Finding the right social media platform for your business is part of creating an effective marketing strategy today. Regardless of your industry, using social media is an essential way to boost brand awareness, build an engaged audience and potentially convert customers and drive sales.

Gone are the days of people using social media purely for personal use. Nowadays, businesses are seeing rapid growth and success through using various social media platforms. But which social media platform is the best for your particular business?

This article will help you better decide the right social media platform(s) for your small business.


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Instagram

PROS

Instagram is a great platform for small businesses looking to increase their brand awareness. It enables photo and video sharing, direct messaging with customers and allows users to shop without leaving the app. It’s a great place for brands to showcase their visual aesthetic, offer tips or industry advice and tease behind-the-scenes footage for upcoming products or releases.

CONS

Instagram’s ever-changing algorithm can make it hard for business owners to keep. It may be the right social media platform for branding and visual storytelling, but if you are looking to convert new customers you could be investing a lot of time and energy.

Facebook

PROS

Facebook has accumulated over 2 billion active users and is widely considered the OG social platform (sorry, Myspace). This means if you’re looking for widest net (i.e. the place to reach the largest number of potential customers) Facebook is probably your best bet. Additionally, the platform has built extensive paid advertising tools for businesses – which sets it apart from other platforms.

CONS

Facebook has become a pay-to-play platform for most businesses. The controversies Facebook has had in recent years led its team to rethink their algorithm. Now Facebook appears to favor organic or personal content, making it more difficult to reach your target audience organically.

Twitter

PROS

Twitter is known to be the most conversational platforms. Its conversational format helps create direct access to potential customers. In fact, many big business use Twitter for quick customer service inquiries – giving the platform a leg up when it comes quality and assurance. This use case makes Twitter a great place to show the human side to your brand and help businesses create authenticity.

CONS

The drawback of Twitter is it is (almost) solely focused on conversations. Since, it does not have shopping features or direct linking of photos or videos – it is best for businesses that are not focused on visuals.

LinkedIn

PROS

If you are business looking to reach highly educated customers or connect with other businesses, Linkedin is the right social media platform for you. Around 50% of Linkedin users have a college degree or higher. The platform was originally built to connect professionals with job opportunities, meaning it is a great place for B2B companies to connect with potential customers too.

CONS

The downside to LinkedIn is that it is catching up on the “social” aspects of its platform. Therefore, it can be difficult to share details about your products or services with potential customers. That being said, Linkedin has announced new features to make it easier to share update, connect with people as a business and sharing video content.

TikTok

PROS

If you are looking to reach younger generations Tiktok will be the right social media platform for you to use. With a highly engage user base, the average time spent per day on the app is nearly an hour, it can be much easier to reach new eyes.

CONS

As one of the newest social media platforms, Tiktok’s focus is on acquiring users. Therefore, the platform gears itself toward personal use over business. But recent announcements from the platform indicate feature improvements including shop-ability.


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