Which Social Media Platforms Should You Be On?
As the owner of a small business, you’ll be aware by now that you should have a presence on social media, but which platforms should you be using? There are many to choose from, and more popping up all the time, so which do you choose?
Every consultant or marketing specialist will tell you a different approach, but I’m going to tell you what I have learned from experience with many clients, and through marketing my own business as well.
Before we go any further, my advice would be pick one or two and do them REALLY well. Don’t try the scattergun approach of having a presence on all of them, and then not filling them all with great content - that will do you more harm than good AND give you anxiety in the meantime!
WHICH PLATFORMS SHOULD YOU BE ON?
First of all it depends WHO you are looking to get in front of. Different age groups migrate towards different platforms. Each demographic favours alternate ways to ingest information. For example, a 40-something will usually prefer slower, more detailed content, whereas a 20-something is far more likely to watch a quick video and scroll on.
Here’s a quick breakdown for you of who generally uses what. Bear in mind that there will always be exceptions. My uncle was 92 years young and was more tech savvy than I am! However, these are a rough quideline:
18-25 - TikTok, SnapChat, YouTube, WhatsApp
25-35 - Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, WhatsApp, TikTok, Facebook
35-50 - Facebook, Instagram, TickTok, Pinterest
50+ - Facebook, Pinterest
So if your customers - your IDEAL customers - are 40-50 then focus on Facebook and Ticktok maybe!
Add to this list LinkedIn if you are targeting professional businesses, and Twitter if that’s your platform of choice. Twitter is slightly more male dominated, and is most popular with the 25-35 age group. Twitter tends to be used by people who have their finger on the pulse of topical issues, current affairs etc.
WHAT KIND OF CONTENT SHOULD YOU BE CREATING?
Authentic content is always the best. True to your brand, true to yourself. You ARE the business after all!
Posts which inform, educated and relate to your audience are key. Please don’t just post for the sake of it - make sure you post something people will want see and read.
Social media platforms with host videos are ALL focusing on and prioritising video content if they can so YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook ALL rank video content above any other type of content.
Short form video is especially potent, as they will be listed then in Reels on Facebook and Instagram which are currently the most watched and viewed sections.
For Pinterest you need to be looking at things like top tips, life hacks, answering questions, lists, top 5, top 10 etc. Again, have a look at Pinterest and think about which pins attract you.
HOW LONG SHOULD A VIDEO BE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Keeping your video under 15 seconds is ideal for a Facebook reel, and although you may be thinking what you can possibly fit into 15 seconds, if you are just showing a quick peek at some new products or an outfit, room decor etc, then it’s bags of time, honestly!
If you want a longer video to fit more in, then try and keep to under a minute for your newsfeed.
TikTok videos tend to work best at around 20-30 seconds, and the same applies for Pinterest.
A YouTube Short is a 60 second or less video, so if you are creating short form videos, you can upload to all the platforms you need, rather than taking a long video and having to edit it.
Think about the videos YOU watch when you’re scrolling through. Do you have the sound off? Do you watch long videos … you’ve probably just answered your own question!
Hopefully that helped you, if you need any more specific information, get in touch!