Remember a couple of weeks ago when I started writing a post about the best social media platforms and I realized that I had enough info for two separate blogs? I’m baaa-aaaack like a good poltergeist of social media marketing info.
In the previous post, I covered three of the most important social media platforms in existence: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg. You ready to dive into the rest of the iceberg? Wait, that sounds cold and painful. Ready for the rest of the (warm and comfortable) story?
Me too! Let’s do this!
One of the newer social media sites on the scene, Instagram is quickly becoming a staple in the daily lives of many. As it turns out, there are many opportunities to share valuable, visual-based content and information with a specific target market.
Here’s what the population of ‘Gram Town looks like:
User Demos
Instagram has a billion-with-a-b users, the largest groups of which fall between 18 and 44 that leans moderately more female than male, a majority of whom make $70-80 thousand dollars per year.
Pros:
- IG is the perfect place to solidify your brand through graphics, font, and color
- You can also do a ton of work to humanize who you are as an organization and showcase your team or culture
- You can post both pictures and videos
- It has great free editing capabilities
- IG is BFFs with FB, meaning your ad spend can be used in both places
- It’s very compatible with many automation tools
- Growing your audience is easy as pie
Cons:
- The analytics are hella annoying
- Your linking capabilities are highly limited based on following
- Automation platform specifications are very specific
- Instagram offers little to no support
- You have a lot of competition out there (which is fine; you’re amazing!)
- Everything you post has to be some sort of visual – you can’t just share links
- Resharing others’ content is possible but requires a separate app
Best Uses:
Rock the ‘Gram by
- Showcasing who you are as a business and human individual
- Walking the walk: show your clients you take your own medicine
- Creating a rock-solid brand
- Leveraging the organizational features of the “Highlights” section for your evergreen stories
- Being more in the moment and behind-the-scenes
- Nailing those hashtags, baby!
- Image size (in pixels): 1080 X 1080
- Max video length: 60 Seconds
Did you know that YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world? That’s because it’s owned by Google. So if you want to be searchable – and more importantly FINDABLE – and if you have any video content, this is (one of) the places to house it.
Here’s who is watching the YouTubes:
User Demos
YouTube has TWO BILLION monthly users heavily situated between 18 and 24 and leans slightly more male. The fastest growing age groups are Gen X and Baby Boomers, so don’t count out a slightly older audience.
Pros:
- It’s very search-engine friendly with taggable content
- You can make your channel incredibly branded
- Videos are ubiquitous and available on the go (think: commutes, lunch breaks)
- People can listen while they work!
- Videos are a very dynamic way to share content, explain concepts, and build relationships
Cons:
- There are a LOT of videos currently available
- You have to be very consistent to be successful
- Video creation can be very intimidating for some people, and costs can be slightly prohibitive
- It can be its own world entirely and an aggressive strategy will require a lot of time
Best Uses:
Here’s how you win at YouTube:
- Create a workflow that repurposes content from Facebook Live to YouTube
- Add a YouTube link to blog pages for video blogs hosted through YouTube
- Caption your videos to increase SEO and make them more accessible at work
- Draw out concepts and theories physically for very dynamic videos
- Don’t forget to have FUN!
- Image size for thumbnail (in pixels): 1280 x 720
- Max video length: 12 hours (but please don’t do that)
(Mostly) ladies: let’s not pretend that we have NOT all fallen down that giant rabbit hole of Pinterest in our personal lives and we do NOT currently have approximately one billion pins. Nobody is buying that story. But as a business owner, you have digital vision-boarding GOLD right at your fingertips.
Here’s who’s stuck on Pinerest (see what I did there?):
User Demos
In news that surprises absolutely no one, the 85 million U.S.-based Pinterest users lean heavily towards females between the ages of 18-49 who have at least some college education.
Pros:
- Visually appealing
- Works super well with businesses
- Value-driven
- Very search-engine friendly
- Easy to grow your audience
- Organized well and user-friendly
- Users are geared to buy
Cons:
- A lot of brands are on Pinterest
- A solid Pinterest strategy can be time consuming
- Is not widely used for B2B or more professional brands (this might be an underserved market though)
Best Uses:
Make your Pinterest plan stick (did it again) the landing by
- Add it to your social routine
- Use sponsored Pins (the ROI is rumored to be 4:1)
- Get creative about the content you create
- Use the heck out of the description to nail your SEO and hashtags
- Set up your business account to get some of the extra perks for Pinterest for biz
- Check if you can use story pins to boost visibility
- Image size for thumbnail (in pixels): 600 X 900
- Max video length: 12 hours (but please don’t do that)
I really hope you got a lot of amazing insights from this blog series about how choose the right social platforms and how to get the most out of them. If you haven’t already, make sure you read the first blog in the series to get the full rundown.
Are there any platforms I missed? Leave me a comment and let me know what other platforms you’re curious about!
