Small business owners are super busy and don’t have the time to be on every single social media platform. So how can they determine which one works best for their business?
This new infographic created by Bright Leopard Marketing using data from the 2021 social media demographics for marketers report by Sprout Social contains all the info you need to see where your ideal clients are hanging out online.
How do you determine which social media platforms you should use for your business?
Which social media is best to promote business?
As a small business, it is tempting to open up accounts on every single social media platform. If you take this approach, you will very quickly find that you are spreading yourself too thin. You also risk looking unprofessional or untrustworthy if you are unable to keep your profiles up-to-date.
In the beginning, it is better to master one or maybe two platforms, depending on your time and team size, than have yourself trying to be everywhere. Don’t feel like you have to be everywhere!
Throughout the rest of the feature, you will discover the steps you need to take to decide what is the best social network for business and why.
What is the best social network for business and why?
Assuming that you are a business that is already operating, look at where your sales are coming from.
Are they purchasing products from you via one platform more than others? Are people engaging with your product or service more on one than the other? And take it from there.
The second thing to do – and slots in quite nicely in here – is to look at who is buying your product or expressing an interest in your product/service and break that down into what we call in the industry a ‘Buyer Persona’ or an ‘Ideal Client’.
Consider their age, gender, location, whether they have children, pets, employment status, their likes, and dislikes. You can have more than one Buyer Persona but, to begin with, create one solid picture of your most consistent type of client and use this to help you with your marketing strategy.
If you are wondering where to get this information, almost all of the social networks have an Insights or analytics area that will contain this info if you have a business account set up with them. Click here to learn about Insights on Instagram.
Or if you have Google Analytics on your website, get to know the back end of that for this data.
The third thing to do is to use the data from your Ideal Client to work out what is the best social network for your business.
Now what you can do with this information is compare it with the average user demographic for Social Networks and discover where Ideal Client is likely to spend more time.
Are they more likely to consume content in video format or would they rather read an article about what you are offering?
To help you get started, the data below and in the infographic is from the 2021 Demographic Report from Sprout Social.
Finally, just to add to this one in case you feel uncomfortable about being present online… Social Media is designed for people to be social. If you hate Facebook but enjoy Instagram, it might be better to go with the option that you will have more fun on – ultimately, you won’t build connections or be yourself if you dread every minute on a platform that you don’t click with!
Which social media platforms should your business use in 2021?
Facebook
No. of monthly active users: 2.7 billion
Largest age group: 25-34 (26.3%)
Gender: 44% female, 56% male
Time spent per day: 38 minutes
Instagram demographics and usage
No. of monthly active users: 1 billion
Largest age group: 25-34 (33.1%)
Gender: 57% female, 43% male
Average time spent per day: 29 minutes
Twitter demographics and usage
No. of daily active users: 187 million
Largest age group: 30-49 (44%)
Gender: 32% female, 68% male
Time spent per day/week: 3.53 minutes per session
LinkedIn demographics and usage
No. of total users: 738 million
Largest age group: 46-55
Gender: 51% male, 49% female
63% of LinkedIn users access the network monthly, and 22% weekly
Pinterest demographics and usage
No. of monthly active users: 400+ million
Gender: 78% female, 22% male
Time spent per day: 14.2 minutes
According to the report, Pinterest has seen a spike in usage among Gen Z and millennials.
TikTok demographics and usage
No. of monthly active users: 100 million
Gender: 59% female, 41% male
Time spent per day: 45+ minutes
YouTube demographics and usage
No. of monthly active users: 2 billion
Largest age group: 15-25
Gender: 72% of all female internet users and 72% of all male internet users
Time spent per day: 41.9 minutes among viewers 18 and older
So to recap… determine where your sales are coming from, who is buying from you, and what platform they are most likely to spend time on, and this will help you determine what is the best social network for your business.
Which social media is best to promote business?
If you need extra help with your Social Media strategy, book a free, 15-minute 1:1 with Bright Leopard Marketing and get clear on how to get your business noticed on Social Networks.
