Social Media – Which platform should I use?

January 29, 2018 

In our week 3 lesson, our topic was social media outlets. Specifically, the question has been asked “How should a brand approach social media participation?” Based on commentary provided in our lesson and other sources, a major purpose and function of a brand’s social media platform overall should involve activating engagement within their target market. Our week 3 lesson stated that brands should look for their social media outlets to produce certain outcomes. The lesson stated, “The objective of any social media strategy, says Lake, is "to provide the right tools, so that people can engage with your brand/people/products/services onsite and offsite. “According to Econsultancy's Chris Lake, the following is the ideal situation:

• You want people to make a noise.
• You want people to store and share things.
• You want people to love your Web site.
• You want people to visit more frequently.
• You want people to refer your company to their friends.
• You want people to buy into your brand.
• You want people to buy your products.

It's a fact that current and potential customers who are engaged are much more likely to perform some (or all) of the actions above” (Reed College of Media, West Virginia University, 2018).

These are some of the objectives and desired outcomes that a brand will want from their social media outlets. There is still the matter of choosing the right tools to gain these type of results. A major factor in the choice of tools will stem from factors including a brand’s “line of business, objectives and strategy” (Reed College of Media, West Virginia University, 2018). There are various social media platforms in existence and they tend to present different offerings.  Articles on Forbes.com andMedium.co. provided great insight into some of these offerings and how they should be used by brands. The results are as follows:

“Facebook

American women and men between the ages of 25 - 54 make up 32% and 29% of Facebook users, respectively. And only 9% of users are between the ages of 18 - 24. For companies whose target customer is under 24 years old, the most effective use of company time may be to forego Facebook altogether or to create a company page in order to to have a presence, provide important contact information, and use it strictly for their robust advertising platform, while not investing in any manpower to publish new posts regularly. On the other hand, if your company targets a slightly older market, it could be very valuable since 44% of users check Facebook several times per day” (Wertz, 2017).

Photo courtesy of Statista.com (Wertz, 2017).

“Instagram

With 500 million users on the app and 59% of those users checking the app every single day, it's no doubt that Instagram has great reach. However, with their latest algorithm change, users no longer view the content in chronological order and rather through an algorithm determined by Instagram, much like Facebook's algorithm, that not many people understand. This change takes more control away from the companies posting content and makes it hard to determine how many people will be exposed to your posts. Not to mention, without any clickable links associated with each individual post, getting customers to your site from the app is a challenge.

Instagram may best be used as a brand building tool if you have a decent following and post beautiful images or videos, but if you plan to use it as a marketing tool, you will need to devise a strategic plan to capitalize on the half a billion users” (Wertz, 2017).

“Snapchat

60% of snapchat users in the U.S. are under the age of 24and with more than 100 million users consuming 30 minutes of content every day, it's a goldmine for businesses targeting millennials. Companies creating unique video content, releasing behind the scenes footage, new collections, or conducting interviews with prominent figures can capitalize on this free marketing opportunity and gain a loyal following” (Wertz, 2017).

(Wertz, 2017)

“Twitter

Twitter is where you go for trending topics and news, to share short updates, communicate with people and search for things that you might need answers too.

Twitter can be a great tool in business for finding people you have a problem that your business can solve.

Demographics

• 32% of internet users aged 18 to 29 continue to use Twitter
• 13% of those aged 50 to 64 use Twitter
• Almost half of girls aged 15 to 17 (49%) use Twitter, compared to 34% of boys. While only 19% of online moms use Twitter, 27% of online dads embrace the service

What Twitter Does Best

Twitter provides you and your business a real-time communication channel with the rest of the world. There has been a lot of talk over recent years about Twitter’s lack of innovation and issues with the way they deliver content in the feed. But there has been a gradual revival in recent months, which is seeing Twitter’s value start to climb.

Best features for your business include:

• The ability to communicate and engage on trending topics and events worldwide
• Digital advertising (can be rather pricey compared to Facebook for example)
• Provide real time customer service

What Works Best On Twitter

• Multiple posts or ‘tweets’ per day is recommended due to each post’s short timespan
• Tweets with images or video show higher levels of engagement
• Tweets with 2 hashtags perform better that posts with none or multiple hashtags (Murphy, 2017).

In summary, again, a brand should choose social media platforms based on their specific offerings to their chosen target market and strategy. In my opinion, there will more than likely be multiple social media platforms chosen to accomplish goals a brand has set forth. I also feel content and conversions share an equal role in the success of businesse’s social media strategy. The content must be engaging, which in turn will keep a continuous healthy relationship flowing with users. Calls-to-action must also be present within the content to drive user conversions. Therefore, the social media platform must present content in a manner that keeps the process moving in a fluid manner. Another article on Medium.com spoke on this subject saying, “Conversions, the cornerstone of marketing since its inception and, until now, the channel’s USP. You only pay on conversion; plain and simple. It’s low-risk, high ROI performance marketing. The only problem is that it’s just not that simple anymore. The online world is changing, and it’s changing fast. Content is now king and advertisers are well advised to look towards self-produced content, content partners, and influencers to help with driving engagement and shaping purchase decisions in the increasingly crowded and competitive online retail space. The key is therefore to look beyond last-click and acknowledge that there is value in content and engagement” (Weh, 2017).

Resources:

Murphy, Anthony. (2017, May 8) How to choose the best social media platforms for your business. Medium.com. Retrieved from https://medium.com/strategic-content-marketing/how-to-choose-the-best-social-media-platforms-for-your-business-e7e0f668e4e8

Reed College of Media, West Virginia University. (2018). Week 3 Lesson: Social Media Analytics & Advertising Channels [Online]. Retrieved from https://cas-ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_97081_1&content_id=_4434991_1&framesetWrapped=true

Weh, Ricarda. (2017, June 6) Conversion vs. Content: Why it’s Important to Look Beyond the Last Click. Medium.com. Retrieved from https://medium.com/digital-vault/conversion-vs-content-why-its-important-to-look-beyond-the-last-click-b07bf4c2098a

Wertz, Jia (2017, February 18). Which Social Media Platforms Are Right For Your Business? Forbes.com. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2017/02/18/which-social-media-platforms-are-right-for-your-business/ - 178f661312a2