Having a presence on the most popular and effective social media platforms has become crucial for companies to promote their products and services and connect with their customers. With an overwhelming number of choices available today, you may be asking yourself, “which social media platforms do I need for my business?” Below we’ll dive into the top five that you should consider using right now.
Our Top 5 Picks:
1. Facebook
With over 2.9 billion active monthly users, Facebook is the largest and most widely used social media platform in the world. It offers businesses the ability to create a business page and connect with potential customers through posts, ads, and messaging.
Facebook offers some of the most in-depth targeting options available for businesses trying to reach a specific niche of people and start building a community. Since Facebook has users of all demographics and ages, you’re missing out on a huge piece of the market if your business is not yet on the platform. By the way, it has the highest average CTR out of all social media platforms.
2. Instagram
Instagram boasts over 1 billion active monthly users. The platform is similar to Facebook in terms of extensive ad targeting and the ability to reach a wide range of demographics.
Because Instagram is more of a visual-based platform, it’s great for businesses that have a visual appeal to their products or services and want to reach a slightly younger demographic than Facebook. Instagram works best for businesses looking to increase engagement.
3. Twitter
Twitter has more than 440 million active monthly users and is a platform that allows businesses to share updates and news in real time. It is particularly useful for businesses that want to establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry or for those that have a strong brand voice.
Although Twitter doesn’t have as large of a reach as platforms like Facebook or Instagram, the potential for increasing brand awareness and going viral from retweets is an appeal that many companies can benefit from. Companies often find Twitter useful in a customer service/community management role as well.
4. LinkedIn
In 2023, LinkedIn reached 900 million registered users globally. LinkedIn is a specialized social media platform built for professionals like employees and business owners to connect, find job opportunities, and chat. The platform is incredibly useful if you have a B2B business, as it allows businesses to connect with important decision-makers.
LinkedIn offers a better professional level of targeting than any other social media platform. For example, you can target based on industry, job title, employer, years of experience, and more.
5. YouTube
YouTube has more than 2.6 billion monthly active users, is the most popular video-sharing social media platform, and second largest search engine. With YouTube, your business can create its own channel to share valuable video content. YouTube is often used by businesses to create educational, instructional, and/or tutorial content.
The platform is an important part of a marketing mix as it can help in all 3 stages of the buyer’s journey. Businesses have found success in using YouTube to help explain and showcase their products and services and answer frequently asked questions.
What About TikTok?
You may be wondering why TikTok isn’t in our top five. That’s because TikTok is in a special situation right now.
As one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, TikTok has more than 1 billion active monthly users worldwide. TikTok is by far the trendiest platform, with many users participating in dance videos and collaborative-style challenges. TikTok’s vertical video-based format allows businesses to create engaging and entertaining content that can build brand awareness, increase engagement, and ultimately drive sales. In fact, TikTok has the highest engagement rate of all social media platforms at 3.74%.
TikTok’s ad targeting allows you to use similar demographics as Facebook and Instagram. This combined with behavioral and hashtag targeting, allows you to deliver your ads to those highly interested in a specific category. The only drawback to their current targeting system is the lack of hyper-local geographic options, which may not work for small local-based businesses. Also, if you’re looking to go viral, this is the platform for you.
So why not rank TikTok in our top five? Because national security experts have been warning about problems with TikTok for a while… and their concerns have only gotten stronger. The U.S. federal government, several foreign governments, and several U.S. states have banned TikTok on work-provided phones.
Additionally, President Biden is weighing a total U.S. ban on TikTok or forcing ByteDance to sell the company to one outside of China. That’s based on the fact that FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director William Burns, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, NSA Director General Paul Nakasone, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Scott D. Berrier have all reviewed risk analysis data and agree that TikTok is a threat to national security.
When TikTok first launched, national security experts like Malcolm Nance talked about it being used to train facial recognition software. TikTok compiles tons of data on its users, including biometric and location data. Due to laws in China, TikTok’s owner ByteDance could be required to hand over all of that data to the Chinese government.
If that sounds alarmist, it’s important to know that TikTok in China is a very different app. Sociology and psychology experts accuse TikTok of “hacking users’ brains” by allowing conspiracy theory content, “challenges” that can cause physical harm, and unlimited access. Whereas the Chinese version has mandatory 5-second delays to prevent “doom scrolling”, content is education focused or inspiring, and young users are limited to 40 minutes a day between certain hours.
So, while TikTok could be a useful way to reach your target audience, investing too much time and money into a platform that could be unavailable might not be wise. If your business or industry is one that’s active on TikTok, you might want to integrate it into a comprehensive marketing strategy as long as you do everything you can to capture leads and add them to your email marketing (for example) so you can still reach them if TikTok disappears.
Get Started on Your Social Media Strategy with Efferent Media
Of the countless social media platforms available, not all of them are relevant or necessary for every business. It is important for businesses to consider their target audience, goals, and content strategy when deciding which platforms to focus on. To start identifying your target personas, and developing a social media strategy, book a meeting with our team or call us at (631) 867-0900 today!