You’ve probably heard that old joke about opinions before; the punchline being that they all generally stink. The truth is, most people only feel that way about the opinions of others. When it comes right down to it, people love expressing their own opinions.
Social media is the ultimate indicator that people all over the world absolutely cannot stop themselves from talking about, well, themselves. It’s an environment where you can vent and be “yourself” (wink, wink). Social media is where politicians can act like comedians and comedians can act like politicians.
This compulsion is so prevalent among average, every day human beings, that business-owners quickly figured out that they could use these platforms to promote their brand and generate revenue. And this fact has never been more relevant, as 3.2 billion people (42% of the world’s population) flock to social media networks daily and social media companies rake-in a combined $23.5 billion in ad revenue, each year.
Major brands shell-out huge chunks of cash with the hope that as their ideal prospect furiously types out a long-winded diatribe about the hot-button political issue du jour, an ad will catch their eye, causing them to stop and think, hmm, I’d look good in that sweatshirt, I wonder how much it is…
But with the (growing) number of social media platforms available and nearly everyone being on some form of social media, how can you hope to figure out which platforms will give you the best ROI? How can your average, hard-working business owner without a $3.5 billion ad budget hope to successfully use social media to their advantage?
You must first define your audience and determine what you hope to achieve by promoting your business on social media, which we have previously covered. After you have a solid idea of what your typical customer might look like, you must determine what platforms they are likely to use. This will inform the type of content you produce, and how much time and money (or lack thereof) you put into each platform.
Facebook is still the granddaddy of all social media platforms, boasting 2.27 billion active users. Regardless of the type of business you’re running, you’re most likely going to find that the majority of your prospects are active on Facebook in some capacity. However, if your products are geared towards older adults exclusively, you’re going to want to allocate the majority, if not all of your ad spend to Facebook:
- 81% of 18-29-year-olds use Facebook
- 78% of 30-49-year-olds use Facebook
- 65% of 50-64-year-olds use Facebook
- 41% of 65+ year-olds use Facebook
There’s one thing we can take away from the statistics above – everyone and their mother is on Facebook. There’s seemingly unlimited potential for advertisers on this platform and the good news is that most advertisers won’t struggle to find a significant portion of their audience on Facebook. The caveat, of course, is that every business owner knows this and is advertising there, too.
While these platforms are decidedly dissimilar in functionality and how they are used from a marketing standpoint, respectively, there are some key statistics that caused us to lump them together.
These three platforms have a combined total of 589 million users, which is nothing to sneeze at. If your customers are predominantly made-up of young people, these are advertising platforms you’re going to want to look into:
- The majority of Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram users are under the age of 30
- Instagram and Snapchat are used slightly more by female social media users
- The majority of people who use each platform are located outside of the U.S
If you’re attempting to encourage local business via social media, these may not be tools you need to spend time with, however if the majority of customer transactions occur online, all three of these social media platforms are viable outlets for your advertising budget.
Pinterest is unique in both the demographics it attracts and the functionality of the platform. This social media outlet is great for finding ideas about everything – from DIY projects to gluten-free recipes.
Unlike Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter; Pinterest (which has a reported 250 million active users), has a relatively even distribution of usage amongst different age groups:
- 34% of 18-29-year-olds use Pinterest
- 34% of 30-49-year-olds use Pinterest
- 26% of 50-64-year-olds use Pinterest
- 16% of 65+ year-olds use Pinterest
The most interesting statistic regarding Pinterest is the fact that its users are overwhelmingly female:
- 41% of online women use Pinterest
- 16% of online men use Pinterest
Pinterest is a great option for businesses that are marketing goods to women of all ages that can be easily purchased online, especially because users are able to “pin” products and come back to them later – perhaps, on pay day.
The bottom line is that people aren’t going to stop utilizing social media to pontificate, complain, gossip, and speculate connect with people and have civilized discourse any time soon. For business owners, this means that it’s in your best interest to know and learn how these platforms function and more importantly, which ones your customers like to use.
One thing’s for sure, if you think social media advertising is on its way out, I’ve got a sweatshirt to sell you…
Want to see what we can do for you? Moving Targets has been helping businesses like yours grow with social media marketing for years. Capture more customers and grow your business — contact us today!
