If we had to pick one main takeaway from the past two years it would be that technology and social media are a great way to keep people connected and informed. With technology and social media on their continued rise, it can really help your small business! Social media is a great way for small businesses to communicate with their current customers while attracting new ones. By using social media marketing strategies you can grow your business significantly even on a low marketing budget. The best way to get the most out of your social media marketing is to know which social media platform your ideal customer spends their time.
Before we get into the different platforms let’s dive into what social media marketing is and why it is important for your business. According to Investopedia “The term social media marketing (SMM) refers to the use of social media and social networks to market a company’s products and services. Social media marketing provides companies with a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones while allowing them to promote their desired culture, mission, or tone. Social media marketing has purpose-built data analytics tools that allow marketers to track the success of their efforts.”
If you do not have any social media presence for your business we strongly encourage you to get on board. Having a social media presence for your business will help you….
Build Brand Awareness
Most people need to see your business several times before they make the decision to do business with you. Social media helps keep eyes on your business. Even if you’re not getting “likes” there is a good chance people are seeing you.
Connect and Interact with your Customers
Social Media is a great way for you to interact and engage with your customers and future customers.
Generate and Nurture New Leads
By creating social media ads that are targeted to your ideal market you can easily get new eyes on your business
Easily get Your Content Out to the Public
People go to social media for information. You can use this to your advantage and post all of your business’s upcoming sales, your products, and anything else you want the public to know about you and your business!
Build Trust with your Community
When building your brand on social media we suggest you get involved in your community and make sure to tell your personal story about why you opened your business. Your community will not only get to know your business but you as a person and that’s where the trust is built.
Grow Your Audience
If it’s not clear from the other points we’ve made ~ having a social media presence and plan will help you grow your audience and, of course, grow your business.
We do not want you to feel that you are now required to spend hours a day on social media trying to connect with everyone. We do feel that you need to have a presence. So even if you are just posting once a week the updates for your business that is better than nothing at all. A lot of people use social media for information and to find new things.
Now that leads us to who is using which platform!
As a business owner, you should know your target market. If you do not, please download WCE’s Marketing & Sales Plan Bundle that has a Target Market Worksheet in it!
Once you know your target market you will need to figure out what social media platform your ideal clients are using. We will now do a quick breakdown of each social media platform, what it is generally used for and the common users’ demographics.
First up, Facebook.
Facebook was founded in 2004 and according to omnicoreagency.com they have 2.91 billion active monthly users and 1.93 billion daily active users. 56.5% of those users are male and 43.5% are female. People ages 25-35 years old are the largest demographic to be using Facebook. 7 in 10 (69%) of adults use Facebook. 82% of college graduates are on Facebook and have an income of more than $75,000. Another interesting fact about Facebook is that almost 90% of Facebook’s daily active users come from outside the U.S. and Canada ~ there are 190 million Facebook users in the US (India has the most with 320 million). It is also stated on omnicoreagency.com that A Facebook user clicks on 12 ads on average per month and 18.3% of U.S. adults made a purchase through Facebook in the last year. And 75% of Facebook users visit a local business page at least once EVERY WEEK.
Instagram was founded in 2010 and is focused solely on photos and videos. According to omnicoreagency.com There are over 2 billion monthly active Instagram users and 1.9 million active daily users. There are over 200 million businesses on Instagram as well. 48.4% of all Instagram users are female with 51.6% being male. 31.2% of Instagram users are between the ages of 25 and 34 years old and 31% are between 18 and 24 years old. There are 159.75 million Instagram users in the United States and 22.5% of those are between the ages of 25 and 34 years old. Women use Instagram 56.5% more than men in the U.S. A great key statistic on omnicoreagency.com states that 73% of teens say Instagram is the best way to find out about new products or promotions from brands and 25% of US teens (GenZ) say Instagram is their preferred platform. So, if your target market is a younger crowd you may want to get yourself an Instagram account! There are over 500,000 influencers on Instagram which is another great way to market if you have a product. Users spend an average of 28 minutes per day on Instagram and use mainly According to HootSuite “No matter the Instagram demographic, people use the social network to delve into their interests. Recent research commissioned by Facebook finds that 91% of people polled say they use Instagram to follow an interest. The research finds that the top interests on Instagram are travel (45%), music (44%), and food and drink (43%).”
Instagram may be Gen Z’s preferred platform, but another great statistic found by HootSuite last year is the number of 55 – 64 year old males (Gen X) using Instagram grew by 63.6%. So, Instagram might be rising in popularity with older adults.
TikTok
Since TikTok is a social media platform for creating, sharing, and discovering short videos it might not be the first social media platform you think of when it comes to your business. But, it has become a great source for businesses to share their products with their target market. But, what demographic is on TikTok? TikTok is one of the newest platforms starting in 2016. Omnicore reports that TikTok has 1.2 Billion Monthly Active Users with 138 million of those being in the U.S. 57% of TikTok users are female and 43% are male. Roughly 43% of TikTok’s global audience is between 18 and 24 years old, 32% of TikTok users are aged between 25 and 34, and only 3.4% of TikTok audience is older than 55. Breaking those ages down even more: 25% are aged 10-19 years old and 22.4% are 20-29 years old. TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app and 90% of users visit the app more than once per day! 9 out of 10 users TikTok users open the app multiple times daily and TikTok has an engagement rate of 17.96% compared to Instagram’s 3.86%.
LinkedIn was actually founded before Facebook in 2003 and is used for professional networking and career development. It is not a personal social media site, so if your ideal market is working professionals you may want to be active on LinkedIn. According to Omnicore LinkedIn has 756 million users with 310 million monthly users. There are over 196 million users in North America, 198 million in Europe, and the most users are in the Asia Pacific with 206 million users. There are 690 million professionals on LinkedIn with 51% of college graduates and with an average income of $46,644 per year. 43.1% of LinkedIn users are female and 56.9% are male. The age group that makes up most of LinkedIn are aged 25-34 at 60.1%. 19.2% of people between 18 and 24 years old use LinkedIn. An interesting statistic on Omnicore is “There are 61 million senior-level influencers and 65 million decision-makers on LinkedIn” and 80% of people on LinkedIn drive business decisions. 6 out 10 users actively look of industry insights on LinkedIn. There are also 2 million active publishers on LinkedIn! And 45% of content readers on LinkedIn fall under upper management in companies.
Here are some handy graphs to get a visual of the ages and gender of users for each platform:
As we stated before, knowing your target market is key when deciding if social media marketing is right for you and which platform or platforms you should use. We really hope that these breakdowns of the main social media platforms were helpful for you to make these decisions.
Remember that WCE is always here for you ~ for more tips and free downloads please browse through our other Small Business Resources.
And you won’t want to miss any of our upcoming virtual workshops or our in-person events! You can find those under our Upcoming Events tab or you can click below!
If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at connect@wearewce.com!
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