When it comes to choosing the ‘right’ social media for your small business, it’s often a matter of narrowing down your choices. That’s right. You don’t need to be everywhere! What you do need to be is realistic. It’s better to manage one or two social media platforms well than try and spread yourself too thinly across many platforms. Now we have that out of the way, what are your choices?

What social media platforms are there to choose from?

• Facebook – the most popular social media platform, Facebook has broad appeal across different age groups, though younger users are tending to switch to other platforms. Users are highly engaged, however, these days, you need spend money if you want to reach a bigger audience.

• Instagram – the ability to share high-quality photos and videos makes this popular social media platform a great way to build an audience. Instagram Stories also allows you to share photos in a slideshow (like Snapchat, they disappear after 24 hours).

• Twitter – According to Gregory Maxson, Senior Manager, Data Sales and Developer Partnerships at Twitter, Twitter is investing in being a more conversational platform. Many businesses are now using Twitter to engage with their audience.

• Linkedin – considered the best platform for business to business (B2B) marketing, Linkedin is also a great networking tool.

• YouTube – owned by Google, it’s the 2nd most popular search engine on the internet. And with video being ever-popular as a content medium, it’s an excellent way for your clients and prospects to get to know you.

• Pinterest – the place to be if you want to connect with friends and influencers, Pinterest is a destination for shoppers looking for ‘inspiration’. It offers ‘visual search’, which is becoming more important online.

• Tik Tok – this ‘toddler’ in the social media family is really taking off – and it turns out that it’s not just for teenagers lip-synching their favourite pop song! It’s a great place for simple, unpolished videos that engage your audience – a good choice if you’re aiming at a younger audience.

Which type of social media platform suits you?

To work out which social media platform is best to support your small business enterprise, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself:

1. What are your goals?

When working out which social media platform to choose, you need to have a good hard think about your goals. What are you trying to achieve? Are you:

• Aiming to build a brand?

• Providing helpful information to your audience to begin a journey of engagement?

• Do you want people to buy online or visit your in-person?

And remember, your goals and objectives should be SMART:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Relevant, and

• Timely

  2. Who is your ideal audience?

• Are you marketing B2B or direct to the customer?

• Where do they hang out?

• How old are they?

• What’s do you know about their behaviour around social media?

  3. What are their pain points?

Be clear on the problems they have that you can solve. This will help you communicate your message clearly and make it easier to connect with your audience.

4. At what stage of the buying journey are they?

Are they already a customer? Do you want to let them know about your full range of products or services?

Are they a prospect who has simply asked for more information?

Can you assume they know nothing about you and your business? In this case the focus is on brand awareness which leads to engagement.

5. What are your resources?

• Have you worked out your budget?

• How much time do you have to spend on building your social media strategy?

• Are there assets already on hand for you to use and share on social media? For example, a blog, photos, a podcast, an email subscriber list.

• Who is going to make your content plan, create the content, monitor and respond to client enquiries and measure the results?

• And finally, do you have the expertise to manage it in-house?

Do you need help to manage your social media program?

Social media should be one part of your overall marketing approach. And it certainly isn’t the answer to all your marketing challenges. The decline in organic reach (that is, your posts are seen by people without you having to pay advertising dollars) is challenging marketers in businesses both large and small.

If you’re a sole trader or only have a small team, it may be difficult to manage every aspect of your social media program by yourself. If that’s the case, we recommend working with experts who can guide you and make the most of your budget and your other resources.

If you need help getting your social media strategy in place, get in touch.