7 Tips for Choosing the Right Social Media Platform
Choosing the right social media platform for your business matters.
With what can feel like so many options, I know firsthand how overwhelming or even frustrating choosing the ‘right’ one can be.
Social media is imperative to a business’s success. Gone are the days when it was a great option or something to consider — in short, it’s a MUST. Social media helps build a community around your brand, reaches people in practically real-time, and it’s where all the cool kids are hanging out, right?
But seriously, using social media for your business is crucial, and choosing the right social media platform is real. In this post, I will give you 7 of my top tips to help you make the right decision for you.
I will focus specifically on B2C (Business to Consumer) tips for this post. However, I am happy to provide a B2B (Business to Business) post if you would find that helpful too (just let me know!).
Now, let’s get started.
7 Tips for Choosing the Right Social Media Platform
A huge part of successfully using social media in your marketing strategy is identifying your company and your audience’s personalities and then choosing the optimal place for them to get together. What you ‘do’ on your social platform is the foundation on which your content, ads, and even posting schedule should be built.
If you haven’t created your customer avatar yet — PLEASE make this a priority.
The words and images you use should come from the tone you want to be known for. Think of it this way: you can’t use the same packaging on a 6-pack of beer and a $100 bottle of wine (I loved this analogy from Forge and Smith). Similarly, you can’t slap your name and logo on six different social platforms, post the same content with the duplicate copy, and expect results.
When we know better, we DO better.
What is the nature of your Business?
Facebook and Instagram help gain visibility, visually engage and interact with customers. And, when we’re in relationship businesses, this is something we look for. So, I use these two as an example because they continue to be giants in the social media world. But, giants or not — are your customers hanging out there?
I want to take a moment to emphasize Instagram (and/or other picture dominant sites). This is a visual platform, so your pictures matter. They should be aesthetic, be it through content, fonts or colors, and demonstrate your product (or service) well. Features like IGTV or reels can be a little less polished (keeping it real), but images NEED to be pleasing to the eye.
Above all else, get in the habit of asking yourself, does my ideal customer hang out here?
Additionally, spend some time in the hashtag world. Research what your perceived competitors are up to and never feel you have to reinvent the wheel. Learn from those who have come before you successfully, and add your flavor!
Focus on your Target Audience
Instead of running after the newest social media platform, spend time understanding your audience and where you can find them. In many cases, Google search will deliver the best return; in others, it might be Facebook or Instagram.
If you are playing a lot more in the video space, TikTok is also a great option on a lighter entertaining note or even quick how-to’s! BUT, choosing the right social media platform for your business is more about choosing the social media platform your target audience is spending time on and why they’re spending time on it.
Client Demographics
What do you know about your customers as far as demographics? Are they older, younger, male, female? Start by doing a bit of research on this. When you dive into demographics, you’ll be able to narrow down your platform and find the most beneficial one to pursue. Whichever you choose, put some time and effort into it. Don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to manage multiple platforms at once. (Amanda Dalrymple)
Are you sensing a trend with these first few tips? GOOD! Because I can’t stress enough that your choices shouldn’t depend on the new social platform of the week — it should always depend on your audience, no exceptions.
Research your Competitors
As I mentioned above, when it comes to hashtags on platforms like Instagram, the truth is you should be researching your competitors overall.
Check each of their social media pages and see what content they are posting, how often they are doing so, and how many users are engaging with that content. Once you have a handle on which social media platform generates the most outstanding results, choose that one.
However, before you start, you should set your own goals and get very clear on the results you are looking to generate. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel when we continue to focus on creating valuable and authentic content in our voice.
Have a Consistent Strategy Across ANY Platform
For network marketers, maximizing reach for minimal effort is critical. So, more important than focusing on a specific social media platform is creating a consistent social content strategy that is maintainable. Then you can be repurposing and pushing that content to all main platforms.
There are many free scheduling tools available that make it easy to schedule one or two posts per week pushed out to multiple places; if this is something that would help you stay consistent — I say go for it. It has been said (even by me) that posting organic content is ideal. However, being consistent is a BIG deal too.
Overall, I believe that if you have content prepared and you block off the time to post it, you should be totally fine without a scheduler. However, it is always an option.
Participate and Engage in Discussions
Blogs, Facebook Groups, Instagram and Reddit, have allowed me to share my content and get it seen in front of many people. But, please don’t take advantage of that by sharing low-quality, uninteresting content.
My suggestion:
- Make sure to put down your self-promotional hat.
- Understand your audience.
- Participate in discussions regularly.
How you engage is almost as important as the content you put out there.
Choosing the right social media platform to engage on SHOULD be the same as the platform you are producing content on. After all, it’s where your customers are hanging out, right?
Don’t put all your Eggs in One Basket!
About to go a little off-topic about choosing the right social media platform here, or am I?
Email marketing works for almost any industry or demographic. If someone has a social media account, they have an email address. So not only is email marketing an effective tool for communicating with your customers and distributors, but it’s also a great way to find prospects!
Email addresses are gold.
If you can collect them, they’re yours forever — unlike social media followers, who could disappear at any time!
I hope you found this blog valuable about choosing the right social media platform for your business! There are many options, and you must make the right choice for your audience (and, in turn, your business!)
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