Why Your Business Does NOT Need to Be on Every Social Media Platform

It’s the inevitable trajectory. You know your business should be on social media and you’re finally ready to take the plunge. 

You open an account on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn (maybe even a few more platforms), and you dive into the endeavor with as much gusto as a Kentucky Derby racehorse. 

But instead of earning the illustrious prize (last year’s Kentucky Derby winner earned nearly $2M), your efforts fall flat. That’s because you’ve likely bitten off more than you can chew. 

For most businesses, keeping up multiple social media channels is just not feasible–nor is it necessary.

The good news is, you can create an effective, doable social media strategy if you follow these steps.

1. Know your target audience.

There’s been an interesting progression of social media usage over the years, and certain demographics seem more comfortable with some platforms than others. For example, Facebook seems to attract older adults, whereas Instagram has more teens and young adults as primary users. 

You should also consider factors such as gender, income and location when identifying your ideal demographic. Once you know these, you can look into the various social media platforms. Every social media platform will have a general demographic that is attracted to it. You should look up data about each platform’s demographics and use it to inform your selection. Does it line up with your ideal customer data?

2. Know your competitors.

Next, you’ll want to look at your competitor’s social media accounts. If you can’t find many businesses like yours on Tik Tok, for example, avoid the temptation to think, Oh, we can start dominating Tik Tok. In most cases, there’s probably a reason nobody is on Tik Tok. Dig a little deeper into your competitors’ account and look at some of their users’ profiles. Do they align with your target customer? This process takes time, but it’s well worth it to investigate the top social media platforms that attract the customer base you want to go after.

3. Know your content.

Each social media platform will feature a dominant type of content. LinkedIn, for example, is heavy on white papers, infographics, articles, etc., because its target demographic is business professionals.

Instagram, on the other hand, is heavily image based. It may represent your ideal demographic, but keep in mind that every post you put out will need to have a high-quality image that accurately conveys your branding. If you can’t access images or graphics regularly, then ditch Instagram. 

However, if you’re a local restaurant and you want to open an Instagram account because that’s where your audience is interacting, consider that it may be worthwhile to hire a photographer to take amazing pictures of your food and patrons enjoying the experience. Then, you’ll have great photos to accompany your social media posts and you’ll be able to compete on the Instagram landscape.

Get started

Unfortunately, there’s no hard-and-fast rule for which social media platform to use; however, you don’t have to be on every platform. Phew, right? The “right” answer for your business takes some time to formulate. Learn who your ideal customer is, uncover where that customer is spending time, and investigate where your competitors are and what they’re doing on social media. Then, if you commit to posting quality content on a platform where your customers are active, you’ll have a Kentucky Derby winner in the race. Look for a future blog where we’ll cover how often to post and how to manage engagement with users.