost 20000 people. Think on that for a moment.

Do not make the mistake of thinking there isn’t a fan base for what you do.

Two Essential Questions You Should Ask When Choosing a Social Media Platform

Now that we know that pretty much any type of business can use social media to create brand awareness, we get to the real questions that will help you decide exactly where you should be posting online:

1. What Do You Want Social Media To Do For You?

The intention you have for your business will define which platform best suits your needs. It goes without saying that you need a website and a Facebook Business account, but if you have a product that photographs well, then you need to promote it on Instagram.

Likewise if you are a dietician, you can easily gain a social media following by posting tweets that debunk common dieting myths.

The key is not to think that you can create one piece of content and then just copy-paste and slap it onto all of the platforms in the same format. You might have to edit or modify your content to better fit the platform on which you are posting it.

To give you a quick example:

Let’s imaging that you are a plumber and you want to create some a great content showing ordinary folks how to fix a leaking tap by replacing the washer.

Take a look at how we can modify this content to suite some of the most popular social media platforms:

Did you ever think that this one topic could so easily be transformed into different variations of social media content?

Are you beginning to see how versatile social media can be for your business or brand?

2. What Type of Customer Are You Trying To Reach?

The second important question to ask is what type of customer are you putting your energy into engaging online.

You need to be present on the platform where most of your potential clients spend time.

There is no point posting on twitter, if you are not trying to encourage conversation. There is no point shooting a YouTube video unless you can attract your ideal customer using this medium.

Likewise, some platforms will lend themselves more naturally to fit your business.

So experiment.

Take a product, service or even yourself (if you are trying to become an influencer) and create 5 or 6 different forms of social media content similar to what we did for the plumber, and see what response you get from the online community. Do you reach more people on Facebook than on Snapchat? Then you need to go put a bit more focus on Facebook.

This is not a one-time only exercise, though. You need to test quite extensively and remember, unless you are selling something out-of-this-world phenomenal, it will take time to gain a following. So keep doing it and see which platform resonates with your company best.

One word of warning: if your content totally sucks, don’t be surprised if no one is liking and sharing. Ensure the highest quality possible. You need to post something that people really need and want to see.

Cons of Posting on Multiple Platforms

Let’s take a look at some of the downfalls of building a following on social media:

Time and effort:

Admittedly, it does take time to write blogs to post on your website, shoot and edit YouTube videos, create amazing Instagram pictures and so on.

Consistency:

You can’t post once a month. In our media-driven lives, if you don’t stay top of mind, people will forget about you. Again, the trick is to work out what frequency of posting works best for your business and your audience. Just as posting once a month is too little, posting a blog daily might be too much. When it comes to Twitter, you could post several times a day. It really depends on the platform and how much engagement you are trying to generate.

The key is to take the time to test what works for you. Once you are in the swing of things, you can even create a social media calendar to help you stay on top of it all.

Financial Cost:

If your customers respond enthusiastically to you posting on YouTube, then you might want to consider investing in a decent camera and other video accessories to improve the quality of your videos.

You might need to subscribe to some paid software to edit pictures/photos but if you are just starting out, the free versions are more than adequate. If you decide to place paid adverts on any of the platforms to increase your distribution to targeted audiences, then yes, this will cost money.

Pros of Posting on Multiple Platforms

It’s FREE!

You can post organic content till your heart’s content at no charge whatsoever. Never before in history has marketing and branding been so cheap and accessible. There really is no decent excuse not to be doing it.

It’s Easy!

Once you get the hang of how the platforms work, it’s really simple to post. You can literally do it yourself, no need to have a huge marketing team working behind the scenes like with conventional advertising (think billboards, magazines, newspapers).

You can do most of it directly from your cell phone or laptop. You do not need a recording studio.

Massive Audiences

You get instant access to a global audience of consumers at the click of a button. Need we say more?

The Takeaway

The greatest disservice you can do for your business not to use social media at all.

Consider all your competitors who are shying away from social media because they don’t want to put in the energy to create compelling content online or they don’t believe that their brand, product or service is “entertaining enough” to be on social. That is their mistake, but it doesn’t have to be yours.

Leverage other people’s hesitancy and put your business out there.

Do not ignore this advice: please post on at least two platforms to start with. Don’t go “all-in” on Instagram but ignore Twitter completely. Don’t rely on a single platform (eg: Facebook exclusively) because what if they suddenly start charging, or change the rules or worse, shut down completely? Hedge your bets and cast a wide net suitable to your goals and your customers.

Another thing to consider is: what if your demographic changes as your company and clients evolve?

For instance, Snapchat is currently used predominantly by the pre-teen and teen crowd BUT have you ever stopped to consider that the young snappers of today are the mature Facebooker’s of tomorrow? Do not ignore an entire segment of society because like most things in life, the platforms and the audience will change over time.

If you haven’t been using the fantastic free resources at your fingertips, we hope this blog has inspired you to get started. 

If you are a regular on Instagram, we challenge you to throw Twitter into the mix. If you are already a black-belt karate ninja on all the platforms, we applaud you! You seriously rock!

Check your analytics and see which ones serve your brand the best. Share this article with someone who needs a gentle nudge in the right direction.

Whatever you do, post something. You will get better over time, but just do it. Because if you don’t, your competitors will.