In digital marketing, a critical part of building an online presence is the use of social networks. A 2019 report by Buffer shared that 73% of online marketers believe that social media marketing is “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business.
However, managing social media accounts and creating social media content can be quite time consuming, so it’s important to focus these efforts on the platforms that will grant you the highest ROI. We’ve found from our research that the following five social networks are Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok.
1. Instagram
Instagram makes the top of the list simply for its popularity. It’s estimated that over 500 million people are on Instagram daily, and 800 million people have Instagram accounts. Additionally, thirty hashtags are permitted per post, meaning you can optimize discovery easily by posting hashtags related to your brand or post. These hashtags are then discoverable in the “hashtags” section, so your content can reach more people.
Instagram also offers business accounts, which shares intelligent insights on your page and post performance at no additional cost. Track impressions, engagement, post visits, and more in your “settings,” which is useful for determining which type of content creates the highest engagement.
2. Facebook
Similar to Instagram is its parent company, Facebook, which has 2.45 billion monthly active users globally. This impressively large reach gives way to Facebook’s greatest strength: its advertisement capability. Cost per impression-wise, it’s continuing to become more economical. According to Hootsuite statistics, the average price per ad decreased by 4% last year, and the number of ad impressions increased by 33%.
Because Facebook is a highly personal platform, ads can hypertarget a very specific audience. Does your brand perform best with men aged 18-24 who live in rural areas and love the band Nickelback? Great! You can target exactly that. This gives more ‘bang for buck’ for your ad spend, allowing maximum specifications on your customer personas.
3. Twitter
Twitter is a network in which customers tweet about product and service experiences. Because of its conversational nature, it’s a great way to publicly speak with your customers and, if necessary, publicly exhibit how you’ll make things right. This is also why customers are likely to follow company Twitter accounts: the average Twitter user is following five businesses.
Additionally, it’s easier to go “viral” on Twitter than more ‘static’ sites like Instagram and Facebook due to the ‘retweet’ feature. If someone likes your tweet and retweets it, their followers then see the tweet, and it can spread like wildfire. It’s also one of the best places to be to land PR, as journalists comprise 24.6% of all Twitter verified accounts.
4. Pinterest
2019 statistics from Business of Apps report that there are a total of 291 million people on Pinterest, and that 48% of them come onto the platform specifically to shop. Aside from its new reputation as the app for shopping, Pinterest also offers something that the other social networks don’t: inbound links.
When videos and photos are posted, Pinterest allows users to embed a link. So, when someone clicks on a visual for your product’s health benefits, it will immediately open your site or whichever link you choose to embed. And perhaps the most exciting feature: Pinterest images often show up on Google images, meaning what you post on Pinterest is likely to be found by non-Pinterest users, too.
5. TikTok
And last but not least, TikTok is a newcomer into the social network scene. Originally thought to be “just for teens and funny videos,” it’s continuing to spike in popularity due to its user-generated content. It’s still primarily driven by teens, as 41% of users are between the ages of 16-24 according to the 2019 Globalwebindex. But its power is in the app’s stickiness: 9 out of 10 TikTok users report opening the app multiple times per day, and the average session time on the app is 52 minutes.
According to the algorithm, videos gain virality by factors such as number of times watched and number of times shared. TikTok presents an opportunity to create humorous or helpful videos associated with your brand. If one video does well, it can create widespread brand awareness and attract followers for your next videos.
No matter what your digital marketing goals are, these five social networks provide unprecedented opportunity for increased brand exposure and customer engagement. Start slow. Begin on whichever platform you feel most comfortable with, then work your way up to all five. You’ll soon see which platform is most worth your time and ad spend, as it differs for every business.
