Social media has undeniably become the most crucial tool for business owners to spread their message to the masses. These businesses are marketing their products and building their brand image virtually and without the extra costs of advertising.
The best thing is that the message stays there once it is posted. The key behind being successful and getting the most out of your social media presence is choosing the right platform to convey your message. Each social media platform comes with its pros and cons.
This article will shed light on a few different social media platforms and discuss their advantages and disadvantages to pick the right one according to your objectives. This also depends on what kind of audience you are interested in targeting. There are other factors to be considered such as language, demography, age group, etc.
Facebook has taken the top spot in the list of social media platforms. For years, Facebook has been the most visited platform of all the social media websites. While talking about numbers, Facebook has more than 2 billion users all around the globe. This means that almost every person who has internet access or holds a device to access the internet has a Facebook account. All of the things mentioned above make it the top choice for businesses to invest their money and time to market their products to potential buyers. Facebook is a vast platform and has an extensive reach, which allows you to turn your clientele base into a community.
Pros:
It’s easy to make a Facebook page for a business, post engaging content, and market the products effectively. Using Facebook ads, one can easily target the audience based on language, demography, age group, and other choices. It is straightforward to use, and almost every literate person can make an account or a business page.
After that, the business owner can start posting photos and other media to reach out to their potential customers, sell products, gain more followers, and build a brand. It is recommended that around 90% of posts be about your brand, business, and products. The remainder of the posts should be funny to keep the audience engaged with your page. One easy way to do this is to organize contests, polls, and free giveaways. Apart from that, you can use Facebook to cross-promote fresh content on your site, as it will boost traffic on your website.
Cons:
Facebook also has some drawbacks. First of all, Facebook demands interaction, meaning that the owners of the businesses must interact with their followers to build a healthy relationship and to maximize sales and conversions. It is not an easy task, and you might need a team to tackle this demand. Another thing is that the Facebook interface works well on cell phones, as it loads faster on smartphones. But when it comes to computers and laptops, the page takes a while to load, and this means that a big chunk of people will not land on your page if it is heavier and takes time to load.
Around 330 million people use Twitter daily, making it the perfect choice for marketers and business owners to target their potential customers. It is an attractive platform for small and large businesses. Twitter allows its users to engage with new content every second and contains all the information and trends about what is happening globally and in real-time.
Pros
Almost every brand has a Twitter account these days and is engaging its customers. These Twitter accounts feed their customers by keeping them updated about the latest trends and market their products accordingly. One of the main advantages of using Twitter is that, though it doesn’t have as much audience or reach range as Facebook, it is still the most accessible and easy. It allows the user to send its message directly, by keeping it concise, to the point, informative and engaging, in 280 characters or less.
The actual game begins when people retweet it on their own timelines, allowing the Twitter account to be visible to people who haven’t yet followed you. This means that one can easily target their potential audience by keeping the tweet informative and engaging and by getting in front of the right people.
Cons:
The main drawback of making a Twitter account and marketing through it is its character limit. Twitter limits whatever you write by 280 characters. This means that whenever you are typing your message that you want to convey to your audience, you will not have room for a detailed message.
You can type a longer message, but it will have to be broken down into individual tweets. Apart from this, everything on Twitter is posted on the platform chronologically, making it difficult for people to catch it. There stands a chance that customers can miss the message simply because of the chronological setup of Twitter and the amount of posting that’s required to be effective.
Instagram is relatively young compared to Facebook and Twitter, but it has grown exponentially. The social media platform has around 1 billion users from all over the world, and the numbers are rising. This popularity of the social media platform makes it evident for brands to target the audience.
Pros:
It is the best social media platform for marketers and brands to target their potential customers. According to the stats, Instagram is primarily used in urban areas, so if your brand is focused on tech, fashion, lifestyle, and food, this social media platform is the ideal choice for you.
Another advantage of using Instagram is that one can use short videos to send out a large message, and these videos and photos can contain a short textual message that go with the theme of the platform. The basic advantage of using Instagram is that it easily integrates with Facebook and Twitter, which makes it easier for a person to share the same content on multiple platforms.
Cons:
The basic drawback of using Instagram as a marketing platform is that one needs to have sharper photography techniques and pro editing skills. Apart from that, Instagram has limitations regarding captions. This means that you cannot describe your photo outside the captions. Another disadvantage of using this platform is that it has a very sleek algorithm which will not make it easy for your post to be visible to a vast number of people if you are not famous, have low likes, or low engagement rate.
We have discussed three basic social media platforms that are beneficial for small and large-scale business owners or brands. Let’s talk about LinkedIn. It is by far the most professional of all and allows the users to connect to professionals and allows them to do networking. According to the stats, it has more than 610 million users, and these numbers are still rising.
Pros:
On this platform, things are formal and are done professionally rather than casually. As you might have noticed, users are generally interested in B2B posts rather than B2C posts, which means that the companies that do better on the platform are those who are looking for potential clients to do business with, rather than the businesses who are selling to their clients directly.
Professionals from every industry around the globe have joined LinkedIn, and if you can convey the message effectively and have writing skills better than the average person, the chances are that you will sell whatever you are selling and will gain popularity on the platform accordingly.
Cons:
Although LinkedIn is advantageous for potential business owners, there is still a minor drawback in the platform. LinkedIn doesn’t have that many users, and therefore the reach will be pretty low. Apart from that, there is less interaction here when compared to other social media platforms. People on LinkedIn don’t interact with the posts that much, which makes it difficult for businesses to do well on the forum.
YouTube
YouTube has approximately 2 billion users worldwide, and these numbers increase daily as more and more people are signing up and creating accounts, both as creators and users. YouTube is the second largest search engine, only behind its owner Google.
Pros:
If you are a business owner and can convey your message through music and entertainment, then this platform is the right choice for you. This doesn’t necessarily mean that business owners without these skills can’t use the platform to their advantage. There are various options that businesses and brands can choose to target their potential customers successfully. You can make instructional videos, do product reviews, create funny content with a hidden brand message, and can even ask influencers to market your products.
The best part of using YouTube to do marketing is that with proper YouTube SEO, videos show up in the search results of Google too, which will boost your visibility. Apart from that, YouTube allows its users to share content across multiple social media platforms by sharing a quick link to the video.
Cons:
The biggest con of using YouTube is that if your video quality isn’t good enough, or it lacks entertainment value and is not informative; the chances are that users will not take an interest in what you have to say. That is why you have to do your best to make your videos entertaining in order to maximize your subscribers and target new audiences accordingly.
Conclusion
Choosing the right platform for your business plays a vital role in your business’s success and in enhancing the image of your brand on social media. Keep in mind that every platform has its advantages and disadvantages. That is why it is necessary to calculate what kind of content you will produce and the best platform to introduce it on. This will not only help your brand build a stable audience but will also help your business increase its online presence.
