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  • Writer's pictureShreshtha Agrawal

Choosing the Right Social Media Platform For Your Business: A Comprehensive Guide

With great power comes great responsibility! When running a business, it’s difficult to max out every social media outlet. However, to reach the target audience you must know the strategy of being on the right platform. Every platform offers unique features and caters to different demographics plus content formats. So, grab a notepad and scroll through this guide to find the right marketing match for your business.


Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Businesses


Facebook

Social Media Platforms

Overview: There are 3.065 billion monthly active users on Facebook. The Facebook business page is a free resource to run ad campaigns, reach the target audience, and grow your online presence. Among all the fastest-growing businesses on Facebook, the question is how your business will stand out.


Here are the top 5 ways to grow your Business on Facebook:


  • List information - When the customers come across your business, they first check your online presence on social media. To get familiar with your services, address, and support line, which builds the trust of your brand. Hence, having a strong online presence is very beneficial for your business.

  • Engage with loyal and new customers - Not even your most loyal customers keep an eye on your business on a day-to-day basis. It is easier for customers to check the new launch, discounts, offers, rewards, and product quality, on your Facebook page.

  • Meta Ads Manager - Meta Ads Manager is the all-in-one tool for running ads on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Audience Network. Here, you can manage when and where your ads will run, and track the campaigns' performance.

  • Content Format: Static, Carousel, Videos, Text updates, live streams, events, and, groups. Videos perform better than any other form of content. With a high engagement rate, reach, and interaction, videos can boost your follower growth. Make sure you add subtitles to your videos so they can be played and understood without sound.

Regularly analyze performance data: Always keep a tap on your content performance. On Meta, you can check detailed insights on post engagement, reach, and audience demographics. Use this data to robust demographic marketing strategies and better target your campaigns.


Age Range

Share of Facebook Users

18-24

23.0%

25-34

31.1%

35-44

20.2%

45-54

12.0%

55-64

7.6%

65+

6.1%


Facebook Image Size


  • Profile Picture: For computer displays 176x176 pixels, 196x196 pixels on a smartphone and 36x36 on most of the feature phones.

  • Cover Photo: A minimum of 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels hight is required.


Instagram

Social Media Platforms

Overview: If your content is gold your target audience will follow you. On Instagram, you are not just a brand you are a creator, the better the content the better you sell. Once you gain followers, reach, and impressions your sales will soar. With over 500 million daily active users, Instagram is the world's 4th largest social media network and 4th most visited website.


Content Types

Content Type

Best Use Cases

Engagement Level

Frequency

Photos

Showcasing products, lifestyle shots

Medium to High

3-5 times/week

Carousels

Tutorials, multiple product views

High

1-3 times/week

Stories

Behind-the-scenes, daily updates

Very High

Daily

IGTV

In-depth tutorials, interviews

Medium

1-2 times/month

Reels

Trends, challenges, quick tips

Very High

3-7 times/week

Start using Instagram Business: Unlike personal accounts, an Instagram Business Profile has more benefits. 


  • If you have an Instagram Business account, you can schedule your posts, view analytics, tag collaboration, boost posts, and sell directly from your Instagram handle.

  • With access to “Instagram insights” you can analyze data and understand the interests and preferences of your followers. 

  • On your Instagram Business Account, you can create ads and promote content via Meta Ad Manager.  


Pick the right time to post: Keep a check on your audience interactions and pick the right time accordingly. Make sure you post often and consistently. How will you know when your audience is online? Instagram tells you through its Insights in four simple steps:

Instagram Insights

  • Go to your Instagram profile within the app and click on the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) on the top right of your screen.

  • Tap on ‘Insights’.

  • From there, click on ‘Total followers’

  • Scroll down to the bottom of this page and look for ‘Most active times’. You’ll be able to toggle between hours for every day of the week or look at specific days.


Maintain your aesthetics: The visual appeal of your feed and content matters a lot. If you want your business to stand out you must have a keen sense of legitimacy, professional design with high-quality images, and effective copy. Make a set colour pallet and fonts that are in line with your brand and stay consistent.


Collaborate: Collaborations play a major role in sparking conversations and increasing the reach. To reach the right audience and stand out from your competition, consider collaborating with them to create engaging content. This can help increase brand visibility and expand your reach.


Do not buy fake followers: Fake followers are a major red flag for business account.


  • Bot followers are very cheap it does give you a kick in the senses by showing massive follower growth but it does more harm than good to your account.

  •  Instagram does not encourage accounts with fake bot followers who engage in fraudulent activities. 

  • Bot followers don’t engage with your account authentically instead they destroy your credibility.


Build a strong marketing strategy: While making the marketing strategy keep your requirements in line. Figure out your goals is it brand awareness, boosting direct conversions, driving website traffic, or something else? Clarity on your goal will dictate your content's format and call to action.


Run promotions and giveaways: Promotions and giveaways can help generate interest on Instagram. It is a fun way to build brand awareness and generate interest among your followers. 

Promotion Type

Objective

Mechanics

Example

Like or Share to Win

Increase reach

Like/share a post to enter

"Like and share this post for a chance to win a free marketing consultation with Vigor Launchpad!"

