Social media is a great tool for promoting your brand. There are loads of stories of entrepreneurs being able to grow their businesses, largely from using social media. After all, it is one of the most effective marketing channels!
However, social media marketing isn’t as easy as it seems. It’s important to use an effective social strategy and it’s equally important to choose the right platform. You want your brand to be the best it can be!
An effective social strategy can help you to ensure the best return on investment for your business. To do this, you need to ask yourself a few questions.
Do I need to use all social media platforms?
In 2021, the benefits of using social media for your marketing strategy are almost unquestionable. Globally, there are 7.83 billion social media users. In the UK, 71.64% of the population uses social media. This makes social media a great place to find consumers as they are all in one place.
There are many social media platforms to choose from, but you only need to focus on the main ones. How do you decide which platforms are worth using or not? It’s worthwhile to think about the number of monthly active users (MAUs) on each platform. You should also make sure to define your goals and have a clear objective of what you hope to gain from using social media for your business.
You can find more detailed information about how you can use social media to market your brand here. People use social media for a variety of reasons; to connect to people with shared interests, similar hobbies and much more. Analyse which platform your target audience uses and go find them.
What are the best social media platforms for marketing in 2021?
Facebook: One of the oldest and inarguably the most popular social media platform with 2.85 billion users worldwide according to Statista. A whopping 73% of people in the UK use Facebook. It’s probably the best platform for allowing users to connect with family and friends by sharing written posts, pictures, videos and more with their network.
YouTube: A free online video sharing platform that began in 2005. YouTube is the most popular social media platform in the UK with 79.9% of the population using the platform. If you are looking to create video content, this is the platform for you.
Instagram: Instagram began as a photo and video sharing platform and has expanded its features to become the home of influencers. With 52.5% of people in the UK using Instagram, it certainly doesn’t have as many MAUs as other platforms. But, it’s arguably the best place for brands. 83% of people on Instagram discover new products and services on the platform and 81% said they use Instagram to research products and services.
TikTok: TikTok is one of the newest platforms and only 22.3% of people in the UK use this app as of 2021. However, TikTok has grown drastically during the pandemic and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. This platform also has some of the most loyal users with the average user spending 19.9 hours a month on TikTok, that’s almost an entire day!
What platform does my target audience use?
Now that we understand it’s important to use targeted social media marketing, let’s have a look at what social media different people use. The average person spends 2 hours 25 minutes using social media, a day. In terms of gender demographics, just over 50% of women use social media and 49% of men in the UK.
Social media usage decreases significantly from the age of 35, so you may have to rethink your social strategy for older demographics. However, Facebook’s global advertising reach continues to grow, particularly with people 65 and above. Women aged 45-64 are also more likely to click on Facebook ads than any other group.
If you’re looking to reach an audience under the age of 40, Instagram is your answer. Instagram also has some of the highest engagement rates as the average engagement rate for posts from a business account is 0.96%. As mentioned earlier in this article, Instagram is one of the best places for brands so having a presence on this app is advisable.
If you aim to market to millennials, YouTube is the perfect place to do it. According to Pew Research, this gives you the potential to reach 91% of them! Overall, 25-34-year-olds make up the largest share of audiences you can reach using adverts on social media with over 12%.
Younger people spend more time on social media, so if you’re marketing to them, you’re in luck. 84.6% of gen z (13 – 18-year-olds) use social media compared to only 79.1% of people aged 18 and above. TikTok is a great place to market to 18-24-year-olds as they make up more than a quarter of all users in the UK.
In conclusion
When it comes to social media marketing you have plenty of options. You should develop an understanding of the various social media platforms and decide which ones to focus on. Make sure that, whether you use Instagram or Facebook, your social strategy aligns with your business goals and the habits of your target audience.
If you need some more social media tips, get in touch with Floodmaker’s experts to see how we can help you!