How to choose your Social Media Channel

Most companies want a presence on all Social Media Channels and to ensure their online marketing is intact. Indeed, it’s a great way to get instant feedback from your audience.

There are a variety of channels with different features and a variety of purposes. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, for example, give users and companies the chance to connect with other users, and companies, celebrities and media platforms. Indeed, Social Media Channels give you the chance to connect with the world.

However, from a company’s point of view, the first step before creating a profile on any Social Media Channel is to see whether the platform is right to help develop the company’s strategy.

 Top tips to select a Social Media Channel

• Consider if you can to connect with your audience across the platform. It is more likely that your users have profiles on two or three social platforms and use some of them more than others (1). You can research your audience’s demographics and the way they behave with Google and tools like Quantcast, a free service that provides you with statistics and data about your audience’s lifestyle and online behaviour (2).

• Your services or products can be effectively displayed on the Social Media Channel. For example, if you own an accountancy company, it wouldn’t be appropriate to create a profile on Instagram, the king of social media photography. In this case, you should ask yourself from the very beginning ‘how can the images help me sell my accountancy services?’

Which channels will work best to spread the word? Which elements are more appropriate: photography, text, infographics or videos? Where is your audience most likely to spend their time (3)?

After selecting the Social Media Channels where your company will be present you will have to analyse every one of those platforms to plan your posts, content and tone of voice.

Reference:

• Social Media Marketing for Dummies, by Shiv Singh & Stephanie Diamond (Second Edition, 2012)
• https://maximizesocialbusiness.com/free-tools-research-demographics-facebook-ads-5798/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2013/08/27/6-steps-to-decoding-your-target-audience/2/