Tag a Friend to Win

Expand audience

Tag a friend in the comments

"Tag a friend who needs a Vigor Launchpad boost! Both of you could win a prize!""Tag a friend who could use a branding boost! Both of you could win a strategy session with Vigor Launchpad!"

Caption This Photo Contest

Boost creativity

Caption a photo

"Caption this photo of our team at work for a chance to win a free social media audit!"

Users Share Their Content

Generate UGC

Share content and tag your account

"Share a success story about working with Vigor Launchpad and tag us to be featured and win a special prize!"

Hashtag Contest

Create buzz

Use a unique hashtag in posts

"Use #VigorLaunchpadSuccess in your posts to enter our contest and win a free marketing toolkit!"



Image Sizes for Instagram


  • Profile Picture: 110 x 110 pixels.

  • Photo Posts: 1080 x 1080 pixels (square), 1080 x 1350 pixels (portrait), 1080 x 566 pixels (landscape) Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixel.


Character Limits for Instagram


  • Captions: 2,200 characters (recommended 125 for optimal engagement)

  • Bios: 150 characters


X (Twitter) 

Social Media Platforms

Overview: Twitter has 335.7 million global users. It has always proven best for real-time communication. X (Twitter) is the pulse of networking and brand awareness, where news breaks and brands can directly engage with the right audience. 


Follow through the guide to learn how to use X (Twitter) for business:


  • Customer Service: Create a comprehensive customer experience strategy aligned with your business goals and values. Make a customer service plan that sets simple and specific processes to handle customer queries, answer questions, and troubleshoot issues to consistently deliver an exceptional customer experience. 

  • Direct messages: Use DMs to gather information about the issues in a less public environment. Shift the complex conversations to a more appropriate channel of communication, like voice support to eliminate back-and-forth communication for quick resolutions.

  • Measure results: Measure the impact of your support through X for Business with customer experience metrics such as first reply time, customer satisfaction (CAST) scores, team and individual agent performance, and sentiment analysis. You can also identify trends and evaluate the effectiveness of your CX strategy through advanced reporting and analytics tools. 

Feature Category

Key Feature

Description

Content Types

Tweets

Short text posts, often with links or hashtags


Images

Photos and graphics to enhance tweets


Videos

Short clips to engage followers visually

Advertising

Promoted Tweets

Boosted tweets to reach a larger audience


Promoted Accounts

Promote accounts to gain more followers


Promoted Trends

Highlight trending topics for greater visibility

Analytics

Engagement Metrics

Data on likes, retweets, replies, and impressions


Follower Growth

Track increase or decrease in follower count


Tweet Activity

Insights on tweet performance and interactions

Best Practices


  • Write concise and impactful tweets: The character limit of tweets is 280 characters, that’s why it is essential to be very mindful while communicating the message clearly and succinctly. 

  • Use Hashtags Strategically: Hashtags can increase the visibility of your tweets and help you be a part of broader conversations.

  • Engage with Trending Topics: Participate in relevant trending topics to increase your reach and engage with a wider audience.


Image Sizes for X (Twitter)

  • Profile Picture: 400 x 400 pixels

  • Header Photo: 1500 x 500 pixels

  • In-stream Photos: 1600 x 900 pixels


Character Limits


  1. Tweets: 280 characters

  2. Direct Messages: 10,000 characters


LinkedIn

Social Media Platforms

Overview: LinkedIn is the world’s premier business network, with 875 million active users. For businesses that want to reach a professional network, strengthen employee advocacy, and position themselves as industry leaders in front of a wide audience, leveraging LinkedIn for Business is crucial.


Steps to effectively market your business on LinkedIn: 


  1. Create a Company Page: To access LinkedIn’s business features, you’ll need an individual account. This account will also be the administrator of your Company Page (although you can add additional Page managers later). It is recommended to sign up using your work email address.

  2. Optimize your Page: Once you have created the page start optimizing. This means writing descriptive headlines, choosing Page topics and hashtags, and following relevant Pages so your Page gets noticed and you can build your following.

  3. Build your network: To attract more visitors to your Page, it's essential to stay active and engage with your audience. Conduct thorough research and create long captions accompanied by carousels or videos. Additionally, consider posting long articles discussing your services and other relevant content.


Here are three ways to get your new Business Page some love:

  • Link your page to the website: Add the LinkedIn icon to the rest of your social media icons in your footer, and anywhere else you link out to social media.

  • Ask your employees to update their profiles: This is key for the long-term growth of your Business Page. When your employees first listed their job titles on their profiles, you didn’t have a Page. So those titles don’t link anywhere.


Now that your Page exists, ask your employees to edit their job descriptions on their LinkedIn profiles to link them to your new Business Page.


This allows their contacts to find and follow you, but it also adds that user as an employee at your company. Displaying the number of employees, you have can help your company establish credibility on the platform.


  • Send invitations:  LinkedIn makes it easy to invite your connections to follow your Page. LinkedIn limits how many invites you can send out to ensure people don’t spam.


Key Features


  • Content Types: Articles, company updates, job postings, professional insights.

