We now live in a world where more people are using social media than are using phones on a daily basis. Twitter is quickly replacing traditional media outlets as the go-to source for up-to-the-second news in the world. I don’t know that you’ll meet a single bride-to-be who doesn’t have her Pinterest page organized to a T.
I think at this point, we can all agree that social media in one way or another is important for a business.
But how important is it? Is it enough to just have one and not the others? How active do you need to be? What kind of impact can you expect? What about paying for ads?
These are all great questions and the reality is that it depends on a number of factors, but ultimately, in order to have a real impact on your digital presence and inbound marketing efforts, you have to have engagement with a number of these social platforms.
That doesn’t mean you have to hire a college kid to start managing your TikTok account or spend a thousand dollars a day buying up ad space on Facebook. All of it really comes down to what your goals are, what your industry/demographics looks like, and what you consider to be successful metrics/ROIs in regards to your marketing plan.
We’ll touch more on a lot of this below, but needless to say, if a lot of this seems like a foreign language to you, or you have no idea how to approach social marketing (or digital marketing in general), it might be a good time to talk to someone about what this all means to your business.
How Should My Business Utilize Social Media?
Again, no one can tell you how active you need to be, how often you need to post, or what exactly to post. Some companies can get away with doing less, some have to constantly live in that world.
However, as social media platforms continue to differentiate between users (who also don’t necessarily want to keep up with 10 or more different platforms), this gives businesses an opportunity to pick which few are best suited and get aggressive in their promotion from there.
75% of people are somewhat or highly likely to share content they like online with friends, co-workers, or family and 49% do this at least weekly.
So to help you make that decision, let’s look at some numbers based on current usage:
Should My Business Use Twitter?
53% of businesses in the information and communication sector reported the highest rate of blogs and microblog usage.
85% of B2B marketers use Twitter and 50% of B2B marketers view twitter as an effective social media channel.
Should My Business Use LinkedIn?
65% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn while 40% of B2B buyers say that LinkedIn is important when researching technologies and services to purchase. 91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn and 96% of recruiters actively use their LinkedIn account.
Should My Business Use Facebook?
Facebook is the perfect medium for companies with visually driven products. Photos account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. Meanwhile, B2C product providers are a heavy focus on the platform, as 42% of Facebook fans like a page in order to get a discount or a coupon and 35% liked a page to compete in a contest. 77% of B2C marketers have acquired customers through Facebook.
Should My Business Use TikTok?
B2B brands such as Cisco, HP, GE, Hubspot, Media Temple, Moz, VM Ware and many more are finally using TikTok as part of their social media campaigns. TikTok is an example of a platform that most wrote off as a waste of time for users, but marketers know that it’s still in their best benefit to publish content to it in order to contribute to their overall brand awareness. So if your brand considers this as a crucial part of your marketing strategy, then it needs to be a high priority, especially given that it’s where the majority of Gen Z are spending their time online.
Should My Business Use YouTube?
Besides the very easy answer of YES, YouTube is perfect for brands that are visually driven, with 52% of consumers saying that watching a product’s videos make them more confident in online purchase decisions. Further, 64% of visitors who view a video stay on a site 2 minutes longer on average and 64% are more likely to make a purchase than other site visitors.
Should My Business Use Pinterest?
Considering 92% of pins are made by women, brands in the retail and especially fashion space are finding huge success on Pinterest. Top brands in those industries are receiving an average of 46 repins per pin and since 70% of Pinterest users are there for shopping inspiration, e-commerce retails need to be heavily weighing Pinterest in their social strategy. Pinterest alone accounts for 25% of retail referral traffic, which makes it a trusted source for users. 60% of their social traffic is from their home and furnishings category and 57% of content is food-related.
Should My Business Use Instagram?
The average Instagram user spends 21 minutes per day on the app, which is a lot of time for just looking at pictures, but makes sense considering Instagram recently overcame Twitter for the highest levels of engagement (and is the fastest growing social network). So, like YouTube and Facebook, if your brand is visually appealing and looking for a personal connection, then this is the right spot for your business.
Social media platforms are more important than ever in today’s digital world. A recent study showed that over 3.2 billion people around the world use social media regularly. That’s almost half the world’s population! So it’s no wonder that businesses are using social media to reach potential customers.
If you are a central Illinois business looking to increase your social presence and better engage with your followers but don’t know where to start, let’s talk!