When it comes to social media, there are so many choices. How do you pick the right one? As a small business, you often already have less time on your hands as you work as a manager, stock taker, finance, quality control, event organiser and everything else.
The importance of a strong social media strategy is not to be overlooked. Social media can help your business grow leaps and bounds, but you don’t want to be putting your eggs into the wrong basket.
Here’s where we cover the ‘big six’ of Facebook, Instagram TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. We'll take a dive into each of their demographics, their content, the industries, social media strategies and their weaknesses.
Facebook is the current King of social media. With over 2 billion active monthly users, Facebook’s influence on small businesses and consumers is gigantic. They also offer the widest range of tools and resources for small businesses as far as social media goes.
The platform is always adding new tools and features to help aid businesses large and small in using Facebook to promote. Some of these features include Facebook Business Pages, Market Place, Ads Manager, Scheduling and Analytics.
The downside to Facebook is that its organic reach is poor, and some of its business tools are a little confusing without a guiding hand. However, there are lots of brilliant resources online to help you through all business tools, including some of our own for free.
People
- 25-34
- 56% male - 44% female
Content
- Photos & Videos
- Links
- Shop/Market Place
- Live Video
- Stories
Industries
- Jobs/Education
- Health care
- Restaurants
- Clothing
- Sports
- News
Strategies
- Local marketing
- Customer relationship building
Weakness
- Poor organic reach
- Support for learning all the business tools may be required
Instagram is the most visual social media platform’s out there with 1 billion active users per month. Its presence online promotes an ‘aesthetically’ pleasing lifestyle.
Instagram is an ideal platform for businesses in the tourist industry as it is great for showcasing vibrant plates of food, beautiful stays, and dramatic scenery. It is also great for artists wanting to display their art and process. Instagram is all about storytelling and brand building. We also host a webinar about Instagram for Business!
Instagram was bought by Facebook (Meta) in 2012. Since then, it has benefited from all the tools and resources Facebook had to offer. This means that marketing you host on Facebook, can easily run-on Instagram as well.
People
- 18-34
- 32% male - 68% female
Content
- Inspirational
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Photos & Videos
- Tutorials
- Lifestyle
- Stories
Industries
- Entertainment
- Fashion
- Food
- Art
- Health & Wellness
- Real Estate
- Holiday
Strategies
- Organic
- Ecommerce
- Influencer
Weakness
- Only 1 link (this can be fixed by using bio-links)
- High ad cost
TikTok
TikTok is the place to be for trends, dances, tutorials, art, cooking, and humorous content. It has been the fastest growing social media platform of all time. TikTok currently has 80 million active monthly users. Whilst it may have fewer users than Instagram and Facebook, the users who are there, are there to engage! TikTok has one of the best organic engagement rates on all social media platforms and is video content only.
People
- 10-19
- 39% male - 61% female
Content
- Entertaining
- Dance
- Food
- Tutorials
- Quick
- Trending
Industries
- Entertainment
- Art/Design
- Food
- Fitness
- Beauty
- Fashion
Strategies
- Influencer
- Keeping up with trends
Weakness
- Limited marketing tools
LinkedIn is the go-to platform for B2B (business to business). It has a more professional feel to it, with its focus being on building and gaining business relationships. LinkedIn currently has 260 million active monthly users. It’s also the best platform for lead generation, which is 3x higher than Facebook and Twitter.
LinkedIn is all about company culture, business news, milestones, job announcements, and anything else you might have going on as a business – big or small.
People
- 25-55
- 57% male - 43% female
Content
- Company values
- Updates
- News
- Job hiring
- Professional
Industries
- IT
- Health
- Construction
- Graphic Design
- Marketing
- Finance
- Retail
- Manufacturing
- Education
Strategies
- Organic engagement
- B2B
Weakness
- Limited marketing tools and analytics
Twitter is a ‘microblogging’, fast-paced platform for on the go. With its character limit for posts, it’s a platform made up of quick, witty and to the point comments. It currently has 326 million active monthly users. Twitter is news-focused, with company updates, quotes and announcements being popular content. This platform is great if you’re wanting a quick response to polls, products, and for raising brand awareness in short bursts at a time. Lots of businesses use Twitter to stay relevant and keep up with the latest topics. This is great for marketing as you can see what’s popular and make quick content based on that.
People
- 25-49
- 56% male - 44% female
Content
- News
- Updates
- Announcements
- Humour
- Trends
Industries
- High education
- Sports
- Fast food
- Finance
- Art
Strategies
- Customer relationship building
- Brand awareness
Weakness
- Limited character space (280 characters)
- Overwhelming
Pinterest is the place to be for creators and makers. Pinterest is a platform that’s sometimes overlooked by businesses, but it can be ideal for building your brand and gaining new customers. The platform currently has 86 million active monthly users and has quite in-depth analytics.
The saying in the marketing industry is “Content is king”, and that couldn’t be truer for Pinterest. The platform is most used for creative inspiration, ideas, and tutorials. Pinterest is full of eye-catching visuals to entice users into clicking the images and then through to your website. The best way to describe the importance of great images for Pinterest is to think of it as a book cover for your website or wherever else you might want to direct people.
People
- 25-34
- 24% male -76% female
Content
- Tutorials
- Photos & Videos
- Infographics
- Links
Industries
- Art
- Fashion
- Interior Design
- Hair/Beauty
- Plants/Nature/Outdoors
- Food/Cooking
- Photography
Strategies
- Organic reach
- Visual content
Weakness
- Limited industries
Learn more about social media with our Social Media Strategy course. We cover a variety of platforms and give an in-depth look at how to optimise them for your small business.
If you’ve found the right platform but are looking for more guidance with content, we also host a Content Creation Course looking at creating quality images and graphics, confidence in digital storytelling, writing engaging content and much more.
Keep an eye out for our upcoming webinars giving you practical knowledge in bitesize portions"