  • Advertising: LinkedIn offers a range of advertising options to help businesses reach their target audience effectively:

  • Sponsored Content: Promoted posts that appear in the LinkedIn feed.

  • InMail: Direct messages sent to LinkedIn users' inboxes.

  • Display Ads: Banner ads that appear on various LinkedIn pages.

  • Analytics: LinkedIn provides detailed analytics to track engagement metrics, follower insights, and post-performance. This data helps businesses refine their strategies and improve their content.


Image Sizes


  • Profile Picture: 400 x 400 pixels

  • Background Photo: 1584 x 396 pixels

  • Shared Images: 1200 x 627 pixels


Character Limits

  • Posts: 3,000 characters

  • Articles: 125,000 characters

  • Company Page Updates: 700 characters

  • Headlines: 120 characters


YouTube

Social Media Platforms

Overview: YouTube has over 2.49 billion monthly active users as of March 2024, becoming one of the most popular websites globally. The platform supports more than 80 languages and is available in over 100 countries. Dominated by video content, YouTube offers a platform for in-depth tutorials, product reviews, behind-the-scenes looks, and so much more to keep the audience engaged for longer periods. Using social media for business through YouTube can significantly enhance brand visibility and drive revenue.


What is YouTube Marketing?


YouTube marketing is the practice of promoting a brand, product, or service on YouTube. It involves a mix of tactics, including (but not limited to): 


  • Creating organic promotional videos

  • Working with influencers

  • Advertising on the platform


To market your business on YouTube — whether you’re an entrepreneur or an enterprise corporation — you need to produce what your target customers want.


Sounds simple, right? It is, as long as you know what your customers want, not just what you think they want (a trap far too many businesses fall into).


Plus, you need to make sure the right people find your videos. YouTube is a search engine so you’ll need to optimize your content for the YouTube algorithm, just like you do for Google SEO.


But why is YouTube marketing so important for your business to invest in?


Let’s cover a few major benefits that YouTube can provide.


  • Reach a major audience. YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world. Its users spend an average of 28 hours per month streaming content on the website. And four in five internet users have used this platform at one time or another.

  • Video content sells. One video marketing survey found that 90% of marketers have gotten a positive ROI from video. And 88% of marketers have found that video helps their audience better understand their product or service.

  • Your videos can appear in search results. Not only do you need to pay attention to YouTube SEO, but by considering Google search results, your videos can reach an even wider audience.

  • Take advantage of YouTube monetization. Once you’ve built a solid audience, you can make even more money from the ads that appear on your videos.


Key Features


  • Content Types: Long-form videos, tutorials, product reviews, vlogs.

  • Advertising: YouTube offers several advertising options to help businesses reach their target audience:

  • TrueView Ads: Skippable ads that play before, during, or after other videos.

  • Pre-Roll Ads: Non-skippable ads that play before the main video.

  • Bumper Ads: Short, non-skippable ads that last up to 6 seconds.

  • Analytics: YouTube provides detailed analytics, including viewer demographics, watch time and engagement metrics. These insights help businesses understand their audience better and refine their content strategy.


Best Practices


  • Create High-Quality, Well-Edited Videos: Ensure your videos are professional, engaging, and provide value to your audience.

  • Use SEO Best Practices: Optimize video titles, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords to increase discoverability and rank higher in search results.

  • Engage with Viewers: Respond to comments and participate in community posts to build a loyal audience and foster a sense of community.


Beneficial Aspects for Businesses

  • Brand Awareness: Regularly uploading quality content helps build brand recognition and trust among viewers.

  • Lead Generation: Video content can drive traffic to your website and convert viewers into customers.

  • Revenue Generation: Businesses can monetize their YouTube channels through ads, sponsored content, and merchandise sales.

  • Educational Content: Providing tutorials and product reviews can establish your business as an authority in your industry.


Image Sizes


  • Profile Picture: 800 x 800 pixels

  • Channel Cover Photo: 2560 x 1440 pixels

  • Video Thumbnails: 1280 x 720 pixels


Character Limits


  • Video Titles: 100 characters

  • Descriptions: 5,000 characters


Matching Platforms with Business Needs


Simplify the process with this table and find which platform is suitable for your business:

Business Type

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter (X)

LinkedIn

Youtube

E-commerce



Professional Services




Media/Entertainment


Technology




Key metrics to monitor include:


  • Engagement Rate: Likes, comments, shares, retweets.

  • Reach and Impressions: How many people see your content?

  • Conversion Rates: How many actions (e.g., website visits, purchases) your posts generate.


Regularly reviewing these metrics will help you identify trends and adjust your strategy for better results.


Conclusion


Picking the right social media platform for business is not about excelling all the platforms at once! It’s about following the algorithm of a certain platform and acting accordingly. This guide can help your business find the right social media marketing platform, so utilize the data, analyze it, and create content that resonates with your target audience.


While you’re surfing through this ever-evolving digital world stay curious, stay trendy, and stay updated! 


Your oh-so-good social media strategy is not set in stone—it’s waiting to be discovered.

41 views2 comments

2 Comments


Vishlock Shetty
Vishlock Shetty
Jul 10

Well Curated!

Like

Guest
Jul 10

Informative

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