How to choose the right social media channel for your business?
In 2022, the number of social media users worldwide rose by more than 10% to 4.74 billion, making up 59.3% of the world's population. This finding was part of the Digital 2022 Global Overview Report published by the creative agency We Are Social, and the social media management platform Hootsuite.
Considering that half of the world uses social networks, social media is a valuable channel for businesses to connect with customers and showcase their brand. However, starting on multiple platforms can be overwhelming, leading to inconsistent content and a lack of engagement.
Starting your social media journey? The Laika Space Dogs suggest focusing on one or two platforms. Many businesses make the mistake of rushing to open accounts on multiple platforms, leading to poor content and inconsistent posting. This can be overwhelming due to lack of time and ideas for varied content, and can result in losing followers if the same content is used across all channels. What is good for one social media channel is not necessarily the best for another. Think TikTok vs. LinkedIn. When was the last time we saw a dance challenge featured on a company's LinkedIn page?
We recommend starting with one platform at first to see what resonates with your target audience. From there, you can expand to another platform, taking into consideration the different tone and content required for each network. You might have noticed that we, ourselves, don’t have a paw in every social media out there: You can primarily find us on LinkedIn and Instagram, which are used for different purposes.
To choose your first social media platform, follow these three steps:
#1 Who’s in your fan club?
It all starts with answering an important question: who’s your target audience? Knowing your target audience is crucial to successfully promote your products and services. To understand who to connect with on social media and promote your products/services to, you need to analyze your customers and create a psychographic profile.
Here are the key psychographic elements:
Gender, age, profession, income, location: These characteristics are considered fundamental because they directly influence your understanding of how a person makes decisions. Determining the basic characteristics of the buyer will tell you which channels to use, which communities to search for, what promotions and events to hold, and so on.
Interests: You can better understand what they support through the hobbies and activities they enjoy.
Life values: Values are the things that they believe are important in the way they live and work—those things that make them happy and satisfied with their life. Understanding what their values are, will help you formulate a clearer message that is on target.
Needs and desires: Simply ask yourself: what problems can you solve for them?
Example: Meet Monica, a 36-year-old mother on maternity leave who lives in a big city. She enjoys yoga, cooking, and painting. She values family, timeliness, perfection, and self-care. She lacks time, has minimal support with her children, and lacks communication with friends.
Our Space Dog Tip: create client cards to describe their personality, interests, and needs. In addition, it’s useful to include an image of the target audience, to better visualize who they are. Let’s take Monica, for example, who’s a beauty salon patron.
Start with knowing your audience. Get to the heart of your customers' needs—whether they're rational or emotional, and find ways to meet them. Simply understand the value your product or service provides, and be able to share it with your customers. That's the first step.
#2 Who’s playing on your field?
Knowing and understanding your competition is also important. Conducting a competitive analysis will give you a better understanding of which social networks are popular and effective with your competitors. Make a list of your direct competitors, and dive deep into the research. Determine the following:
Where do they get their traffic from? Utilize tools such as Similarweb, which show you what social networks bring traffic to their sites.
Research their approach for attracting their audience, and study their content. You can use services like Popsters to find various metrics on posts, audience size and activity, and more.
Take note of their posting schedules, content topics, page design, and tone of voice. With this information, you can create a strategy that leverages the strengths and avoids the weaknesses of your competitors.
By analyzing your competitors, you'll have a clearer idea of the best social networks to target and ready to take the final step.
#3 What’s your reason to go social?
Ask yourself what goals are driving you to go social: increasing brand awareness, building a reputation as an expert, selling directly to customers, offering them customer support, or searching for new employees, etc.?
To select the right social media platform, start by aligning the average age and gender of the social network's users with your target audience. Then, examine the platform's fundamentals, including business page creation and advertising options. Familiarize yourself with the available formats for advertising content, such as text and creatives, and investigate the platform's targeted advertising capabilities.
To make your first social media choice easier, refer to the list below and find your sweet spot.
| Social Media Platform | Users in Germany | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Youtube | 72.6M | Best suited for industries such as travel, beauty, business consulting, fitness, entertainment, and education, however, patience and persistence is required to see significant results. |
| 43M | It’s a good choice for most kinds of businesses, but its usage is declining in Germany. It's important to monitor your target audience's activity. | |
| 29.85M | Ideal for travel, fitness, art, and beauty industries. A great option for businesses selling clothing, cosmetics, accessories, handmade items, and photography services. | |
| TikTok | 17M | Can be good for any business that is targeting a younger audience. Almost 70% of users are between 16-24. Only a third of TikTok's audience is over 25. |
| 15.8M | Works for retailers and small businesses, as well as organizations that blog (articles can be submitted as pictures with text).The best pins to promote are clothing, travel planning, home decoration, baking, health and beauty, various accessories, handmade, small goods. | |
| Snapchat | 15.3M | Works for fashion, beauty industry, fitness and nutrition, for traveling and personal brand promotion. |
| 13M | Suitable for companies that position themselves as professionals, looking for clients among businesses and like-minded people in the niche. Use this social network if you have an idea of creating groups to communicate with clients and partners or creating highly specialized communities, it also fits well for the expert content. | |
| 7.75M | Suitable for companies that incorporate quick interaction with their audience into their online marketing strategy. This social media won't help selling. However, a well-thought-out strategy will build a reputation as an expert. | |
| 1.3M | A good place to build a loyal audience around business, try it for beauty, health, traveling, crafts, investment tools, teaching and coaching, but be ready to invest much time and effort. |
4.74 billion. Let’s not forget that number. More than half the world uses social networks. It's crucial for businesses today to have a presence on social media in order to reach their audience. However, it's recommended to start with just one social networking site and not spread yourself too thin across multiple platforms. This way, you can maintain your creativity, personality, and passion for content creation. Once you've established a solid presence on one social network, you can expand to others, armed with the knowledge from your past experiences.