A Deeper Dive into Choosing the Right Social Media Platform

, Embracing social media is integral to a successful business these days, especially with 3.96 billion active social media accounts worldwide. Last week, we discussed Clairant’s “10 Tips for Improving your Company’s Social Media Presence.” This week, we’re diving deeper into the world of social media to help you make the right choice when it comes to our first tip: Choose the right networks for your audience.

There are countless networks, websites, apps, and forums to choose from, but it’s not about being active on as many as possible; it’s about knowing why you should utilize some of them over others, depending on your company’s objectives. Here’s a breakdown of the internet’s largest (and most influential) social media sites...

Facebook
Post formats: Text (63,206 character limit), image(s), video, time-locked 24 hour video/image story
Active monthly users: 2.23 billion
Demographic: 25-54 yrs
Great for:

• Promoting events
• Building communities
• Building brand loyalty

LinkedIn
Post formats: Text (700 character limit), image(s), video(s), blog posts
Active monthly users: 590 million
Demographic: 30-49 yrs
Great for:

• Business networking (B2B and B2C)
• Industry news
• Recruiting

Twitter
Post formats: Text (280 character limit), image(s), video, time-locked 24 hour video/image story
Active monthly users: 326 million
Demographic: 18-29 yrs
Great for:

• Real-time communication (i.e. news, PR, announcements, and other time-sensitive information)
• Building relationships with influencers

Instagram
Post formats: Image(s) with text (2,200 character limit), time-locked 24 hour video/image story
Active monthly users: 1 billion
Demographic: 18-29 yrs
Great for:

• Marketing personal connections
• Lead generation for visual-heavy businesses (i.e. beauty, entertainment, retail, etc.)

YouTube
Post formats: Video with text (5,000 character limit) 
Active monthly users: 1.9 billion
Demographic: all ages
Great for:

• Attracting new customers
• Building brand awareness
• Offering resources (“how to” tutorials, problem solving, Q&A’s, etc.)

Pinterest
Post formats: Image with title and text (400 character limit)
Active monthly users: 250 million
Demographic: 18-35 yrs
Great for:

• Driving traffic for blogs
• Lead generation for visual-heavy businesses (i.e. art, clothing, food, etc.)

Tumblr
Post formats: Text (no character limit), video, audio, image(s)
Active monthly users: 642 million
Demographic: 18-35 yrs
Great for:

• Building brand loyalty
• Microblogging/in-depth communication

TikTok
Post formats: Video up to 60 seconds with text (140 character limit)
Active monthly users: 100 million
Demographic: 16-29 yrs
Great for:

• Attracting new customers
• Building brand awareness

Snapchat
Post formats: Time-locked 24 hour video/image story
Active monthly users: 255 million
Demographic: 16-25 yrs
Great for:

• Promotions
• Exclusive/time-locked content

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There’s so much to take into consideration when choosing the right social media platform for your business, and even more to consider once you’ve created an account. Luckily, you don’t have to do this alone. At Clairant, we can set up and educate you on all of your business’s social media needs, or, if you prefer, we’ll build it and maintain it all for you. So the only time you have to click “submit” is right now on our contact form.

Sources:
https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/how-to-choose-the-right-social-media-platform-for-your-business-infographi/559386/
https://us.accion.org/resource/choosing-right-social-media-platform-your-business/

 
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10 Tips for Improving Your Company’s Social Media Presence
 
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