Active Users: 2.7 billion active users (as of October 2020)
Year Founded: 2004
Most Popular With: Everyone
Facebook is the largest social media site in the world with a whopping 2 billion+ users. Most people are familiar with this platform but in case you aren’t, this platform allows you to “friend” users, view their profiles, and share content that people can view on their Newsfeed.
Their Messenger service has over 1.3 billion active users and businesses have taken advantage of this by using their Chatbot feature (which allows organizations to reply faster and cut down on customer service costs).
Compared to other social media giants, the user demographics are pretty spread out so if you are looking to advertise to a wide audience Facebook is your one-size-fits-all social media platform. Most businesses that learn how to advertise on social media focus on Facebook due to its ubiquity. It is able to support some of the top social media campaigns for this reason.
Use social media to improve the results of your marketing campaigns. Download this free eBook today to learn how to run an online marketing campaign!
Active Users: 335 million active users (as of October 2018)
Year Founded: 2006
Most Popular With: Younger people, mostly between 18-29
Twitter is one of the most effective marketing tools when used correctly. Users have profiles where they can send out “tweets” composed of up to 280 characters that appear on other users’ timelines. Videos, photos, and gifs can be attached to tweets and you can also create quick polls.
Trending topics often fall under hashtags, which are a great way to join a global conversation when appropriate and relevant. Users have the ability to “retweet” which is a seamless way to share other profiles’ content on your own.
Businesses can use Twitter to generate engagement and create conversations around their products and services. If you need to facilitate buzz with a younger audience under 35, Twitter is your answer.
Active Users: 590 million active users (as of October 2018)
Year Founded: 2002
Most Popular With: College graduates and high-income earners
LinkedIn is the first stop you should make when trying to reach a professional audience. Most B2B marketing strategies include LinkedIn as their platform of choice to establish reputation and put out content. Using LinkedIn for B2B marketing is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter combined.
LinkedIn personal profiles include the users’ work history and accomplishments, but business pages operate similarly to Facebook Pages. Users can follow businesses and see their posts on their timelines, which they can like, comment, and share.
Unlike other social platforms, text posts actually get viewed at a higher rate with more engagement. It’s best to put out content that is thought-provoking and connects professionals from across your industry. The business results driven from LinkedIn are frequently cited as a reason why your business needs social media.
Active Users: 1 billion active users (as of October 2018)
Year Founded: 2010
Most Popular With: Younger audiences between 18-29
Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2012, and while there is some crossover (you need to have a Facebook page in order to have a business profile on Instagram), the two platforms are very different.
Instagram is where you can let your creativity shine since it is all visual. Users can post photos and videos, share Stories (a feature made popular by Snapchat), and engage with other people’s content on their feed. Like Twitter, you create a unique handle (username).
Instagram has blended numerous e-commerce features onto their service and users can bookmark and save photos to their collections. There are countless ways marketers can utilize Instagram to their advantage.
YouTube
Active Users: 1.9 billion active users (as of October 2018)
Year Founded: 2005
Most Popular With: People between 18-49
YouTube is the most popular video-based social platform where users can upload, watch, comment on, and share videos. Each day, people view over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos.
There are usually ads that you can skip after 5 seconds or unskippable ads that are around 15 seconds long. Beyond ads, however, YouTube videos are an effective way to lead viewers back to your website or to put out content that establishes your reputation as an industry expert.
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, so having a competent SEO company in your corner could help your results.
Snapchat
Active Users: 291 million active users (as of October 2018)
Year Founded: 2011
Most Popular With: People under 30, majority female teens
Snapchat is a “mobile-first” multimedia messaging app that started the 24-hour “story” feature that many other platforms have adopted. Snapchat’s ephemeral messaging can be altered with drawings, text, “Geofilters” (overlays that become available in particular locations), and “Lenses” (real-time effects and AR/3D elements).
These features have been instrumental in creating an extremely engaging avenue for marketing content since brands can collaborate with their own Lenses and Geofilters. There is also a more traditional “Discover” tab where organizations can put short ad content.
Snapchat leans extremely towards a younger audience who value the short-lived content for producing an air of authenticity and real-time feel. Now that Instagram has its own Stories feature, time will tell whether that will be enough to lure away Snapchat’s specific demographic.
Active Users: 250 million active users (as of October 2018)
Year Founded: 2010
Most Popular With: Females with an above-average income
Pinterest is a very unique social media platform. Think of Pinterest as a digital vision board. You can have multiple boards where you “pin” content to it, which makes it a very visual network.
Pinterest has the longest content longevity (half-life of a pin is 151,200 minutes, compared to a Facebook post’s 90 minutes and a tweet’s 24 minutes) which makes it an excellent place to post evergreen content. 87% of Pinners have reported they bought a product because of Pinterest and 93% stated they have used Pinterest to plan a future purchase. Your business can use Pinterest to its advantage by posting infographics, products, photos, and much more.
Now that you understand the audience types for each social platform, make sure your marketing message and delivery are polished. Experts at the MARION marketing company offer social media marketing in Houston and Austin that can help you reach your potential customers.
Contact MARION today to learn how we can help you improve your marketing results!
