B2B or B2C - Information On Choosing The Right Social Or Digital Media Platform For Your Business

Have you started off with your social media marketing on each of the social media platforms, without giving it a thought that which will be beneficial to you? Or have you invested your precious money and time on those platforms which did not give you many profits ? Or have you bypassed the rapidly changing social landscape ?

Thinking from I mind of a marketer, I can understand that a marketer or a business owner, cannot offer his infinite time and resources to be everything to everyone. And you don’t need to do that too. You cannot afford to be on every social site, but you cannot afford to ignore them either. As a wise and smart marketer your strategy should be to choose between the sites that work for you, your business goals, and your customer’s wants and satisfaction- and then to engage them well.

In this pulse post, I will try to enlighten you about some of the social platforms, which if used to the fullest can generate best results. But before, going further let me make it very clear that, “There’s an exception to every rule for every platform.

1. Facebook

Demographic facts:

• Facebook is still, far and away, the most popular social media platform
• It boasts 1.19 billion worldwide users
• 73% of the US adult population
• The most evenly-distributed demographics of any platform

While we cannot name Facebook when it comes to increasing sales generation (because according to me, Pinterest has that honor) but Facebook does has its charm in increasing the publicity rates for your product. You can always go for Facebook for increasing your brand awareness. The sheer reach of your brand’s content on Facebook makes it a must-use.

On this platform, you have the access to the personal details of the users, and therefore it becomes easier to target users based on these details. The Facebook advertising tool has been evolving, according to the changes in our way of advertising. And this evolution has always proved to be in the favor of the marketers only. On this platform, you can target your ad not just by basic demographics, but by job titles, the age of a user’s kid, the fact that they recently returned from holiday. And the list continues….

Something to be aware of, however, is the dramatic generational changes happening at the top. A study by PiperJaffray of over 5,000 teenagers found that the number who considers Facebook the most important social media site has fallen 10% in the past year. The well-documented decrease in popularity has been widely put down to the increase of parents on Facebook - a fact that, understandably, has terrified 17-year-olds everywhere.

Which Business Suits Facebook?

Facebook suits all! Yes, no matter to which field your business belongs to, you can always club it up with Facebook. This is the only medium which gives you this freedom. To generate more Facebook likes on your Facebook page, here are given some general tips:

4 Top Tip(s):

• Facebook Posts with a photo generate 120% more engagement than simple text.
• Posts shorter than 250 characters have 60% more engagement than longer posts
• Thursday and Friday have 18% better engagement than other days of the week
• Question posts have double the engagement of non-question posts
• 18% of the US adult population
• However, those who do use Twitter use it more frequently than other platforms, with 46% logging in on a daily basis.

2.Twitter

Demographic Facts:

? Despite being, arguably, the second-most recognized platform out there, Twitter is fourth in usage

Twitter, no doubt is a great medium for promoting your brands. I would in fact say that Twitter has a population which is smarter and more sensitive to any situation, as compared to other social mediums. Therefore, brands here have a better chance to promote their business, and get a higher tendency of users following them. Here, on this platform, users tend to keep themselves up-to-dated about what’s going around the globe. In fact, so many Twitter-ers are there to listen and learn that only 60% are actually actively posting!

People, always like to get rewards and win prizes, and this strategy works very well here. It is seen that most of the users follow a brand because, they offer them discounts, prizes or surprises by organizing some contests. So, I have given you the clue and you are smarter enough to use it.

Which businesses go with Twitter?

I would say that Twitter would be in favor to all SaaS companies, marketing companies, sports-related businesses, all new organizations. Why I am saying this is because Twitter, more than any other platform, is inextricably tied to in-the-moment developments. So, people here are more interested in the upcoming trends and developments. You have to be present on Twitter, if your sector or business is based around things that are happening now. You will have to make yourself also well up-to-dated with the new technologies, case studies and reports, news events that have the probability of affecting you.

 Twitter is also essential for relationship-building with influencers and communication with your customer-base. This makes it an important platform for marketers from every industry.

Top Tip:

Since Twitter’s addition of inline images, it’s become pretty apparent that including a picture in your Tweets increases engagement. Social-media Company Buffer has seen an 89% increase in Favorites with images over those without, and a 150% increase in Retweets.

Note the spike during the morning commute (when everybody on public transit is bored) and the fall between 6 and 7pm, when everyone is eating dinner. Thanks to Buffer App for the research!

3. Instagram

Demographic Facts:

• Coming up fast on Twitter is Instagram, with 17% of US adults on the site.
• Interestingly with Instagram, though it’s the fifth-most-popular social media platform, it has the second-most devoted users.
• Instagram is the only platform that is actually skewed towards blacks and Hispanics
• 57% of users access the site on a daily basis, only 6 points behind Facebook, and 11% ahead of third-place Twitter.

The most powerful tool that Instagram, are the age demographics that it has. Although only 17% of US adults are on the site, a full 43% of mobile owners aged 18-29 are on the site.

Which businesses should be on Instagram?

