Choosing The Right Social Media Platforms For Your Brand

It seems like almost daily, a new social media platform “du jour” pops up, offering more of the same features as the most popular players with a little twist or something extra. Startups from all over the world purport to be the next Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and while some take off and become popular – others fall flat or never get off the ground at all. This can pose somewhat of a problem for brands, especially ones that want to stay ahead of the curve. It can be difficult for some to weed out which platforms they need to be on vs. which ones they can comfortably ignore. It’s always a good idea to stick with a smaller number of accounts on specific factors, but how many? There are a number of factors that will determine what’s best for you, and a handful of ways to help you get to this decision.

Understand Your Brand

The most important aspect of choosing the right social media platforms for you is having a deep understanding of your brand. Not every type of sharing service works for every type of company, so keep this in mind when you’re making your choices. If your business relies heavily on aesthetics and visuals, then you should absolutely take advantage of image and video sharing platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. If blog posts, articles and data sharing makes more sense for your brand, platforms like Facebook and Twitter can link back to your website much easier. Think about where consumers of your brand are most likely to be found.

Understand Your Market

Understanding the consumer profile of your brand will help you determine where you should putting your social media resources to use best. People of all ages have social media, but particular age groups (and other groupings) flock to specific platforms they use on a daily basis. For example, college-educated people under the age of 50 prefer Twitter over most other social apps and Pinterest’s users are mostly women between the ages of 18-29. Knowing what your own consumer base is mainly comprised of will be agreat help in determining where you should be focusing your social media efforts. Brands experiencing a lack of engagement might find the reason to be that they’re posting their best content in the wrong spot.

Home or Abroad?

Think about where your consumers are physically located as well, and there are social media platforms that are popular in other parts of the world that are nearly unknown in north America. While Facebook is a worldwide safe bet, others like Qzone has over half a billion Chinese users while not even being a blip on the radar in North America. You can try tapping into new markets but doing a bit of research on some of the more popular ones

Be Open To Change

Regardless of which network(s) you join, always stay open-minded to the possibility that a better one may come along, and one you use currently may become obsolete. Pay close attention to the change trends and find ways to create unique content for each platform, if you have the resources to do so.