Let's talk about social media!
For this month's blog post, we have a special guest! Jade Shebelski of Maven and Muse Media has shed some of her expert insight on how to best use social media for your business.
This is a question that I frequently get asked by my clients, more exactly they ask me which platforms SHOULD they be on.
My answer to this is always the same:
you have to know who your ideal client is and their demographics.
Once you know this you will know which platform(s)
you should be putting your message.
Your time is worth something, therefore before you go and waste any, it truly pays to have your message reach the right people at the right time. In this day in age of social media it seems like the platform your demographic is hanging out could change over night which is why you need to know who it is exactly you want to be reaching.
Your business is as unique as you, and while chances are that you are not your ideal client. Your ideal client is as unique as you which means that your audience is extremely unique.
Let’s break it down with some specific platform statistics:
-- Facebook --
With an average of 1.15 billion daily active users, Facebook is the market leader for social networking sites. Your brand undoubtedly has and should have a presence there. With the turmoil Facebook is seeing lately, the question now becomes how can you use it in new ways to reach different groups?
Demographics:
- 83% Women
- 75% Men
- 30-65 year olds are the primary group on this platform
- 77% of users have a high school diploma or less
- Location: 81% Rural
- Median Income:
- 84% of adults who make less than $30,000 use Facebook
- 80% of adults who make $30,000-$49,999 use Facebook
- The US makes up 12% of the Facebook audience
While Facebook might not have the same new and young feeling as say Instagram 79% of internet users still log into Facebook.
-- Instagram --
There are more than 600 million active users on Instagram, it’s no wonder why this image and video sharing app is usually the first app people click on in the morning.
Demographics:
- 38% Women
- 28% Men
- 18-29 year olds make up the biggest piece of the demographic pie with that age group being 59% of users. While 30-49 year olds make up 33% of users.
- 39% of people living in urban areas use Instagram
- 38% of adults who make less than $30,000 use Instagram
- 37% of adults who make more than $75,000 use Instagram
- 77.6 million of the active users are from the US
-- Twitter --
Twitter is still a big question for many people but for businesses this is the ultimate platform for customer service. 34.5% of consumers prefer to connect to customer service agents via social media. Twitter is fast paced and instanteous, people are going to this platform for everything from their news needs, to making professional connections. But again to be effective you need to understand who your demographic is.
Demographics:
- 25% Women
- 24% Men
Businesses that understand their gender demographics have a better advantage of reaching and properly introducing their products or services on Twitter. With the rise of social customer care means that Twitter will still be valuable for years to come.
- 79% of Twitter of users are outside of the US
- Twitters education demographics shouldn’t surprise you that 25% of adults with some college experience use the platform.
-- Pinterest --
Pinterest is a growing source of exposure for businesses and brands. If this network isn’t at the top of your business’ list of platforms to have a presence on, the demographics data could sway your mind.
Pinterest is slowly itching it’s way up to the 3rd highest search engine. People are going to this platform not only for recipes and gift ideas, but they are also going there as a form of research.
Demographics:
- 45% Women
- 17% Men
- 34% of users are 30-49 year olds
- 34% of users live in Suburbs
- 30% of users live in urban areas
Pinterest is known for its recipes and DIY (do it yourself) content that could relate to lower income users. However, new data shows Pinterest users are more likely to have disposable income:
- 35% of adults making over $75,000 use Pinterest.
Now that we’ve discussed the big platforms here’s the total breakdown of how internet using adults spread across each network.
- 79% of adults use Facebook.
- 32% of adults use Instagram.
- 31% of adults use Pinterest.
- 42% of adults use Twitter daily.
To answer the question completely, you need to figure out who your ideal client actually is. You are wasting, money, time and resources if you do not know who it is exactly that your product or service is made for. This is completely beneficial if you are looking to outsource your social media management because you are paying this person to get directly in front of your ideal client.
If you are going at this alone, I encourage you to invest in writing down how much money your ideal client makes, what is their education level, along with any personal details about them. Also think about which platforms you actually being on and read your website analytics weekly to see where your traffic is coming from.
I would also encourage the investment in Courtney and have her help you discover who your ideal client is so you can see successful business growth. For ideas on what kind of content to post to these platforms and for a consultation please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Make sure to sign up for my weekly email The Maven Movement for social media changes and articles I’ve found beneficial for businesses. Follow along with me on Instagram and Pinterest as well.