Leveraging social media platforms for promoting products and services is no longer a choice; it is a necessary marketing tool that every organisation must use to remain relevant and visible in today’s busy online world.
92% of marketers say that social media has helped their organisations gain exposure.
This means if you are not leveraging social media to its fullest, you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
However, there are so many social media networks available that choosing the right one can be more complicated than you’d think. But the good news among the chaotic social media world is that you can narrow it down to the most popular and widely used ones like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, etc.
From there, you can determine where your audience is and figure out which platform will help you meet your marketing objectives. The sales and marketing courses online segregate each social media network’s usage based on the type of business and industry you are operating in.
This guide can help you make the right choice. Let’s get social!
Choosing the Right Social Media Platform
1. Set the Marketing Goals
First things first – you need to determine your marketing goals. It’s essential to have specific goals before you move on to the next step.
Your marketing objectives can help determine the social media platform to choose, the content you’ll need to create, the audience you target, and more. To do that effectively, first, you need to understand the difference between sales management and marketing management and then combine the objectives of these two functions to determine organisational goals.
2. Determine Where Your Audience Is
The entire point of entering the social media domain is to connect with your audience. However, if you choose the wrong one, your marketing efforts are going to dust. So analyse the social media platforms your audience prefers and reach out to them using those networks.
You can also study different social media platforms’ demographics to determine where your audience is spending most of their time.
There are several sales and marketing courses that can help you understand the importance of choosing the right social media network. However, if you are looking for ways and tips to increase brand visibility via SMM, consider enrolling for the IIM Kozhikode executive program in marketing. Boasting a well-rounded education and a comprehensive & interactive curriculum, this course can help you gain practical hands-on exposure to every social media network there is.
3. Pair Your Marketing Goals, Audience, and Content with the Right Platform
Once you’ve determined the goals you want to achieve with social media marketing, determine where your audience is hanging out and then compare different social media platforms to determine which one meets your business’s needs. To help you decide, here’s a rundown of the most common and popular platforms:-
-
Facebook
Facebook has approximately 2.740 billion monthly active users.
These numbers clearly make this social media platform by far the largest platform. Its advertising platform is highly customisable, which means you can curate personalised ads for specific target audiences.
- Facebook is beneficial for lead generation.
- Facebook is an invaluable platform for building relationships and showing the human side of the brand.
However, one thing to remember is that there’s a great deal of competition on this platform. To stand out, you must curate highly engaging and interactive content. This is why pursuing a digital marketing course is very important. These digital sales and marketing courses can help you understand how to curate content that shows a different side of your company.
-
Twitter
Twitter’s advertising reach is roughly 353 million.
It is the go-to platform if your marketing goal is to get direct and instant involvement with your audience and if you want to reach out to followers with breaking news, announcements, important messages, etc.
One thing to note is that most Twitters users are under the age of 50. So the type of content that works best on this platform is easily digestible and to the point textual content such as quotations, images with text, etc.
-
Reddit and Quora
- Reddit boasts around 0.430 billion monthly active users.
- Quora, on the other hand, has around 0.300 billion monthly active users.
Even though these platforms have a great potential reach, the problem is that before using these forums for advertising or marketing purposes, you have to build a genuine reputation as a user who answers questions in their niche. And only after you’ve built some authority on these websites, you can respond to questions and redirect readers to your website’s content.
So usually, these discussion forums are used to generate warmer leads.
-
Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube
- The potential reach of Snapchat is 0.498 billion.
- Instagram, on the other hand, boasts a potential reach of 1.221 billion.
- And YouTube bags the first position with a potential reach of 2.291 billion.
The best part about these media sharing networks is that they are invaluable for branding awareness, lead generation, and audience engagement, covering almost all social marketing goals. So no matter the type of business you are running, sharing media online, including photos, videos, and live streams on these platforms, is incredibly rewarding.
4. Determine the Type of Content You Should Create
After you’ve narrowed down the social media networks you will choose, you need to determine the type of content you’ll curate. Now to do this, you need to research what is trending on each of these platforms. For instance, no one watches videos and live streams on Quora or Reddit, whereas Instagram and Snapchat are all about videos. So video-based content will not work on discussion forums like Reddit, Quora, or Digg.
What’s Next?
You have a basic understanding of what social media platforms are trending and which ones to use for your business. Credible online sales and marketing courses are what you should be scouting for. If you want to cut your research short and trust expert professionals recommendations, consider enrolling for the IIM Kozhikode executive program in marketing.
More Information:
Is Digital Marketing a good Career in India?
Why to Choose a Career in Digital Marketing?
10 Best Digital Marketing Courses to Advance Your Career
Benefits of Digital Marketing Courses for Working Professionals
Growth & Opportunities for Digital Marketing Professionals in 2022
