Whether you’re a seasoned business owner or a newbie with a startup, chances are the first place you’ll go to ‘start marketing’ is a social media channel. After all, they make it so easy – enticing you with free business pages and generic, unsolicited marketing advice!
In the marketing world, we refer to social media in one of two ways: ‘organic’ or ‘paid’. Organic social is anything you write and post yourself, on your own business page – like a status or a photo update. This is usually done to engage with an audience who are already familiar with you. Paid social, on the other hand, is when you try to engage with people who often don’t know you yet through paid advertising.
This case study by Ruff House Marketing is about social media channels that focuses on organic social media. It is indeed a great place to start your marketing journey – but we advocate for doing it with a pinch of salt. It can be easy to fall into the trap of believing you need to be present on every platform – spreading your every waking minute thin as you scramble for content.
So, you might ask – how do I pick the right channel for my business?!
Never fear – Ruff House Marketing is here with a definitive guide to all the main social media platforms. Read on to determine which channels you’re best suited for – and why you can probably drop a few!
Audience type: Professionals
Median user age: It’s an even split from ages 18-64
Image types: Polished, firmly professional photos or infographics
Length of content: Long – you can really write to your heart’s content on LinkedIn!
Type of content: Celebrations, milestones and thought leadership
Formality rating 1 (casual)-10 (formal): 10
Prioritize if:
You’re B2B (business selling to business) with a fair bit to say. Your clients or customers are also likely to be on LinkedIn, and you will benefit from them seeing you there. Examples include an engineering firm or an insurance business.
Don’t prioritize if:
You’re a B2C business, e.g. a bicycle store or a dentist, or if you’re a B2B business whose customers aren’t likely to be on LinkedIn.
Audience type: Anyone and everyone
Median user age: Women 18-24 and men 25-34
Image types: Casual, behind-the-scenes, real footage
Length of content: Short and sweet. Unlike LinkedIn, people aren’t usually there to read about businesses – unless your business is extremely enthusiast-focused. An example of this would be an engine oil brand posting for hobby race car owners.
Type of content: Updates, testimonials, meet-the-team posts, promotions, etc.
Formality rating from 1 (casual) to 10 (formal): 3
Prioritize if:
Because it suits both B2C and B2B, almost every business can benefit from Facebook.
Don’t prioritize if:
You can’t commit to posting regularly – at least once a week is standard here.
Audience type: Young consumers but rapidly changing as people move from Facebook.
Median user age: 74% of all Instagram users are aged 18-24
Image types: For best practice, should be aesthetic, curated and cohesive
Length of content: Aim for a paragraph. People are happy to read – but only if you have something good to say!
Formality rating from 1 (casual) to 10 (formal): 5
Prioritize if:
Your business can be relatively ‘aesthetically pleasing’ and you can commit to regular image-based content creation that showcases your offering, or your unique organizational culture
Don’t prioritize if:
You don’t have the time to curate, and you want a low effort solution
YouTube
Audience type: Again, anyone and everyone here
Median user age: It’s an even spread from under 35’s to over 55’s
Content types: For businesses, it should mostly be product showcases and demonstrations, case studies and explainer videos
Length of content: 3-15 minutes
Formality rating from 1 (casual) to 10 (formal): 7
Prioritize if:
Video will be the basis of your marketing content strategy and you can commit to regular high-quality video content creation
Don’t prioritize if:
You don’t have the time or budget to use video and won’t be likely to upload anything. An empty account is more unprofessional looking than not having an account at all!
These days, Twitter has a benchmark engagement rate as low as 0.07%. Unless you’re in the business of politics, you’re highly unlikely to see any benefit from trying to market on Twitter!
Pinterest is a growing platform, but what matters is user intent. When users log onto Pinterest, they’re looking for inspiration. They’re highly unlikely to follow a business and are less likely to be swayed by advertising because they’re not in the mood to buy. There are a few exceptions – lifestyle-based B2C product selling businesses may find success on Pinterest. A B2B hardware reseller likely will not! In those cases, you’re better off partnering with other content creators who can feature your product.
Snapchat & TikTok
Great if you are a serious B2C business with a very young demographic. Still a developing audiences/platforms. Video content heavy. People who love TikTok spend a lot of time-consuming content every day.
In summary, the best social media channel for your business is the one that suits your audience and the one you can commit to. Don’t try to jump on all platforms – stop any you’re not using, and really try to focus on your efforts on one or two core high-performers.
If you need a little assistance with your social media, feel free to reach out for a chat – we’re always happy to help! Ruff House Marketing are social media specialists ready to assist with planning, writing, designing and scheduling organic and paid content.