The Best Social Media Platforms for Your Business
Business leaders constantly hear the advice to “get on social media.” With so many social media platforms for business, though, it's tricky to find the ideal ones for your brand. So, what are the best social media platforms for business?
The key to social media marketing success is focusing on the platforms that help you connect with your target audience. When you’re getting started, don’t try to maintain accounts on every platform — just the ones that make sense for your business.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to choose the right social media platforms for small businesses, from Facebook and Instagram to YouTube and TikTok. Based on your business goals, content preferences, and target audience, you’ll find a perfect match or two.
The Top Social Media Platforms to Boost Brand Awareness & Business Growth
Social media sites vary widely. Some, like YouTube and TikTok, primarily feature video content. Others cater to specific audiences, like LinkedIn for professionals. Understanding the key features and differences between top social media channels is the first step in selecting a social media network to use to grow your brand.
For years, Facebook has been the most popular social media network, with a vast user base of over 3 billion active monthly users. Having such a large and varied user base makes Facebook a useful tool for businesses across industries. You can leverage Facebook to grow brand awareness, build an online community for your brand, and run highly targeted digital advertising campaigns.
Instagram started as a photo-sharing platform but has evolved into an incredibly popular multimedia platform that’s often at the heart of custom social media strategies. If you’re trying to connect with younger demographics, Instagram is one of the best social networks to use, since around 60% of the platform’s users are under 35 years old.
One of the most effective ways brands use Instagram to expand their reach is with influencer marketing partnerships. In these relationships, brands partner with Instagram creators who already have strong followings to promote their businesses. By working with influencers whose followers align with your target audience, you can get your products or services in front of users who are likely to be interested.
You can take advantage of Instagram’s focus on visual content to showcase your products through images and short-form videos like Instagram Stories. Videos can become a key part of your content strategy since they’re so engaging for viewers.
TikTok
For brands targeting Gen Z, TikTok is one of the best social media platforms. Around 25% of its users are under 20 years old, and the majority of creators on the platform are between 18 and 24.
What made TikTok rise to such prominence was the platform’s focus on engaging, short-form video content. Users can quickly scroll through short videos to find ones that catch their attention, while TikTok’s algorithm expertly adapts to show them more of the kinds of videos they like.
For brands, TikTok is a place to hop on current trends, expand your reach, and potentially run paid ads to expose an even wider audience to your brand. When you’re creating content for TikTok, focus on making the first few seconds as captivating as possible to pull in users, and add captions in case they’re watching with the audio muted.
YouTube
YouTube is one of the best marketing tools for businesses interested in leveraging video marketing. On YouTube, you can connect with a wide audience through content such as tutorials, product demos, and behind-the-scenes videos that help customers get to know your brand better.
X (Formerly Twitter)
X, previously known as Twitter, is a platform that users turn to for real-time updates and communication. This makes X ideal for brands to share news, provide quick-response customer service, and engage users. Start conversations with users about topics related to your brand or wider trending topics. Add some relevant hashtags to help interested X users find your posts and stay active.
If you’re in an industry that benefits from timely communication and public engagement, X is the perfect platform to connect with your customer base.
People don’t always think of LinkedIn as one of the top social media platforms for promoting your business, but it’s more useful than you might realize. On LinkedIn, you can recruit top talent for open positions in your business, network with other business leaders, and generate leads.
By sharing engaging content that addresses your target audience’s pain points, you can draw in potential customers for your brand. Don’t overlook LinkedIn in the importance of social media marketing, especially if you’re trying to grow B2B sales.
Choosing the Right Platform Based on Your Business Goals
The platform or platforms you choose should closely align with your business goals. For example, if you’re trying to grow your web traffic, choose a platform like LinkedIn or Facebook that allows plenty of linking within posts. If your goal is to boost sales, posting on platforms like TikTok and Instagram with built-in shopping features may be the best option.
Leveraging Multiple Platforms Without Overextending
It’s best to start with one platform that best matches your business goals and target audience. But once you get the hang of social media marketing, you may want to expand to other platforms.
The trick to staying active on multiple social networks without losing all of your time to social media management is to select complementary platforms and repurpose content. For example, if you create a great short-form video for your Instagram Story, consider posting it on YouTube, too. You’ll expand your reach without much additional effort. Or, take your most recent blog post and turn it into a post for Facebook.
Just make sure you maintain consistent branding across all the platforms you use, no matter what content formats you’re posting.
Measuring Success and Adapting Your Social Media Strategy
The only way to succeed with your social media strategy is to constantly monitor your results and adapt accordingly. Monitor key social media management metrics like:
- Reach: The number of unique users who see your content.
- Engagement rate: The percentage of your audience that likes, comments, shares, or otherwise interacts with your content.
- Click-through rate: The percentage of users who click on links in your social media content.
- Follower growth rate: The change in your account’s follower count over time.
- Watch time (for video content): The amount of time the average user spends watching your video before clicking away.
- Conversion rate: The percentage of users who click on your social media content and complete a specified action, like signing up for your contact list or completing a purchase.
You should see improvements in these metrics over time, and analyzing them can help you fine-tune your social media marketing strategy. Think about what you want to get out of your brand’s social media presence, and set clear goals to help guide your decision-making along the way.
Building a Sustainable Social Media Presence for Long-Term Growth
It takes some time to get the hang of social media marketing and start driving meaningful results for your business. Don’t burn yourself out by trying to do too much at once. Instead, focus on one or two key platforms that align with your business goals and target audience. Leverage the strengths of those platforms to steadily grow your online presence and influence over time.
If you’re looking for a helping hand with your social media strategy, turn to Optimize Digital Marketing. Our experts will devise a custom strategy to help grow your brand on social media.
Schedule your free consultation today to get started.