Which social media platforms should my brand be on?
With a variety of platform options for your brand to show up on social media, it can be hard to decide which one(s) will serve your brand and audience best. Today we’re diving into the benefits of each popular social media platform, sharing valuable “Insight” into what each of them require to be successful in this ever-changing social marketing landscape.
Our flagship platform, the OG of the Insight Social Team — Instagram has been a popular platform over the years for a number of reasons. In the beginning, Instagram was just a visual platform to share beautiful images. Today it’s evolved into a fully shoppable experience for consumers, allowing brands to create powerful content on a regular basis to support their business and marketing efforts.
3 Key Benefits of Instagram
Wide variety of features to create content that include: in-feed posts, Instagram Stories, live video, IGTV, shoppable posts.
Use of hashtags to get more eyes on your content and connect with new people that are within your target audience.
Build up a user generated content library that 1) requires you to create less content and 2) shares social proof that others are utilizing your products/services
Bottom Line
Instagram is a highly visual platform that requires consistent content creation/curation, captions that grab your audience’s attention, consistent user engagement and a marketing calendar that aligns with your business goals.
You may think of Facebook as a newsfeed full of Mom Groups and funny videos, but this platform offers so much more behind the scenes for businesses to increase their brand awareness and overall sales. Not to mention that any ads you run for your business on Instagram flow through the Facebook Ads Manager. With pages, groups, events & more available to promote your business, Facebook simply can’t be ignored.
3 Key Benefits of Facebook
Allows for “linked” posts. Examples include: articles, landing pages, signup forms, shops etc.
Allows for your business to create a Facebook Group. Each member will receive a notification each time a post in created in the group.
Facebook Ads w/ Facebook Pixel. Facebook Pixel allows you to track conversions, retarget to people who’ve already seen your content and build custom audiences for future ads.
Bottom Line
Whether you choose to spend a lot of effort on creating content for Facebook or not, it’s basically an unspoken rule that your business needs to have a Facebook page set up. We recommend posting at least 3x per week on Facebook. You can share your Instagram posts directly to Facebook or create original content that’s platform specific.
Think of Twitter as a short form, ongoing news source, allowing it’s users to open the app and rapidly read the quick thoughts of everyone they follow. Content published on Twitter should inspire conversations, encouraging others to re-tweet. While the text is limited to 280 characters, you still have the option to add media (photo, video, GIFs) to your post, which overall get better engagement.
3 Key Benefits of Twitter
Ability to meet your audience where they are. Remember: it needs to feel like you’re speaking to them directly.
Use of hashtags on Twitter is similar to Instagram in the sense that you can find members of your community and they can find you.
Huge source of brand awareness if you continue to put our valuable, entertaining content for your audience.
Bottom Line
It can take a while to build up a loyal, engaged audience on Twitter (much like every other social platform). But you can be rest assured that your competitors are here, working towards similar goals — brand awareness, conversions etc., so if you decide to focus on this particular platform utilize a social media tool like Later, to schedule out your tweets.
TikTok
By now if you haven’t heard the chatter about marketing on TikTok, we’re going to assume that you’ve been living under a rock. Initially, the user demographic was mostly Gen Z, but now a growing number of Millennials and Gen Xers have started creating content regularly on this app. Brands everywhere are taking notice, creating marketing strategies to get their products in front of a new audience.
3 Key Benefits of TikTok
Videos are expected to be taken on a smartphone (no high production cost or time investment).
TikTok’s algorithm makes it a lot easy to get higher engagement (likes, follows, comments) than other platforms like Instagram.
Unlike Facebook and Instagram, TikTok Ads are fairly new — meaning you don’t have to “fight” as much for ad space.
Bottom Line
If you’re already creating video content for other platforms, you should 100% be on TikTok. You can repurpose content into smaller, 60-second videos and as well as reaching out to popular creators to partner with. This not only helps you create a larger content calendar, it also helps build a high engagement rate on the app. PS: You can link out to a website and/or Instagram account on your TikTok profile.
Make sure to follow us on Instagram for more weekly social media tips!