Should I choose Facebook or Google?
We’ve established the starting point for our digital journey. We know who your customers are. You’ve even set your digital marketing goals you want to achieve. Now the decision is what channels do we use to reach our customers, to achieve these goals. Is Facebook the right path or should I choose Twitter?
The easiest route to deciding where to invest your time/money is to look at where your customers are spending their time. Different social media channels are used by different age groups. Each platform draws people together because of different features. To show you examples of this we have taken a look at some options for you.
Facebook is by far and away the largest platform with 1.9 billion active users every month. A huge variety of age groups uses Facebook on a daily basis. If you have a Business Page on Facebook you also have access to free Insight analytics data for that page. This data offers you a breakdown of the people who like your page by age, gender, location and language. This information can help you profile your customer base for more effective engagement. Other data analyzed includes what posts have been most effective and at what time during the day people engaged. The targeted way in which you can choose to reach your audience can lead to cost-effective advertising campaigns which deliver great results.
Snapchat
Whilst Snapchat is actually a messaging platform rather than a social media platform it does offer business opportunities. Business Advertising opportunities are used by The Sun, Cosmopolitan, MTV and Sky Sports to name a few. There are opportunities for free promotion for small businesses too. Establish a profile and release Snapchat Stories. Each story is a series of 10 second videos and they can be viewed by anyone who follows you on Snapchat. This can be used in a highly effective way for food businesses which change their menu’s each day to promote specials for instance. It’s a great way to engage freely with followers. If your customer base has a large number of people under the age of 25 then SnapChat has got something to offer.
LinkedIn is a professional business platform. From Recruitment Specialists to accountants and lawyers it is a platform with steady growth. LinkedIn is now offering real focus on marketing opportunities. A LinkedIn offers great networking potential. If you have a local joinery then LinkedIn might not be the answer but it could be if you were a freelance business consultant.
Instagram enables visual story telling. Businesses such as retailers, photographers, designers and tattoo artists all benefit from such a visual platform. As Instagram is also owned by Facebook businesses benefit from all the customer targeting they offer.
Every Social Media platform is different and whilst the make up of your customer base helps you decide the best platform we must also take into account the most effective way in which you advertise your business. We take you through all your options in our training.