Every business should have an active presence on social media. That is easily understood. Having a presence on social media will help maximize your brand’s reach and also increase engagement with customers, both current and perspective. The trickier issue is understanding which social media is best for business. If you don’t have enough time or money to conquer all the platforms right now, which do you choose? Here are some tips to help you make the most of your social media strategy to grow your business.

Identify Your Target Audience

There are multiple social media platforms available to businesses, and each one attracts a slightly different audience. However, sometimes you can’t do it all at once. Start by identifying who you want to reach on social media to help narrow down your choices. Here are some questions you should ask yourself as you work to identify your target audience:

Where is your target audience located geographically? The most popular social media platform in North America may not be the same as the most popular option in Asia.
What is the average age and gender of your target customer?
What is the average income of your target buyer?
How does my target audience get their information? A more tech-savvy audience may prefer videos more than a different demographic.

Depending on what services or products your business offers, you may have other items that are important to consider when profiling your target audience. These items may include whether they are homeowners or not, whether they have children, and also what their fields of employment are. Use this profile of your target customer to develop your social media strategy.

Identify Your Social Media Goals

What does your business hope to accomplish with social media? If your social media goal is to increase sales, then you will need to choose a platform that makes it easy for followers to click on the “buy” button and complete the sales transaction. If your goal is to build a community and make it easier for customers to ask questions or share their success stories, then you need to choose a social media platform that helps build community.

Choose the Social Media Platform that Fits your Brand

You need to analyze the customer profile you created and also your goals are for connecting with that target audience. Then look at the top social media platforms to find the channel that fits your business needs. These are the top five social media platforms you should consider.

Facebook: With 2.23 billion monthly active users, this social media platform can help your business reach a vast audience around the world. In a survey of Facebook users in the United States, 74% of women and 62% of men say they use the platform. Facebook reaches users in multiple age groups and with varying levels of education and income. This social media platform reaches the widest audience range of the most popular social media options.
Instagram: This social media platform has 1 billion monthly active users who tend to be younger than the Facebook audience. 39% of women and 30% of men surveyed in the United States say they use Instagram. In the 18-29 year old demographic, 64% of US residents polled say they use Instagram. 40% of 30-49 year olds and just 21% of 50-65 year olds use Instagram.
Twitter: This platform has outlasted many other social media channels, and still registers 335 million monthly active users. 24% of women and 23% of men report using Twitter in the US. The platform is most popular with 18-29 year olds, with 40% of respondents in the US claiming to use Twitter.
Pinterest: This social media channel is much more popular with women than it is with men. While 41% of US women report using Pinterest, only 16% of men do so. Pinterest has 225 million monthly active users. The channel is popular with women of all ages. Approximately 30-35% of women in each age demographic reporting that they use this platform.
YouTube: With 1.9 billion monthly active users, this social media platform is right behind Facebook in audience size. 72% of women and 75% of men in the US state that they use YouTube. A whopping 91% of social media users in the 18-29 year old demographic use YouTube. 85% of 30-49 year olds use the platform.

Which to choose?

The key to choosing the best social media platform for your business is to know who your target audience is. Houndstooth Media Group will be happy to help you develop a marketing strategy to reach your key customers and build your social media platforms so you can reach them successfully. So, which social media is best for business? That all depends on what your goals are!