Which Social Media Platform is Best for Your Business?
When you make the decision to begin marketing on social media, the first question you’re going to ask yourself is “which site do I use?”
Now, that doesn’t mean that you can only pick one. In fact, you should make an account for all three and spread your content around. However, running multiple social media accounts can take a lot of time and effort, and not everything that performs well on one site will perform well on another.
So, which one should be the focus of your time and effort? Let’s find out.
The undisputed king of social media, Facebook boasts 2.85 billion users. Regardless of whether or not it will be your main form of social media, a Facebook page has become a must-have for any modern business.
While Twitter focuses on short text posts, and Instagram on image-based posts, Facebook casts a wider net. Instead of choosing to focus on either form of media, most Facebook posts are accompanied by both text and images. Additionally, Facebook is the place to be when sharing more in-depth information, such as articles and blog posts.
Because Facebook has been around longer, the average age of a Facebook user is older than other apps. If you’re planning on marketing to an older audience, then Facebook should be your method of choice. Older demographics tend to have more money, meaning Facebook is also the place for marketing to wealthy clients. If your business is managing hedge funds or investing capital, for example, Facebook should be your pick of the litter.
With 1 billion monthly users, Instagram does have fewer users than Facebook, however, considering it was released six years after Facebook, it is one of the fastest-growing social media apps out there. Instagram focuses heavily on sharing images and videos, instead of text posts. But where Instagram really shines is user engagement.
User engagement can be measured by getting likes, comments, share or any other way users interact with your posts. A study revealed that Facebook posts saw a median engagement rate of 0.09% per post. Comparatively, Instagram saw a rate of 1.6%. Instagram posts will often gain ten times more engagement on Instagram than Facebook, even when comparing the exact same post made on different platforms. If you are planning on interacting with your audience or making use of influencers and user-generated content (read more about that here), Instagram is also the place to go.
Instagram should be your medium of choice when trying to attract a younger crowd as it has a much younger age demographic when compared to Facebook. When compared, the number of users aged 18-24 on Instagram is 30%, while Facebook is only 23%. This is likely a combined factor of Facebook being older and Instagram focusing more heavily on images and videos, which are more popular with younger demographics.
Twitter is the best platform for keeping your customers informed and up to date with information happening right now, in the moment.
If you’re sharp of wit, Twitter would be the best place to be making jokes or wordplay. Users are far more likely to take the time to read a text-only post on Twitter than the other sites, instead of just skipping over text in favour of images and videos.
Paid ad slots also see far more engagement on Twitter than other platforms, with traffic rates of 1-3%. That mightn’t sound like a lot but, in comparison, Facebook only sees an average of 0.12%. This improved engagement does come at a higher price than either of the other two platforms, however.
In Summary
The use of social media is imperative to your business's success in this day and age, but not all sites are made equal, which is why it's so important to figure out the best site for you.
Little Pig Consulting are experts in social media management. If you're looking for consulting regarding social media, you can book a free 45 min consultation here today!
