12 YouTube channels, 11 Flickr fans, 10 Facebook pages, 9 Twitter tweets, 8 IG photos, 7 pins on Pinterest, 6 Tumblrs tumbling, 5 golden TikToks! 4 Yammers yamming, 3 Yelpers yelping, 2 Reddit posts and a LinkedIn connection 𝅘𝅥𝅯
With so many different social media platforms to choose from, how do you choose which ones to incorporate into your digital marketing strategy? How do you know which social sites will reach your target audience or even which of these communication platforms
will yield you the most returns?
The above parody of the beloved Christmas carol, only touches on twelve of the most popular social media platforms. According to Wikipedia, there are over 221 'active social media networks' and counting.
Now, while this list is not exhaustive (believe it or not) it lists global, social sites big and small, widely known to little known with both private to public registered users, but ALL are active. That being said, if you are not familiar with any of them or an avid social media user, where do you start?
With 74% of consumers relying on social media to make purchase decisions today, you'll want to definitely ensure social is a part of your overall strategy. First, you'll have to figure out which sites are best for promoting your business and better yet, which platforms you can find your target market using most? If you are a smaller start-up business you should consider incorporating at least 1-2 social platforms, medium-size, 3-4 and for an enterprise level corporation at least 3-6.
We put this comprehensive Top Social Platform by Demographics Table together to help you assess which platforms are right for you. Our table below shows you the top most popular, predominately English speaking, social media sites by active users and each site's associated demographics broken down. Match up your businesses specific criteria for your target audience and buyer persona(s) with the below to find out which platforms suit you best.
Top Social Platforms by Demographic
**All demographic statistics are based on ALL adults worldwide, except gender. Gender is based on ALL online users, not worldwide. ©2020 by InTandem Digital Consulting, LLC
Now, you've got a better idea of user demographics on the top, most popular and utilized social media sites. Next let's find out, of those users that fit into your target demographic, how to narrow them down, based on their usage behavior and other insights specific to each social platform. This will also give you more direction on where to prioritize budget first and what kind of results you should anticipate.
The second table below illustrates those user and platform insights. We've broken each major social media site by user data like: total visits to the sites, audience reach, ad impressions, link post engagements, product interests and behaviors, different languages available on each and average time spent on the sites and apps.
©2020 by InTandem Digital Consulting, LLC
Now, with the plethora of data here in tandem with knowledge of your target market's desires, you're better equipped to evaluate which social media platforms will best serve you and ultimately yield you the biggest return on investment. A huge goal of your social strategy should be to see a return in both time and money spent advertising to your specific target audience via these communication channels.
Hopefully, we've made it less of a daunting exercise to choose which platforms are right for your business and more of a fun and engaging experience today!
About the Author
Julia Maldonado is the Lead Designer & Founder for InTandem Digital Consulting. She has over 20 years of experience in Marketing, Advertising and Customer Experience spanning across different industries. 10+ years in website design, content writing and social media influencing.
To learn more about Julia, visit her on LinkedIn.
InTandem Digital Consulting provides various digital solutions to small and mid-size businesses. Our portfolio includes: Website Design, Social Media Management and Customer Experience Strategy. Our CX workshops are offered both in-person and virtually.
To learn more about how InTandem Digital Consulting can help you and your business, click HERE