There’s a lot to marketing and there’s a lot to social media. Naturally, there is a lot to social media marketing.
This post will provide general information about social media marketing and also platform-specific information that can help you decide where to showcase your products and services to create the most interest
General Information
- Regardless of all of the algorithm talk, all social media platforms want the same things
- Get people to use their platform
- Keep people on the platform for as long as possible
- Most platforms make their money from ads. The longer they can keep someone on their platform, the more ads they can show them
- Organic traffic - people consume things that you publish for free
- Paid ads - people consume things that you pay to publish
- Hybrid - Combination of organic and paid
- Social media marketing strategy is more important than the platform
- Part of your strategy should be to use platforms where your avatars are present and active
- Blindly choosing a platform where your prospects aren’t spending time will waste your time and money
Facebook
- More than 3 billion users
- Preferred by Generation X and baby boomers
- Most users are over 25 years old
- Most users are not there to buy anything
- They are there to connect with friends and family
- Allows you to set up a Facebook business page
- Allows you to set up a Facebook ads account
- Worth doing even if you have no intention of running ads because you will be able to run analytics
Instagram
- More than 1 billion users
- Most users are under 35 years old
- Ads are managed through Facebook Ads Manager (need a Facebook account)
- Declared themselves as a “video application” (used to be a photo application)
- If you use this platform, make sure that your strategy is heavily focused on video since they will be shown to more people
YouTube
- More than 2.5 billion users
- The dominant video platform in the world
- The second-largest search engine in the world
- Video thumbnail and title are the most important things
- Content and quality of the video won’t matter if nobody clicks on it
- Be prepared to play the long game
- May take weeks, months, or years to build a large enough audience to consistently generate quality leads
LinkedIn
- Business-to-business platform
- Completely fill out your profile for the most reach
- Headshot, description, work history, etc.
- Use articles (long form) and posts (short form) for content marketing
Twitter (X)
- Half of their users are 25 - 34
- 2nd largest group of users on the platform are up to 50 years old
- Hashtags are much more important than other platforms
- Research tactics used by businesses that use the platform well - Starbucks, Playstation, Whole Foods, Jet Blue, etc.
Tik Tok
- Most users are between the ages of 10 and 30
- Only 10% of users are over 50
- Short-form vertical videos
- Biggest categories are entertainment, dance, pranks, and fitness (subject to change)