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The first social networking site to reach over a million people a month was MySpace, back in 2004. Since then, the list of social media platforms has exploded, and today there are over 4.65 billion social media users worldwide.
Having a presence on social platforms is essential if you want your brand message to reach as many members of your target audience as possible. Being strategic about which platforms to use for your business is key.
What are the most popular social networks?
Today, there are so many social channels that it’s hard to keep up with what’s trending. It’s important to know what each offers when developing a social media strategy with the goal of growing your brand. Here are some of the most popular social media channels today.
Instagram has billions of worldwide active users. Around 31% of those are aged between 25 and 34 and two thirds are under 34. Women comprise 48.4% of the platform’s users and 51.6% identify as male. A whopping 17.6% of the global population uses Instagram. So, if you’re wondering, “Which social media platform should I use to target a younger audience?” this is a strong contender.
The biggest social network on the planet, Facebook has around 2.93 billion monthly users. Newsweek reports that younger people are leaving Facebook for newer platforms. 56% of Facebook users identify male and 44% as female, and most users are between ages 35 and 44.
230 million people in the United States use LinkedIn, and 59.1% of all global Linkedin users are between 24-34 years old. Linkedin is a good option for your business marketing if you’re trying to expand your reach through lead generation tactics, especially if you run a B2B business.
TikTok
Still considered something of a newbie in the social media arena, TikTok has grown at an incredible rate since 2018. The app was downloaded more than 1 billion times in its first year alone and now receives over 1 billion monthly users, so it’s definitely worth investigating. 50% of its users are under the age of 35, meaning that it’s a great platform to engage Gen Zs, in particular, as well as younger Millennials.
70% of Pinterest’s 430 million monthly users are women. The majority of usage is in the US (86.4 million users) with Brazil (27 million users) and Mexico (17.9 million users) coming in second and third. The platform also has user figures of over 10 million respectively in Germany and France, and over 5 million respectively in Canada, UK, Italy, and Spain, which make it a viable space for brands operating in those countries.
Twitter has around 330 million active users around the globe. A quarter of adults in the US use the platform, and the majority (70%) of its users are men. 42% of Twitter users went to college, and the Twitter user base is high-income— 34% earn more than $75,000.
YouTube
The world’s second-most downloaded entertainment and streaming app after Netflix, YouTube has audience numbers of 2.6 billion with a male-to-female ratio of 11:9. In the US alone, 81% of the population uses the platform. Subscribers to YouTube Premium and YouTube Music number more than 50 million, so it’s a great space for high-budget video and audio.
How present should my brand be on social media?
As the above examples demonstrate, different social networks work for different audiences. So, don’t waste time and effort trying to conquer them all. It’s more important to focus your efforts on those that will have the biggest impact for your brand.
Think about what it is that you’re selling and how your audience will engage with it. Does it lend itself to video, photography, long-form writing, or bite-sized tidbits of information? Knowing this should affect which social media you concentrate on.
By the same token, your audience should have an impact on your social media strategy. Look at the demographic profile of your target audience and figure out which social channels' users have the most overlap with it.
Which social platforms should be used for what purposes?
Social media tends to be pretty flexible in terms of what you can do with it. There’s a lot of crossover, too. You can, for example, repost YouTube videos on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, often with equal relevance on each platform. It’s all about how you frame it in line with the general tone of the platform.
However, there are also many differences between the platforms, and some of them are better suited to certain types of content than others.
Here’s a bite-sized overview of what you can do on the most popular social channels:
Set up a page for your business
Post news and updates to your feed
Share photos and videos
Post links to your website with embedded imagery and videos
Offer customer support via direct messages
Respond to comments from followers
Like and share other brands’/people’s content
Share live videos
Create fundraisers
Create and share events pages
Access page analytics
If you’re looking to tap into a 30+ audience, Facebook could be your place to share news, updates, and events notices. Create a page for your brand, link to content on your website (if there are images or videos, Facebook will embed them in the post), and engage directly with the people who message you and comment on your posts.
Microblog thoughts, moods, trends, and opinions
Communicate directly with your followers, fans, influencers, and customers
Use hashtags to drive traffic to tweets
Create audience polls to drive engagement
Ask questions of your audience
Live tweet commentaries during off-page events
Post photos and videos
Link to content on your website
Twitter gives users 280 characters to get a point across. That means whittling your brand messaging down to its bare essentials.
More than anything, Twitter is an opinions forum, where individuals speak out about whatever’s on their mind. So convey your brand personality in ways that engage your target audience based on tastes, views, trends, goals, and values.
The platform gives you the opportunity to communicate directly with fans and followers of your brand, too. If someone tweets positive things about you, you can thank them. If they tweet negative things about you, you can address their concerns.
YouTube
Create a channel for your brand
Launch or promote your products
Deliver deep-dive news, statistics, and information
Position yourself as a subject expert and thought leader
Broadcast event footage
Stream live video events
Host video blogs/vlogs
Redistribute customer videos
YouTube is your opportunity to engage users through keyword-driven content that focuses on delivering video and audio to meet their search terms.
If you create videos for public consumption (e.g., product unboxing videos and how-to guides), this is the place to host them. You can easily embed videos into your website and across many of your other social channels, but by hosting them on YouTube, you’ll allow anyone searching the platform to find them, too.
It’s also worth pointing out that YouTube Music now has an 8% share of the global streaming market, which means the space is also an opportunity for record labels and distributors to share their audio content.
Set up a business profile
Share photos of products, employees, customer interactions, news, etc.
Share stories—temporary, 24-hour posts that present deeper info than regular posts
Drive traffic using hashtags
Share videos in your timeline
Post Reels (up to 90 seconds)
Incorporate your branding via Unfold for Squarespace
Track audience engagement
Brands with tangible products can find a home on Instagram, because you can showcase and sell products directly through your posts. Short unboxing video stories, striking photos of your products, and in-action shots of brand ambassadors using your products are great ways to convey the quality of your products in pictures. You can also showcase stages of the customer journey by developing relationships with influencers who engage with your offering in videos.
If your business trades in ideas or services, Instagram stories give you the chance to build a narrative around your brand. You can also integrate Acuity Scheduling into your account, so people can book services with you while scrolling.
Apps like Unfold for Squarespace extend the brand experience on Instagram by giving you a toolkit to express your own visual identity system, differentiating you from your competitors in that space.
Share inspiring and actionable pins
Add a “Pin It” button to your website
Pivot off trending keywords and topics
Join and create themed “boards”
Drive passive customers to your online shop
Use hashtags to drive traffic
Tag other people using the @ symbol
Pinterest is used to give people inspiration through shared photography. It’s useful for sharing high-end images showcasing products in their most beautiful light. Food, fashion, interior design, and vacation destinations are among the ideal subjects for sharing on Pinterest.
When formatting for Pinterest, portrait dimensions are best. To maximize engagement, make sure your accompanying written content clearly conveys what the user will see when they click through.
TikTok
Present authentic brand experiences in video
Drive traffic using hashtags
Adapt your message to the medium—dance routines, collaborations with other creators (e.g., musicians), animal videos, etc.
Create video cuts in real time
@ friends
Add links to your website
TikTok is increasingly being used by savvy brands who understand how it works. Just remember that users tend to be here for fun, so developing branded content for a TikTok audience means joining in that fun. Tap into subcultures formed around passions and interests. Co-create content with TikTok celebrities. Explore the process of what you sell—not just the finished product.