Choosing the Ideal Social Media Platform for Your Marketing Strategy

Social media has become integral to the digital marketing process and proven to be a cost-effective alternative to search engines. Though Google still leads the way in terms of marketing value, social media closely follows behind with over three billion internet users subscribed to at least one social media platform.

The reputation of social media once had as an unprofessional medium for business transactions has long since disappeared. In fact, many corporate entities now prioritise their social engagements over any other marketing endeavours.

If your business’s goal of lead generation doesn’t rest on a plan that involves social media, it might never be fully accomplished. Therefore, choosing a social media platform for your business is perhaps the most important step in social media marketing. Unfortunately, this is where many businesses get it wrong.

Some businesses simply settle for the social media website that’s most in vogue, while others take the ill-advised decision of subscribing to all popular social media platforms. However, both of these approaches have been proven to be ineffective. Below are a few tips that can help you aptly choose the right social media platform for your marketing needs.

Find Your Social Media Audience

As with traditional marketing, knowing where to find prospective consumers on social media is important if you want to successfully generate leads. This can be compared to an archer pointing an arrow at a round target in the distance. You must first find your audience on social media, before proceeding to implement the marketing plan that you’ve crafted.

Every business is part of a niche, which usually has lots of followers on social media. However, many of these followers are localised on one particular website. This is why specifically targeting a certain social media website will effectively increase the number of leads generated.

Many experts believe that locating your target audience on social media is the biggest challenge you’ll need to overcome if you wish to fulfil your digital marketing goals. If you successfully manage to navigate this hurdle, you’ll then need to implement a marketing campaign and subsequently reap the benefits of an increase in customer patronage.

One sure way to find your audience is to peruse the social media channels of competing brands, so as to identify the one that’s most effective. By doing so, you’ll glean first-hand information about the location of your audience.

Most successful businesses operating in your niche probably utilise multiple social media platforms. They will likely have one or two platforms that they specifically target for the successful execution of their marketing campaigns. This is the social media website you should be focusing on.

Study the Brand Features of All Social Media Platforms

Though all social media websites are identical with regards their principal function, they differ in several core features, as well as applications. The brand features that define each platform also make it a perfect digital marketing tool for certain types of businesses.

For example, Facebook is regarded as the ultimate digital marketing tool for businesses that use targeted ads in the form of written and visual content. This platform is home to over two billion internet users and allows the use of specific features to create promotional content that will convert users.

Web businesses often prefer to use Facebook as their social media marketing channel, because it provides the best integration model amongst all available platforms.

Instagram and Pinterest are two social media websites that are tailored to suit visual content – particularly images. This makes them the ideal social media marketing channel for businesses that deliver visually engaging services.

Business niches that tend to prefer the these two sites for various lead generation campaigns include travel, hospitality (e.g. restaurants, hotels, and bars), fashion, skin care, and DIY. Both these platforms have the capability to amplify the alluring quality of images, making them powerful digital marketing tools in the hands of a competent expert. They have also become the platform of choice for reputable influencers who are capable of pushing products to their followers.

News outlets, publishing businesses and the creative industry as a whole concentrate most of their social media marketing efforts on Twitter, which is perhaps the best platform if you wish to convey important information to your users.

The specificity of the site’s features mean that a digital marketing expert must adopt a strategy which fits the website and is also ideal to promote the business.

For some businesses, written content and images aren’t enough to convey their brand messages. This is why the video-sharing site, YouTube, has become one of the most effective marketing channels, as it provides businesses with the opportunity to produce visually creative content for their marketing goals.

Analyse the Conversion Rates of All Social Media Websites

Another area where social media platforms differ is in the rate at which users can be converted into buyers. This is a factor you should consider before signing up for an account on any website, as this determines whether your business will benefit from an increase in revenue.

Regardless of the amount of traffic received by any social media platform, it will be an ineffective marketing channel if it’s unable to bring you buyers. For instance, even though Facebook has over two billion users and millions of daily visits, it might not be the ideal platform for your business if many of those users aren’t wired to be prospective customers.

You must thoroughly analyse each of the websites you intend using for your digital marketing campaign. Focus on both the amount of traffic each receives, as well as the conversion rate that’s expected for any business in your niche. This is the only way you’ll be able to choose the perfect social media platform for your business.

If you want to improve your conversion rate from a particular social media platform, you can set up a website and link it to your business’s social media account. There are several domain registration sites, that offer awesome deals on domains and hosting plans.

Conclusion

When deciding on a social media platform for your marketing needs, either make use of all the platforms available or select an ideal social media website for your business. Only the latter guarantees the successful execution of your digital marketing strategy and an increase in revenue.