By now, most small businesses know they need a social media presence to help support and grow their business, however, determining which social media is right for your business is more difficult than knowing you should have a social media presence.

There are a lot of options out there, so narrowing down your list of social media contenders is key. Your decision of which social media to invest in should be based on your business goals, your industry, the type of content you create and have access to, how much time you have to execute your social media strategy, and, most importantly, your target audience. Audience demographics vary from one platform to another, so rather than trying to force your current and potential customers to the social media you want to use, you’ll want to establish a presence on the platform where your target audience already gathers.

Establish Your Target Audience

The target audience on each social media platform can be very different. For example, Pinterest users are primarily women over 30 years old, while Instagram has a more gender neutral audience under 40. What’s important here is that you figure out who your target customers actually are and, not necessarily, who you want them to be. Having a certain demographic of people engage with your social media content is great, but at the end of the day, which group of people actually pays for your products or services?

Define Your Social Media Goals

Before diving in any further, let’s talk about your business goals as they pertain to social media. Yes, you should be using social media for your small business but having a presence on social media is just the baseline. Do you want to improve your customer service? Do you want to increase your brand awareness and expand your audience while filling up your inbound leads funnel? Or do you want to learn the needs, wants, and habits of your current customers so you can better serve them?

Knowing what you hope to accomplish through social media will help you start to formulate your digital marketing strategy.

Determine What Type of Content You Create

No matter how many tips and tricks you’ve heard about growing an engaged social media following, there is only one that will always reign true: content is king.

That voice Kevin Costner heard in Field of Dreams was spot on: “if you build it, they will come.” Humans have a thirst for knowledge, and if you have good content, they will find you. If you have great content, they will keep coming back. And if you have exceptional content, they’ll find an excuse to tell all of their friends about it.

While content is king, different types of content work better on certain social media, so you need to consider what type of content you have access to or can regularly create to keep your content pipeline full. Do you have a lot of blog posts, ebooks, and white papers? Depending on your audience those might play well on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Do you record podcasts or produce interesting videos? YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok might be a better fit. Do you sell a product or service where visuals are important? You might consider Instagram and Pinterest as your social media of choice. Don’t know where to start with content generation and syndication? Look what your current customers and competitors are sharing online and decide how you can start to emulate the content your target audience is engaging with.

By establishing your target audience, deciding on your digital marketing goals, and determining what type of content you have access to, you have a good start on deciding which social media is right for your business.

Need some help determining which platforms you should choose? Schedule a FREE 15-minute strategy session to talk through your target audience, goals, and content, and let us help you get started down the path to social media success.