If you belong to an image-friendly business, like restaurants, clothes and fashion, food, architecture, technology, designers, etc, then Instagram is the best place for you. Also all those who have their target audience falling between the age limits of 18 to 29, can always rely on this particular platform, because it has a huge population of users falling in the age group of 18-29. Don’t forget that Instagram users are all amateur-photographers, so you will have to put your time and energy both, into your images to get far better engagement than otherwise. If you’re struggling for content for your Instagram profile, just think about making your. Try to connect your audience with your personal life moments like, showcasing them your company’s current events and holidays, show the fun stuff you are doing, how exciting and innovative your office is, etc.

Top Tip: 

User-generated content gets better engagement than content generated by businesses (and takes some of the strain off social-media managers as well…) Why not try out an Instagram Photo Contest to generate leads and create a catalog of great images you can use down the line?

5. Google+

Demographic Facts:

• Google+ users are 67% male
• The majority are in technical and engineering fields.
• The average age, somewhat surprisingly, is 28.
• Although the platform boasts 540 million users, only 300 million or so are active (the huge number of users can be put down, in large, part, to Google’s purchase of YouTube in 2006).

Google+ is an ideal platform for content sharing. Its compatibility with YouTube, the Google Hangouts function (which makes video conferencing a cinch) and Circles and Communities (which make segmented sharing easy) all function to make brand awareness and content marketing simple.

Which businesses suits Google+?

All those belonging to Tech and Engineering companies as well as marketing individuals, should definitely try their luck here. If you are one of those who are always keen on learning more and more (or providing information), then Google+ is just the platform made for you. The top three brands on Google+ are Android, Mashable and Chrome, with Android leading the pack by a significant margin. That said, Google+ is an individual-friendly platform (thus why I included marketing individuals).

 Top Tip: 

• In fact, Google +1’s are one of the most important factors in determining SEO - more important, in fact, than any link-building you’ve been devoting so much time toward.
• Focus on increasing social shares through social linking, intriguing images and content, and including social share buttons or a toolbar on your site’s pages. That last one can increase content virality by up to 700% and not 70%.

6. Pinterest

 Demographic facts:

• Pinterest has, in the past year, vaulted its way to the #3 spot as most popular social media platform
• 21% of all US adults using it.
• 84% of those users are females which makes it the second most popular site by far for this demographic.

Pinterest’s demographics are interesting not just because it’s so astoundingly female-dominated, Pinterest also has the second-highest percentage of internet users in the 50,000+/year income bracket, and 34% of Pinterest users have a household income of 100,00+.

In fact, Pinterest has far and away the best ROI for those businesses that fit its demographic base. 70 % of Pinterest use the platform to get inspiration on what to buy(compared to, for instance, 17% on Facebook). So, if your business fits - your business should most definitely sit.

Pinterest is a perfect option for E-commerce business. It is because the endorsements on this platform, substantially has a longer lifespan, as compared to other platforms. This is because, with Pinterest, users simply keep scrolling down their search results (as the page is never-ending).

Which business goes well on Pinterest?

Fashion, photographers, jewelers, home-hardware stores (DIY), these all can play well on Pinterest. Pinterest is for all those brands or companies which are mostly female dominated and image-dominated. If your brand is not among that then you are not made for Pinterest. 

Top Tip: 

•  Brands with rich pin integration have an 82% higher repin to pin ratio than normal pins.Rich Pins are brand pins with more information than normal pinned images.
• Most businesses looking to get sales from Pinterest will be most interested in product, which include more business links, the price, availability, and where you can purchase the item.
• The platform touts itself as the ‘professional social network’, and in that respect it’s accurate.
• 38% of internet users with an income of more than $75k are on the platform.
• 79% of LinkedIn users are aged 35 or older, making it the oldest platform in this list.
• 27% of employed Americans are using the platform as well.
• The three dominant sectors on the platform are high tech (14.3%), finance (12.4%) and manufacturing (10.1%). Worth noting is that the legal sector makes up a meager 1.4% of users.

7. LinkedIn

Demographic facts:

LinkedIn is a platform on which people just spend their quality time. People on this platform come up periodically to check on their business partners, find jobs, and sometimes increasing their networks. You get this from the fact that only 13% of the LinkedIn users sign in on a daily basis. It is this, despite holding the #2 spot as world’s most popular social media platform that makes LinkedIn notoriously difficult to find success with for businesses.

Well, LinkedIn doesn’t have the same ‘fun’ factor that many of the other platforms have. It’s not about spending an hour scrolling through your ex-girlfriend’s pictures, or about adding a filter to your New Year’s pictures, or chiming in on the latest development between Kim Kardashian and… what not. LinkedIn is for professionals and it’s about professionals. It’s hugely influential in the job hunt, both for employers and applicants. It’s great for networking, and the content sharing function is getting better on a weekly basis.

Which businesses should go for LinkedIn?

All professionals should be on LinkedIn, as individuals. I also recommend all professional businesses to be on LinkedIn, though the effort you need to maintain your presence there is significantly less than other platforms. Check in periodically to ensure your profile is stable - but focus your valuable time and energy on the more revenue-generating or awareness-increasing platforms.

 Top Tip: 

Before joining a LinkedIn group, check its statistics (in the ‘More’ tab below the group’s name). Make sure the demographics match yours, and the group is as active as you’d like it to be. Otherwise you’ll be wasting your time looking for social endorsements that aren’t going to happen.

Written By Deepak Goel

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