Which Social Platform Works for Your Business

Do You Really Need to be on Social Media?

Some businesses are still asking if they need to be on Social. I recently held a VP of Marketing position with a large credit union and the internal question was "what exactly do you really want to hear from your financial institution? Will you really engage with them on Social??"

It's a good question. Instead of thinking from the inside and determining that you have nothing of social value to share, consider who is on social, what do they like about it and how can you fit into a platform they are already utilizing.

Why:

Social Media certainly offers a business the ability to reach their audience “where they are at.” And it’s not just Millennials attached to their smart phones where most social interaction takes place. According to Nielsen:

“social media reached about 177 million people each week on average in third-quarter 2016.”

Who:
Understanding your target audience is key to determining which, if any, social channels you should be utilizing as a platform to engage with your current and potential customers.  In fact, Generation X (ages 35-49) spends the most time on social media: almost 7 hours per week versus Millennials, who come in second, spending just over 6 hours per week (Casey, 2017).  If you target audience falls within the Gen X category, then social is definitely a great place to be active. Millennials are not far behind, so understanding which platforms they’re engaged in would also be a strong tactic.

Some thoughts to consider:

• ·      39% of heavy social users believe that finding out about products and services is an important reason for using a social network. Companies would do well to make it easy for potential brand advocates to find information about their products and services—preferably in the form of unbiased customer reviews.
• ·         35% of heavy users cite special discounts as important, such as access to exclusive offers and coupons.
• ·         29% of heavy users find supporting their favorite companies somewhat to very important (Casey, 2017)
• 
  

Building content that is easy to digest, easy to locate (as in, appearing in their feed) and easy to share on Facebook and Twitter actually provides them what they are looking for from your messaging and are interested in propagating your info among their friends who are generally interested in the same savings, same news and content.

Where:

Choosing one platform could work as a strategy. For example, if you are B2B it would make best sense to stick with LinkedIn if the content suits that type of business person. I understand a lot of teachers don’t use LinkedIn, so perhaps you would want to create a Facebook page as the main source of content if you were selling to teachers.

In the case where your current and potential clients are in the B2C realm, it makes sense to
  

1. Look at the demographics of your audience and the general trends of where they are spending their social time (see above stats)

There are several other sites and articles that have more information about demographics and how they are using social that can be extremely helpful.

 2.Identify where your competitors are posting and what activity they have on social.

3.Determine what your goals are and how you will benefit from social interaction

a.       Businesses are claiming that close ratio on sales is substantially higher on social than via email campaigns (in some cases the stats share 100% better), so if one of your primary objectives is e-commerce than social should definitely be a component and choosing the right platform is even more important.

In essence, choosing one platform could be a good strategy, however, if your business identifies that your audience spends time on various platforms, then choose the social channels they're spending time within and tailor messages to that platform's framework and watch the interaction to determine your best ROI for time spent posting to determine if you need all of them or not.

Example (Case Study)

For example, we just created a campaign for a major car manufacturer at the agency where I am working on contract. The purpose of the campaign is actually to engage he Latino community in California with the brand. There is already a very successful campaign for English speaking customers that anyone would recognize, however since we are in the selection process I am not going to out the agency or their incredibly creative work. However, the car manufacturer said they aren’t “married” to the current English speaking campaigns” they wanted the agency to feel free to create. The agency looked very heavily at the demographics of the varying Latino communities in California and came up with a catch slogan that worked for their demographics. They created a “persona” based on their research and from there, determined which social platforms would perform best. In their case, there are two but mainly Facebook. The choice to be on social is a no-brainer. The thought came in when determining which platform makes the most sense. Know your audience. Know where they are at and reach them there with the kind of content that is intriguing enough to share with others, or at least to explore more.

References

Casey, S. (2017, January 17). 2016 Nielsen Social Media Report. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2017/2016-nielsen-social-media-report.html

Levy, S. (2013, November 2). How to Choose the Best Social Media Platform for Your Business. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230020#

Mershon, P. (2012, March 28). 5 Social Media Tips for Finding and Engaging Your Target Audience: New Research : Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-social-media-tips-for-finding-and-engaging-your-target-audience-new-research/

Patel, N. (2014, June 20). How to Generate Leads with Social Media. Retrieved from https://www.quicksprout.com/2014/06/20/how-to-generate-leads-with-social-media/