Which social media platforms are right for me?

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There are now so many different social media platforms out there that it can get a bit overwhelming, especially if you don’t know where to start. It’s a vital part of marketing so we’re going to break down the different ways in which you can utilise the main social media platforms to help you decide which ones are best suited.

Facebook

This is still the most popular with 79% of internet users active on the platform. Over the years it has become more visual so it’s important to incorporate imagery and video when possible and appropriate. It’s also a good place to create sharable content and to ask current/previous clients to leave you a review as this is useful in creating trust.

Twitter

The largest age range on Twitter are 18-29 year olds, so if that is your target audience you’ll want to make sure you’re on this platform. As it has a character limit it’s not somewhere in which you will be providing lots of information, as short snippets work best such as information about an upcoming promotion or event, a product release, or a new blog post which is linked to in the tweet. It’s important to use hashtags to reach a wider audience and make sure you’re using trending hashtags if they’re relevant. Twitter is a great platform to enable customers to easily contact you and keep an eye on any new offers or products that you might want to promote. Just remember that it has a short cycle so you’ll want to tweet often at different times of the day to ensure all your followers see your tweets.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a platform in which both people and businesses can create profiles and showcase their skills. It’s worth being on this platform as it’s a great way to network with others and gain new clients, you just need to make sure you’re active and engage with others. There’s also a groups section which can be worth searching through to see if there are any relevant groups that you could join and contribute to.

YouTube

If your target audience is 18-34 then it might be worth thinking about how you could create engaging content for this platform, as it reaches more 18-34 year olds than traditional TV. Video content is rapidly on the rise each year and with a little creativity there are endless possibilities in what you could create. YouTube videos are also great for cross-promotion as you can easily share the videos on your other social media platforms.

Instagram

This is an almost entirely visual-based platform in which users share photos and videos with captions, and it’s one of the most influential platforms. The majority of users are between 18-29 years old so if this is your target audience, I can’t stress enough how important it is to utilise this platform. Don’t worry, you don’t need to hire a professional platform to be noticed, you just need good lighting and a photo editing app on your phone such as Snapseed or Adobe Lightroom to get you started.

Social Media Management & Tools

There are a lot of social media management and scheduling tools which are available online to help manage your social media platforms. Hootsuite and Buffer are just two of the many options and often you can use parts of these tools for free with some restrictions, however if you’re just starting social media then they should be fine.

All the different social media channels might still seem overwhelming, however you only want to choose 2-3 to focus on. If you try to create content for all of them you’ll spread yourself too thinly and won’t be able to put in the time and effort needed to fully utilise the platforms.

If you have any social media queries or would like advice and help managing your social media platforms, you can contact us at 01865 989899 or email hello@cleverbusinesswebsites.co.uk

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LinkedIn