How to Choose the Best Social Channels to Market Your Business

There are hundreds of social media sites and apps. With this plethora of social channels, how do you decide which ones to market on? Don’t waste your marketing budget on social networks that won’t bring results.

Keep reading to learn how to refine your social media marketing plan and focus on the right networks for your business.

Top Social Networking Sites

The list of social media sites grows year over year. Here are the top social media sites online today.

Facebook: It’s hard to find someone that doesn’t know about Facebook. 2.32 billion people use it each month; staggering! It’s a personal-use platform where you can find a diverse audience.

YouTube: Google bought YouTube in 2006. If Google thinks that YouTube is valuable enough to buy, marketers should take note. It’s now the second-largest search engine in the world, next to Google itself.

Pinterest: Pinterest started in 2010 and has over 17 million users. It’s an image-based social media platform. Most users are female.

Twitter: Twitter is unique in that it’s a type of hybrid platform. Everyone from celebrities to teenagers uses it. Companies often use Twitter for fast communication with customers.

Instagram: Another image-based platform, Instagram users are mostly using it for personal reasons. There are, however, businesses using it in partnership with influencers.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is great for B2B networking and marketing. Professional job search is another common use.

Unless you have a huge marketing budget and staff it’s impossible to reach all of them, and do it well. Here’s how to decide which to include in your marketing plan.

Your Ideal Customers

If you haven’t already created a customer persona, you should do it now. It’s important to know who you are marketing to before you begin. Doing so prevents wasted resources from targeting the wrong audience.

Your Customers on Social Media

Utilizing your customer persona, decide where your ideal customer “hangs out” on a regular basis. That’s where you should start your social marketing. There’s no sense spending time on platforms that your customers don’t use.

Also research who they follow, what kind of content they prefer, and if there’s any special jargon they use.

Social Channels For Your Industry

Not all social media platforms are ideal for your industry. Some will convert better than others. It’s your job to figure out which ones align the best.

How? Thinking about the types of content your niche prefers and your products. Can you successfully combine the two on the different social media platforms?

For example:

Will your products and services benefit from visual exposure? If so, consider social networks like Pinterest and Instagram.

Current Social Media Traffic

Already have a website that receives traffic from social media? Check your traffic reports to determine which ones to increase efforts on.

Some things to look for are:

The media sites that send the most visitors
The best converting social media traffic
The follow-through statistics for each

Let’s say you get a lot of traffic from Twitter. Check and see if these visitors are spending time on your site and if they’re taking action on your content. If so, make sure to keep adding the kind of content that’s working for you.

Your Competitors On Social Media

If your competitors are investing heavily on one platform or another, it’s safe to say that it’s working for them. Investigate how they are using a social media channel and how they perform there. You’ll learn things like:

Which channels they are marketing on
Which are generating the most engagement
What kinds of things they are posting
How often and when they post
Who their followers are and their ideal persona

Once you have this information, use it to reform your own social media marketing plan.

What’s the Bottom Line?

Not all social channels will work for every business. Tailor your social media marketing plan to include the ideal platforms according to your business type, goals, and customers.

Want to increase your influence and results on social media but need a little help? Contact us for a free consultation. Let’s get started today!