Brands like Sephora use Instagram Live to reach much of their target audience. Why? It’s effective without the hefty price tag. Sephora knows that the people who purchase their products spend an average of 2-4 hours a day on social media, and even if they don’t catch the Live broadcast every time, they can still be in the loop through their regular updates on weekend make-up looks, weekly beauty routines and seasonal promotions.
But how does a brand know what channels are best to use when implementing its social media strategies? With so many social media channels on offer (did you know that there are over 200 platforms?) and their popularity increasing in different ways daily, it may be hard to narrow down your options.
Well, we’re here to help you decide.
Tunnel Vision
It is no surprise that your first course of action will be to formulate your goals. Who are you trying to reach? In order to make decisions on your social media channels, you will need to know which age group you are targeting and their social media habits (The Aventi group says people, on average, are part of 6.6 social media platforms). Also, figure out what your message will be and how you will deliver that message – these are key questions to ask and answer, as certain audiences prefer video content, while others prefer content that is short and sweet but will be so clever as to instantly catch their attention. I know parents who love parenting memes with a sympathetic solution tagged on at the end. This will keep the message lighthearted but also push your brand, which perhaps has to do with household electronic appliances, to your target market.
Once your focus is clear, measuring your reach is essential. Again here, you need to fine-tune your attention to how much engagement you are getting from audiences. For this, you should realise that various social media channels hit certain different targets. For instance, Instagram is more about brand awareness and reaching audiences from millennials to Gen Alpha who prefer visual mediums. On Facebook, your audience is more likely to be millennials and you can track your performance through cost-per-click mechanisms. TikTok is more about Gen Alpha and how much they have viewed your content. LinkedIn is more for Business-to-Business brands (B2B) which can give its users more information and be a point of push towards your company website. X, formerly known as Twitter is the place for trending topics and conversations about how useful certain brands are and how they fit in with today’s lifestyle.
Social media analytics can give you more information that will help you narrow down your social media channels based on your target audience. Through analytics tools you will be able to know more about how your customers see your brand, their work background, what they do in their leisure time, etc. A superb example of this would be a Facebook-user community dedicated to helping its participants with various queries, and recommendations, and even acting as a space to complain and vent (respectfully, of course). Here, a taxi company can track how many complaints are made against it and design strategies to rectify the situation. In addition, you should also know what social media channels your competitors are using and target these audiences as this is a space where brand conversion is possible.
Staying on top of the game
It has already been established that you are using some form of social media promotion to get your brand out there. But, is it working? The importance of answering this question accurately, cannot be underestimated.
Google Analytics can help you keep track of the success rate of the channels you are on. Here you can get a weekly update with graphics on how your social media traffic has been on a weekly basis.
Furthermore, consider how big your team is and how much you can invest in your marketing team. If you currently possess only a team of three people, then promoting on and tracking 10 different social media platforms will be like trying to thrive in a fool’s paradise. You need to know how much you can realistically manage or hire more people to do the job. Thankfully, there are thousands of freelancers out there who can do the job for you for a little bit of extra money in their pockets.
Make it snappy
Again, this depends on your audience, but even the more content-heavy social media platforms like LinkedIn still drive traffic with short and snappy headlines and content you can navigate through, easily. Even if you have a great number of items that fall under your brand umbrella that you need to promote, quick videos or a series of pictures in a collage will do the trick. Personally, I love those TikTok videos by clothing brands where a model wears one outfit then snaps her fingers and then is in the next one. Jump up and she lands in another outfit. So creative! And it also gets the job done rather than getting your customers to scroll through reams of pictures of clothing they probably will not need.
So, there you have it. The channels you use depend on the content you create and the audience you serve. It’s as simple as that.
(Anouk De Silva)