How many social media platforms should a brand use?

There are well over 15 social media platforms that billions of people are interacting with every day. Social engagement and the ability to create and distribute content to an audience has provided countless of opportunities for brands to connect with their customers on a deeper level. But which platform makes the most sense for your business? Should a brand only use one or include multiple platforms into their digital marketing strategy?

Common social media channels include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube (just to name a few) and can all provide unique benefits to a brand that can directly impact their ROI. Let’s take a look at how each of the main social media platforms could potentially align with your business needs and allow you to engage with your target market online.

(Levy, 2013) Is your target audience predominantly female and is visual imagery and graphics your main selling point? Then advertising on Pinterest would make sense for your brand since you can connect with users through highly visual and engaging content that drives traffic directly to your site. This image-centric content can be said for Instagram as well. Instagram also has a lot more younger users with very little spending power which is another thing to keep in mind about the platform.

(Lee, 2016) Facebook offers amazing opportunities to businesses, since over 70 percent of adults use the platform, it allows a brand to develop deeper relationships with their customers. (Levy, 2013) Posts on Facebook should put a face to your logo and represent your business in an approachable and more humanistic way. Facebook also offers the most robust social media advertising platform with their “lookalike” audience feature that ensures a brand’s message is being shown to the most relevant users.

If you happen to have a lot of important updates and breaking news type of content, then Twitter would be a viable platform to utilize as well. (Lee, 2016) Even though this is a great way to distribute information and updates, a tweet reaches its maximum reach after 18 minutes so it’s important to have a consistent stream of content to post.

Are you a B2B company looking to share insights and industry news? Then LinkedIn is the right platform to use. (Malone-Johnstone, 2015) It’s helpful to think of LinkedIn as a place to engage your audience in conversations around industry trends and though-leadership content instead of using it as strictly a sales channel. Providing content that is relevant to your industry as well as posting advice and additional resources are other great ways to utilize LinkedIn to its full potential.

While I only highlighted a few platforms here, the first question you should ask yourself when you’re choosing which social media platforms to use for a brand is “What kind of content makes sense for my business and my audience?” Answering this will provide a great start to choosing how to set up your social media strategy.

Now that we have an understanding of which type of content works for different social media platforms, now is a great time to look at each platform’s audience and see which ones align to your business.

(Gallagher, 2017) While factors such as gender and income have virtually no impact on whether someone chooses to be on social media or not, age does remain a defining factor on where users decide to spend their time and how much time is spent on social media. (Gallagher, 2017) Users aged 45-54 are spending more time on Facebook and teenagers are starting to use apps under the classification “digital hangouts” that allow users to video chat with multiple friends at the same time. (Lee, 2016) Twitter and Instagram are most popular with users in the 18-29 age group while LinkedIn sees the most users in the 30-49 age range. Knowing which type of platform is used by which demographic is useful information to know to make sure you’re targeting the appropriate audience for your brand.

So does it make sense to focus your efforts on one social media platform or use a variety? It helps to spend resources on the platforms that will directly generate ROI – and depending on what industry you’re in will depend on the answer to this question. (Wertz, 2017) If a brand plans to post unique video content, behind the scenes footage, and even interviews then platforms like Snapchat and YouTube will be best since these are video-based platforms. Meaningful metrics that can be tracked through these kinds of platforms are ratings, subscribers, and views that can all spark meaningful engagement with your target audience and increase your bottom line.

Another thing to keep in mind when a brand is implementing social media into their strategy is how much time and resources they are able to give to create content for and maintain various platforms. Social media is not just a set-it-and-forget-it kind of medium, it requires constant maintenance and upkeep so if you believe that taking on more than one or two social media channels at a time will stretch you too thin, that is a completely valid reason to only stick with a select few.

To summarize, when a brand is looking to implement social media into their digital marketing strategy they need to start by asking themselves what kind of content do they already have available and what other kinds are they really good at creating. This will help them determine where to focus their efforts and which platforms will help enhance their online presence. Then, it’s helpful to do some research on the demographics of each social media platform and see where their target market is spending their time. If you’re going after a more professional, B2B audience LinkedIn would be a great platform to utilize. If you’re looking to reach a slightly younger audience, Instagram and Snapchat will be the best for you. It’s also important to always keep in mind how much time and resources a brand has to use to manage social media platforms for their business. A small e-commerce startup’s budget and resources will vary significantly from a 50,000 employee business that generates $18 billion annually.

Gallagher, K. (2017). THE SOCIAL MEDIA DEMOGRAPHICS REPORT: Differences in age, gender, and income at the top platforms. Business Insider. Retrieved January 29, 2018 from: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-social-media-demographics-report-2017-8

Lee, K. (2016). How to Choose the Right Social Network for Your Business. Buffer. Retrieved January 29, 2018 from https://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-choose-a-social-network

Levy, S. (2013). How to Choose the Best Social Media Platform for Your Business. Entrepreneur. Retrieved January 29, 2018 from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230020

Malone-Johnstone, E. (2015). How to Create a LinkedIn Company Page to Promote Your Business. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved January 29, 2018 from https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/create-a-linkedin-company-page-to-promote-your-business/

Wertz, J. Which Social Media Platforms Are Right For Your Business? Forbes. Retrieved January 29, 2018 from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2017/02/18/which-social-media-platforms-are-right-). for-your-business/#15bfa57612a2