Choosing the Best Social Media Platform for Your Brand

Social media users have grown from 970 million to 4.95 billion between 2010 and 2023. For a significant portion of the US population, these platforms are an important source not just for networking but for finding information, discovering products, and making purchasing decisions.

This has created massive opportunities for businesses, both large and small. As a result, more brands are investing in social media marketing today than ever before. According to estimates, companies will spend nearly $220 billion on social ads alone in 2024.

If you have not thought about creating a social presence for your business yet, it is high time you prioritize it this year. But how can you go about choosing the right social media platform for your brand?

1. Consider Your Audience

Each social media site attracts a specific demographic group. Take Snapchat, for instance. A staggering 41% of its users belong to the 18-29 age group, while the 50-64 users remain in the minority.

You can see similar distinctions when it comes to gender, too. Male users dominate X (formerly Twitter), although females are the majority on Pinterest.

If you pitch your product to the wrong audience on the wrong platform, you are going to end up wasting time and resources—something you undoubtedly want to avoid.

The fact is, every business has a unique target audience who would buy their product or service. And you need to know who is buying yours. This is critical when selecting the best social media sites for your brand.

So, which age group do your customers belong to? What is their gender? What digital platforms would they typically use? How do they consume content? All these questions will help you understand your audience better and determine the right platform to reach them.

2. Decide What You Want to Achieve

Today, social media networks provide enterprises with a variety of tools to grow their businesses. However, the most appropriate site for your business can vary depending on your goals.

For instance, LinkedIn is great for building corporate reputation, while Facebook’s Shop feature is ideal for boosting sales with your very own online store.

So, to identify what will work best for your brand, you must first assess your goals and objectives.

What exactly do you want to achieve? Is it to build an online brand presence, nurture relationships with your customers, improve your customer service, collect lead lists, or drive sales?

Just remember, don’t feel pressured to be on social media just because everyone else is. Your social media journey will be much more successful if you have a clear idea of where you want to go.

3. Assess Your Resources

Contrary to what some believe, a one-size-fits-all approach is hardly effective when you are dealing with multiple social media channels. You must tailor your content, engagement frequency, and strategies for each platform to maximize results. However, this requires money, time, and effort.

Producing professional videos for YouTube, for example, demands specialized talent. Short text-based content on X, on the other hand, will involve less effort but more frequent engagement.

This is why determining what you can afford and which resources are readily available to you at the outset is critical.

Of course, today, there are various cost-effective methods to get things done more efficiently with minimal cost and human resources.

For instance, if you want to develop a lead database, you can collect the names of prospective customers with a contest on Facebook and use Nuwber to find their contact information. There are also plenty of automation tools and data-tracking software to ease the workload of your social media activities.

4. Review Your Competitors’ Social Media Presence

Other brands in your industry could provide important clues for discovering effective social media platforms for your product or service. So, check where your competitors actively maintain their presence, the type of activities they carry out, and the level of engagement they generate with their audience.

However, keep in mind that just because your competitor is on certain platforms, it doesn’t mean you should focus on them, too.

Remember, each brand is at a different stage of its life cycle and has specific aspirations, goals, and resources. A startup may want to create brand awareness using social media, whereas a more established business would focus on building brand loyalty.

Similarly, a smaller brand will not have the same budgets as a larger player and, therefore, would want to limit to one or two platforms at the beginning.

Having said that, keeping an eye on your competitors’ social media activities will not go to waste. It could point you in the right direction when selecting effective sites to make the most of your resources.

5. Understand the Platform Characteristics

From Instagram to Facebook, each platform has different characteristics and specific ways of operating.

Pinterest, for example, is all about discovering ideas and inspiration through visually engaging pins. Brands in the food, fashion, and home decor space do particularly well on it.

LinkedIn has a broader array of content formats—from text and images to video and infographics. However, long-form articles also do well on it. For B2B brands looking to build corporate reputation, network with industry professionals, and drive thought leadership, this is the platform to be seen on.

Facebook, on the other hand, is a more middle-of-the-road networking site. It draws in a good balance of users from different age groups and demographics and provides some excellent tools for engaging audiences, building communities, generating leads, and driving sales.

So, doing your homework to understand the nitty-gritty is essential when choosing where your brand should be.

To Recap

More businesses are prioritizing social media than ever before. If you are also considering building a presence for your brand, start by defining your audience and what you want to achieve. Then, assess how much you can spend and what resources are available to you.

In addition, review your competitors’ social media activities to determine what has yielded results for them. Don’t forget to research the shortlisted platforms to understand their specific characteristics and how they work when selecting the best fit for your brand.