How To Choose The Right Social Media Platform For Your Business

Are you using the right social media channel to maximize your marketing reach?

It’s important, especially if your resources are limited, that you’re focusing your social media efforts in places that will generate the most return for your efforts.

Do remember though that not all social media is created equal. Different platforms attract different audiences.

There’s no point in spending your time on a particular social network if your audience isn’t there. Nor should you spread yourself too thin by trying to be everywhere at once.

Every additional channel your business is active on means additional time and effort required to engage on and create tailored content for that platform.

Before becoming active on a social network, try answering the following questions to help you choose the channel that is right for you.

1. Will this platform help us achieve our marketing goals?

Setting SMART goals to which you can align your social media activity is a good guarantee of online marketing success. If you can’t explain how a particular social channel will help you to achieve your goals, then it may not be the right fit for you.

2. Is our target audience active on this platform?

The most effective social media strategies are informed by social media data. Refer to Google Analytics to see which social networks are sending the most traffic to your site. Look at existing data to learn where a specific demographic spends their time online. Statista and GlobalWebIndex are good sources of worldwide statistics on Internet usage.

3. Which social networks are our competitors using?

Which social networks are your competitors using? Are they active on networks you aren’t? Use a tool like Buzzsumo to identify the social channels on which your competitors get the most shares. Chances are if these channels match your demographics and are working well for your competitors, they will work well for you also.