Four Platforms to Prioritize in Your Social Media Strategy
There are many different types of social media platforms. These are largely micro-blogging networks such as X (formerly Twitter), media-sharing networks such as Snapchat and TikTok, discussion forum and blogging networks such as Reddit, and consumer review networks such as TripAdvisor or Yelp (What is social media, 2023). Many factors will influence the social media platform most important to a particular brand, including whether the brand sells to businesses or directly to consumers. The brand’s target audience will also play a critical factor in which social media platforms are prioritized. For example, Sprout Social, a social media publishing software, shares demographics for LinkedIn, stating the largest age group of users on LinkedIn is between 30 and 39 years old and that 57% of the users on LinkedIn are male (Barnhart, 2023). With that said, there are four social media platforms that marketers need to strongly consider when putting together digital strategies for brands.
Meta
The first social media platform that marketers should prioritize is Meta, formerly Facebook. Meta has over 3 billion monthly active users worldwide each month (Biggest social media platforms 2023, 2023). This makes Meta the largest active social media platform on the planet. The largest active age group on Meta, at 29.9% of users, are 25- to 34-year-olds (Barnhart, 2023). 44% of Meta users are female and 56% of Meta users are male (Barnhart, 2023). Users spend an average of 30 minutes a day on Meta (Barnhart, 2023). Meta is a social network site where users can engage with other users and publish content including text, images, and videos (What is social media, 2023). Meta offers a number of features that are appealing to marketers to foster community and engagement with users including advertising and boosting posts, interest-based groups, the ability to film live, and disappearing stories. Meta is a great way to nurture community, build relationships with customers, and promote a brand.
YouTube
The next largest social media platform with over 2 billion active monthly users worldwide is YouTube (Biggest social media platforms 2023, 2023). The age group with the highest reach on YouTube consists of 15- to 35-year-olds (Barnhart, 2023). YouTube skews female, with females comprising of 51.4% of users and males consisting of 41.8% (Barnhart, 2023). Users spend a little more time on YouTube per day than they do on Meta, with an average of 45.6 minutes per user (Barnhart, 2023). YouTube is a media-sharing network with a number of features that are relevant to brands, including advertising, long and short-form video, and shopping features. Advertisers also have the opportunity to partner with influencers to promote products and services on a variety of categories (What is social media, 2023). However, “the majority of users claim to use YouTube for entertainment rather than to find brands and products” (Barnhart, 2023). This means marketers will need to make sure partnerships and advertisements are relevant and target specific audiences to best engage users.
The last two social media platforms marketers should prioritize are WhatsApp and Instagram. Both of these platforms are owned by Meta, the parent brand of the social media platform with the same name. In fact, “Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with over one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram” (Biggest social media platforms 2023, 2023). Both of these platforms have 2 billion monthly users (Biggest social media platforms 2023, 2023). The largest age group, comprising of 30.8% of users, is between 18 and 24 years old (Barnhart, 2023). 48.2% of users on Instagram are female, while 51.8% are male (Barnhart, 2023). Users spend an average of 30.1 minutes a day on the platform (Barnhart, 2023).
Instagram is another media-sharing network (What is social media, 2023). The platform centers around sharing images and videos, with features that include advertising and boosting posts as well as short-form videos and disappearing stories. WhatsApp is used widely by users in all age groups, with a large portion between 24 and 35 years old (Singh, 2023). 46.1% of WhatsApp users are female and 53.9% of users are male (Singh, 2023). Users spend an average of 36 minutes per day on WhatsApp (Singh, 2023). WhatsApp is a discussion forum social media platform and provides users with the ability to message, make video and audio calls, and post disappearing stories. Features include community groups and advertising. WhatsApp is an excellent way for brands to build consumer trust, brand loyalty, and an engaged community.
Each of these social media platforms provide marketers with the opportunity to run pay-per-click advertising. This is a great way for marketers to appear in content users search for and content recommended by the social media algorithms. Marketers can integrate social media platforms with direct marketing methods, such as collecting email addresses through social media campaigns. Social media platforms can also provide marketers with more targeted audiences for direct marketing campaigns. Custom audiences can be built on these platforms that can be leveraged for retargeting or remarketing ad campaigns. By identifying the social media platforms preferred by the target audience, brands are able to better communicate and convert these users through building relationships with customers, expanding the brand’s reach, and increasing conversions and other business objectives.
References
Barnhart, B. (2023, April). Social media demographics to inform your brand’s strategy in 2023. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/
Biggest social media platforms 2023. (n.d.). Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
Singh, N. (2023, January). WhatsApp Statistics for 2023—All You Need to Know. Verloop.Io. https://verloop.io/blog/whatsapp-statistics-2023/
What is social media? (2023, June). McKinsey. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-social-media