The 7 Most Successful Social Media Platforms for Online Advertising
It’s not about spending more, it’s about spending smart. Before you plan your next social media marketing strategy, know exactly how to divide your capital.
With almost 3.2 billion social media users across the globe, just how effective is your brand reach?
Social media advertising, otherwise referred to as social media marketing, is especially powerful for businesses on a budget. This form of online marketing proves cost-effective, ongoing, easy to measure and of course, impressionable.
When executed correctly, you’re provided the potential to generate a continued ROI (Return on Investment). Promote your product or service, define who your business is, and boost your brand.
In our previous blog How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Content Marketing Strategy, we reiterated the importance of knowing your audience. Here, we discussed behaviour flow, demographics and customer retention rates.
These are all factors also interdependent of your social media marketing strategy. And now that you’ve learned The 3 Best Methods for Building a Powerful Content Marketing Strategy, it’s time to take your social media marketing plan to the the next level.
Here, we outline the 6 most effective social media platforms and how your brand can benefit from each.
1. Facebook
Over 50 million small businesses use Facebook to grow and connect with consumers. However, Forbes report that only 4 million of these businesses are successful. What sets these 4 million apart? They actually pay for social media advertising, whereby a staggering 68% use video content.
If you don’t know where to start when it comes to video content, these 5 Digital Video Trends Will Boost Your Brand’s Engagement. Integrate these powerful video trends as part of your social media advertising on Facebook, and you’re sure to see a remarkable ROI.
Due to Facebook’s new algorithms, organic reach has significantly declined. This means that in order to get noticed, businesses must increase their ad spend. Since Facebook is still the biggest social media network worldwide, it’s worth it!
Aside from using visual content to generate results, one of the most effective ways to convert Facebook users into customers is through direct ads. Present an ad, which directly links straight to a landing page and entice visitors with a special offer.
2. Pinterest
It’s no secret that women hold a greater buying power than men – $20 trillion in fact. While Pinterest may seem like a less obvious choice, its power is undoubtedly immense; especially for businesses both online and offline.
With a major 82% of Pinterest users being female, it’s no surprise that a heavy 93% of active users (or ‘pinners’) will use Pinterest to plan their next purchase.
From having 80 million monthly active users in 2014 across the globe to acquiring 175 million in 2017, Pinterest is fast expanding. Promote your business, generate widespread sales leads and attain greater conversions as two thirds of all pins display a brand or product.
In keeping with this ‘Why Pinterest Matters to Marketing’ board, the best times to post are between either 2pm to 4pm or 8pm to 1am.
3. Instagram
Instagram, the visually-driven platform taking the digital world by storm, exhibits remarkable potential for demographic targeting. Use high-quality images and videos to express your brand, gain a large following and promote your product or service.
This incredibly popular platform enables you to target users based on their interests, include a call-to-action and to group products within videos. Instagram is a phenomenal tool for e-commerce in particular, whereby businesses are equipped to deliver an enriched shopping experience.
Every month, more than 200 million people are using Instagram Stories. Instagram Stories have surpassed Snapchat, while Facebook have created their own version called ‘Facebook Stories‘.
Though Facebook owns Instagram, Instagram’s engagement rates are 58% higher. Top six hashtags? #love, #instagood, #me, #cute, #tbt and #photooftheday.
4. LinkedIn
Since its powerful launch in 2002, LinkedIn remains a powerful social media marketing tool. As 44% of users make an annual income of $75,000, LinkedIn proves an exceptional platform for generating business leads.
Target demographics using filtered search results, increase your brand credibility amid this professional platform and expand your network. This colossal platform is also renowned for its B2B (business-to-business) marketing power, whereby the 94% of B2B sites that use LinkedIn, attribute 46% of their social media traffic to LinkedIn.
5. TikTok
First released in September 2016, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms in recent years. In just 4 years, the number of TikTok users has grown at an impressive rate as the app currently boasts 800 million active monthly users worldwide, leading Pinterest, Snapchat and other well-known social media.
With TikTok, users can record short videos and upload them to share with other users. But the astonishing fact is how much time users spend per day on the platform – a whopping average of 52 minutes per day. This means that using TikTok to advertise is a good choice as your adverts can be viewed by group of users that are obsessed with the app.
Marketers can create TikTok pay-per-click (PPC) videos and banner advertising campaigns, and only when someone clicks on the ads need to pay, making it easy – and affordable – to reach potential customers.
6. Twitter
You’ve learned highly effective ways to boost your brand using paid traffic, but how about organic traffic? This is where Twitter comes in.
While Twitter provides users with the option of paid ads, organic traffic proves the most effective source in creating greater brand awareness. With over 330 million Twitter users and over 35 offices across the globe, this platform is phenomenal for making an international mark.
Twitter is highly effective for e-commerce, brand promotion and running ad campaigns. Target users, share your brand values and get closer to your audience. Just as Twitter states, “78% of people who follow SMBs (small and medium-sized business) retweet content from that business”, while a huge 75% develop greater trust.
7. Snapchat
On average, Snapchat generates more than 10 billion daily video views. Of all the platforms listed here, Snapchat is the newest. Launched in 2011 (just one year after Instagram was founded), Snapchat reveals the fast route to capturing a younger audience.
According to MobileMonkey, 69% of Snapchat users are aged between 18 to 24. Inject life into your brand and share some personality! Snapchat is a fun, tech-savvy way to connect with your audience.
Happy Advertising! To boost your brand using social media, learn from the best in our latest blog How Top Brands Create Effective Social Media Campaigns.
