Social Media is a fantastic way for businesses to reach their audience, build a relationship with customers, and showcase what makes their company unique. Digital Marketing is an evolving industry, and Social Media is no different. Facebook has been a leader in the digital world for the last decade by gaining over 2.6 billion users across the globe. It has been a way for users to connect with each other on a personal level and for businesses to connect with customers effectively. But since 2017, 15 million users have left the site and a recent study found that users have been spending less time on the site, about 4 minutes per session. Has Facebook lost its credibility and popularity in the social media world?
Over the last three years their credibility has been questioned (everyone remembers the data hack of 2018, right?) as well as if users can trust their information is kept private. Facebook, however, has acknowledged there are vulnerabilities to their website and have experienced multiple hacks in the recent years. These hacks have exposed people’s private information as well as given hackers access to apps that they have Facebook log them in for (Spotify and dating apps). With users not being able to trust their information is safe on this platform, they have been straying.
Another big drawback to Facebook in 2020 is their ability to retain younger users. Facebook is considered dead to Gen Zs and even the millennial users are flocking to other sites. A recent study found that about half of the users on the platform are 65 and older and even worse, only about 51% of 13-17 year olds use the platform. This is huge seeing as a large group of teens (45% from the Pew Research Center Study of 2018) have admitted that they are “almost always” on their phone. Killing it, Facebook. Now, FB has definitely put in the effort to stay relevant with the younger generations by adding stories, fun filters, and silly ads, but it still is losing out to platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Tik Tok.
So should you steer away from a incorporating a Facebook strategy? No. Facebook is still relevant depending on your target audience, and can be very useful to companies who work with an older generation.
But enough about Facebook, let’s talk about what other social platforms are available to your business and why you should incorporate them into your marketing strategies.
Who’s on Instagram and How do you Reach Them?
Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users on the app. In 2020 it is estimated that 70% of the users on Instagram are 34 and under, with the biggest of that group being users aged 25-34 making up a whopping 33.8%. Instagram is the top photo-sharing app, between the colorful images, fun stories, and now the use of IGTV, Instagram has become the go to for creators. Instagram’s biggest growing feature is their stories, which is incredibly similar to Snapchat. Stats show that there’s an average of 500 Million active stories users a day. Stories allow for users to share a bigger picture and fill in the gaps along with sharing as much as they want without bombarding their follower’s feeds.
And what are these influencers you may ask? Influencers are creator accounts that team up with brands to help advertise their products or services to their followers. Influencers are a hot topic in marketing in 2020, but we’ll cover that in more depth at a later date. One thing Instagram is doing right is consistently updating their tools and features to keep up with trends, keep users engaged, and for this reason it’s a must know social media platform for businesses to use.
5 Marketing Strategies for Instagram:
- Influencer marketing
- Tagging popular accounts
- Using geo-location in posts and stories
- Be consistent in your posting
- Go live
Why YouTube is the Place to be for Video Marketing
Here are some quick facts about YouTube and its user base. YouTube currently has 2 billion users with 30 million of those being daily users. 81% of 15-25 year olds are active users, 35+ and 55+ age groups are the fastest growing on the app, and a whopping 95% of Internet users engage with YouTube. This makes sense being that it is the second largest search engine. The most popular videos include how-tos, unboxing, product reviews, vlogs, gaming, comedy, challenges, hauls, educational, and best of. The best thing about advertising on this site is that people of all demographics and interests use this platform, so your target audience is most likely here. This is the go-to social media platform for videos and video marketing, and is worth including in your marketing strategy if you’re goal is lead gen and growth.
5 Marketing Strategies for Youtube:
- Create short videos that keeps your audience engaged
- Create image covers for your videos (canva)
- Incorporate editing features such a speed, filters, backdrops, etc. to keep your videos inviting
- Talk on trending topics for relevance
- Create video playlists to engage the user to keep watching similar content
How to Incorporate LinkedIn to Your Marketing Campaign
LinkedIn isn’t the first platform people think of when they talk about social media, but it’s incredibly useful for marketing to businesses. LinkedIn has 675 million users and 310 million of them are on the site daily. Of these 675 millions users, 87 million are millennials, which is the coveted demographic. LinkedIn is the number one channel for business-to-business marketing. The fact that 64% of business website visits come from LinkedIn as well as 80% of social media leads should be reason enough to not overlook LinkedIn when creating a marketing strategy. This platform is about a selective relationship with the people and businesses in your target market. It should be mentioned that besides the audience, it is also more expensive to advertise on compared to the other platforms mentioned in this post. Tip: LinkedIn ads are pretty pricey but should be utilized if your company has a larger marketing budget.
5 Marketing Strategies for LinkedIn:
- Create How To and List Posts
- Create actionable content with all three types available (text, image, video)
- Use advanced search features to find potential customers
- Join and participate in industry related groups
- Post articles and blog posts that your audience is interested in
Why Snapchat is the Most Popular App for Generation Z
Snapchat has 218 million daily users, with users opening the app an average of 30 times per day. 90% of users are between the ages of 13-24, 24% of adults use the app, and 41% of US teens say its their preferred social media app. Snapchat is a very popular app with the younger generations because it allows you to share short stories with your followers that disappear after 24 hours, has dozens of fun filters, and according to a survey run by the app itself it makes them “feel happy.”
Something fun for businesses to take advantage of is its ‘Create’ feature. Here you can create your own filter and have users send it out to their friends while gaining exposure for your business in the process. You can also use Snapchat to showcase your company culture and employees, products or services, and share flashy fun videos and photos. While Snapchat is fun and an active place for younger generations, it’s main use is to grow audience engagement and awareness, but isn’t necessarily best for conversations and sales.
5 Marketing Strategies for Snapchat:
- Incorporate fun filters
- Have influencers do a Snapchat takeover
- String together a story with a beginning, middle, and end
- Provide urgent and actionable content that is only available on Snapchat (giveaways, flash sales, contests, special discounts)
- Humanize your brand by going behind the scenes and showing what company culture is like
Why Content is King on Tik Tok
Tik Tok is the newest app on this list and is the #1 downloaded app of 2020 so far. There are 800 million monthly users, 1 billion video views per day, 41% of users are between the ages of 16-24, and users spend an average of 52 minutes on the app per day. It must also be noted that the 25 to 35 age range is rapidly growing. The best thing about Tik Tok is that the playing ground is even, accounts with zero followers can have the potential for a video to go viral. This is vastly different than other platforms mentioned above, as engagement really is linked to number of followers.
Now I must also address that there is some controversy surrounding the app being that it is China owned and there have been concerns about users data being stolen. There is also the issue of whether or not it will be banned in the coming months, so stay tuned on that development. But for now, none of this seems to be affecting its popularity, as it’s currently the #3 most popular non-gaming app. If this app does in fact stick around, you should look into adding it into your marketing strategy, especially if your target audience is 30 and under.
5 Marketing Strategies for Tik Tok:
- Hop on trends early
- Use popular sounds and filters
- Team up with influencers to create curated content just for Tik Tok
- Post often and consistently
- Use trending hashtags
Now that we have addressed the most popular social media platforms being used, it is important to know that one isn’t inherently better than the other. Each one has its strengths and usefulness, depending on whom you are trying to attract. The perfect marketing strategy would be to incorporate as many relevant channels as possible and curate content based on each channel and their audience.
What social media platforms is your audience currently on? Are you implementing the strategies we mentioned above?
Written by Tessa Porter
