The Best Social Media Channels for Your Business
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The world of social media marketing can be over complicated and overwhelming. There are multiple social media channels out there and every social media marketing professional out there is recommending you utilise Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and more, to their full extent. The truth is – that is not always necessary. Each platform has its own purpose and key demographics. By using LinkedIn to sell more custom t-shirts, for example, you’re probably pouring money down the drain.
Here’s a list of what social channels you should use for what purpose, and some examples of brands that do it really well.
Facebook advertising is the OG of social media advertising, having been around since 2007 (anyone else feel old?!) and by far the most used, with over 7 million advertisers taking advantage of its extremely in depth targeting options and overall impressive capabilities (never forget Cambridge Analytica).
90% of our clients use Facebook ads to drive brand awareness, website traffic, leads and sales. Facebook is an incredible tool to meet your business objectives, IF your target audience are on the platform. The demographic constantly varies, but in general, Facebook is growing massively in the 50+ age group, and is the most popular social platform for seniors, low income households and for those in rural areas.
This ties in with Facebook’s targeting options too. You can target parents with newborns, newly engaged people, people who are interested in Manchester United and live away from your family, but you can’t target strict job titles, seniority and years of experience in their job role. Facebook is about the people, their relationships, and their interests, not their careers.
My top tips:
- Facebook is really effective for e-commerce businesses to drive sales and brand awareness.
- If you are a company that only serves people in your local area, e.g. a local shop, you should use Facebook advertising. Facebook loves communities.
- If you’re looking to drive traffic to your website from an interest-based targeting audience, Facebook advertising is perfect.
Our favourite Facebook pages:
Tastemade
Tastemade are experts at making engaging, eye catching video content.
JOE
JOE’s content is some of the most engaging. From weekly quizzes to memes and news updates, you’re hooked and 100% tagging your friends in the comments.
Zoopla
Zoopla have their target audience down to a T. Using our nosey nature to their advantage, their engagement is always through the roof. You know we love looking around million pound homes in the country and tagging our friends saying “one day ????”.
Instagram is the newbie of the social advertising world. They only launched their original, basic advertising functionalities in 2013 after being acquired by Facebook in 2012. As part of the Facebook family, their targeting capabilities are identical to that of their parent company, as long as you run the ads through the Facebook advertising interface. With that being said, the key demographics of Instagram are completely different to Facebook.
Whilst Facebook’s audience is gradually getting older, Instagram’s key demographic is 18-24 and 25-34. Instagram’s audience doesn’t necessarily change depending on household income, so whether you’re a premium brand or one that is more budget friendly, as long as you’re targeting millennials, you’re winning.
Although you can get as granular with your targeting as Facebook, drive traffic and generate leads, that doesn’t mean that you should treat both platforms as the same. Instagram is so much more visual than Facebook. Imagery needs to be spectacularly eye catching, video needs to be quick and quirky, and captions need to stand out (i.e not boring).
View this post on Instagram
My top tips:
- Instagram advertising is an incredible opportunity for e-commerce businesses, particularly with the latest shop features. Combined with Facebook advertising, your sales can increase massively.
- If you are a business with a very strong brand identity, creative imagery and memorable content, Instagram is essential for building brand awareness.
- If your audience is millennials and you’re willing to keep up with trends, your Instagram advertising will be extremely effective.
Our favourite Instagram profiles:
Aldi
The theme, the continuity, the imagery. Aldi’s Instagram is everything a ‘budget’ brand should aspire to be.
Doggosdoingthings
If there’s something that millennials love, it’s dogs (doing things). Doggosdoingthings is an incredible example of staying on trend and creating engagement.
eatMCR
An office favourite, eatMCR makes you want to eat out every day of the week with their Insta worthy photos. It’s no wonder their engagement levels are HUGE.
Twitter is one of the hardest social channels for brands to master. The content on Twitter is mainly memes, funny videos and a whole host of very strong opinions, unsurprising due to their majority millennial, urban demographic. Brands make the mistake of completely sidelining the usual content on Twitter and using their business profiles as customer service platforms or just simply repost their Facebook and Instagram content, because they’ve been told to ‘use Twitter’.
Unless your brand is extremely reactive, willing to jump on trends that may even be unrelated to your industry and create a completely new strategy for Twitter, then don’t even bother. Twitter is NOT a sales platform. Brands that use Twitter well, use it really well because they understand this. If you’re looking for brand awareness, website traffic at a push, Twitter can work effectively if you really try.
ATTENTION EVERYONE
It’s January 8th. You are legally required to stop wishing people a “Happy New Year”.
You are allowed to incorrectly write the date as 2019 for a further fortnight.
Sincerely,
The Royal Department of Festive Well Wishes, January Division— innocent drinks (@innocent) January 8, 2020
My top tips:
- If you are looking to build brand awareness, Twitter is a great platform, if you use it correctly.
- Looking to reach out to a millennial audience, Twitter is a good path, if you actually try.
Our favourite Twitter profiles:
Innocent
Innocent are the kings of Twitter for brands. Do I like their smoothies? Yes. Is their tweet about forgetting to change the clocks back funny and relatable every year? Yes. Am I a huge fan of their Great British Bake Off live tweets? Absolutely.
NetflixUK
Netflix’s Twitter presence is a great example of how to do it. They promote their new shows whilst still being hilarious and engaging.
Greggs
Greggs’ Twitter account is an incredible example of how to interact with your audience in the correct way. Again, it’s also a very funny and relatable account.
LinkedIn is a whole different ball game when it comes to advertising. The ‘professional’ social media network, LinkedIn is your go-to if you’re promoting B2B or looking to target working professionals. Their most popular age bracket is 18-29, eager young professionals looking to increase their personal development and connect with recruiters. The second biggest age demographic is 30-64 years old. What does that mean for you? CEOs, COOs, Managing Directors and senior team members, all ready for you to target.
LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities are outstanding for business looking to succeed in B2B marketing. You can target job titles, job functions, seniority, years of experience, interests and more. The list is exhaustive. There is even an Account Based Targeting option, allowing you to upload a list of companies that you want to work with, and target the marketing managers, sales managers, business development managers etc. of those companies. This makes B2B marketing incredibly efficient.
My top tips:
- LinkedIn is mainly a platform for B2B businesses, NOT e-commerce.
- On such a professional you need to find a way to stand out and just blend into the background.
- As the audience is quite young, take advantage of ‘professional’ memes. They might be lawyers and salespeople, but they’re also millennials at the end of the day.
Our favourite LinkedIn pages:
Dan Kelsall
A LinkedIn profile that cuts through all the inspirational quotes and ‘I’ve worked for 19 hours today’ posts, Dan Kelsall is adding a touch of humour and relatability to the LinkedIn world. We’re big fans.
Seed to Branch
Seed to Branch are a company that are fully utilising the ‘professional memes’ side of LinkedIn. Relatable, engaging, funny. Well done.
Famous Campaigns
Famous Campaigns is a personal favourite of mine. They are so reactive, I see a great campaign on Famous Campaigns before I see the actual campaign.
There’s a lot of information here about social media marketing and the dos and don’ts. If you want to find out more about how we can help your social media strategy, get in touch on 0161 327 2635.
