Getting The Right Social Media Mix for Your Business’ Social Media Strategy

Is your social media mix right for your social media marketing goals? Each platform appeals differently to specific audiences and demographics, and with so many active networks, it’s hard to know if your business’ social media messaging strategy is missing the mark.  

Social Media Usage is On the Rise

The advancement of social media capabilities has made a ton of headway in the past two decades. Just before the turn of the millennium, we saw the rise of social blogging sites like LiveJournal and Xenga, then a few years later came the early social media giants MySpace and Friendster.

In just ten years we saw the current batch of top-performing social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, come into prominence. The interesting thing to note about these platforms is that each one occupies a unique niche. 

For example, LinkedIn is dedicated to professional networking, Twitter allows users to engage and connect over cultural trends and current events, Instagram promotes visual expression, and Facebook is a place to connect with real friends, family, and acquaintances. 

With so many social media platforms popping up each month to fulfill the needs of their users, are you spending time promoting your business in the right place? Should you be on every platform? Connecting users organically with your brand takes a lot of careful planning and consideration. 

Let’s explore the unique features, demographics, and media that are most popular on these sites, and how your business can vary your social media mix and messaging strategy by platform. 

Social Media Presence: More Important Than You Assume

First, let’s address the few naysayers that think social media is just a flash-in-the-pan trend for vapid, narcissistic teens looking to boost their egos. Here are a few social media statistics gathered within the past few years:

• There are 3.6 billion social media users around the world (Statista)
•  90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Gen X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers are active on various social media platforms (Oberlo)
• The average social media user spends 3 hours per day on social networking sites (Oberlo)
• 91% of people who use social media regularly read online reviews, and 84% of those users trust the reviews (Inc.)

Especially in the age of COVID-19, more and more people each year are turning to eCommerce, social media, and the internet to consume goods and information. Not having a presence on all the digital marketing channels is a huge missed opportunity for businesses. 

However, you can’t realistically expect that any type of brand messaging will engage users across all platforms. As we said before, there is a considerable amount of user demographic research and planning that needs to be done if you want to connect with social media users.

Each platform demands a different social media marketing messaging strategy depending on your business’ target audience and demographics. Let’s break it down by platform.

The Right Social Media Mix for Facebook

Facebook is by far the most used social media platform around the world. Not only are a majority of internet users active on Facebook, but almost every age and social demographic use Facebook. For businesses setting up pages on Facebook, there are a few technological challenges to overcome its newsfeed algorithm.

Starting in 2016, Facebook began prioritizing content based on user engagement metrics. So if a business status update was not clicked or “liked,” the algorithm would penalize it and not feature it in fans’ newsfeeds. This forced social media marketers and brands to really get creative with their social media content mix.

Today, the Facebook algorithm has been more finely refined for engagement. According to a study by Buzzsumo, video content gets at least 59% more engagement than any other content type, with questions, photos, and giveaways following. Further down the list comes link shares (status updates with links to your products or website), and posts with coupons. 

Given these findings, using video as a Facebook messaging strategy is the way to go for brands. But, not every type of video performs well. While planning your video, remember that users are seeing so many videos, images, and messages each time they visit Facebook and your video needs to quickly stand out and captivate their attention within the first few seconds of viewing.

If the thought of having to write, film, and edit a video for Facebook overwhelms you, that’s when a full-service digital marketing agency (like your friends here at Cape & Bay) can make your Facebook marketing strategy a reality. Our in-house video production team and social media strategists have their finger on the pulse of optimal social media content mix.

Twitter, Is It Worth It for Brands?

Twitter can be thought of as the John Bender (Judd Nelson’s bad-boy rebel character) of the Breakfast Club of social media platforms. It’s the place to discover trending news and engage in…”lively” debates with others. Ok, let’s be honest, Twitter can be a bit of a dumpster fire, especially when it comes to posting as a business or brand. In fact, the Twitter landscape has been so hostile towards traditional branding tactics, that well-established brands like Wendy’s had to level with users on the platform and get a bit savage and abrasive to earn respect. 

That said, unless you’re itching to try to break out of the traditional brand messaging mold, Twitter may not be the ideal place to spend your marketing budget on. Think about it, organically tweets burn up very quickly, even if you craft your brand messaging perfectly, there’s a diminishing chance it will even reach users’ newsfeeds. 

On top of that, many users do not disclose valuable personal data to make your Twitter advertising campaigns targeted enough to see a great ROAS. Spending too much time or budget on this platform is not recommended. What we do recommend though is maintaining a presence on Twitter, in case a customer or client wished to look up more about your brand on social media. Otherwise, Twitter can be a bit of a sticky wicket for brands.

Insta-GLAM, Show Off and Grow Your Brand

You’ve heard it said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to brand messaging through social media that is especially true. Instagram is a visual artists’ dream come true. If you have a visually stunning line of products you’re looking to promote, there is no better place than Instagram.

Instagram’s demographics skew towards the under 30 crowd more heavily than other popular social media platforms, so keep that in mind when strategizing your Instagram content mix. However, there are ample opportunities to increase your post impressions by using relevant industry hashtags. 

Obviously, Instagram is a highly visual social media platform, so if you are going to create content, it must be visually stunning. No quick, thrown together MS Paint masterpieces are going to get your brand the right kind of attention. If you’re sweating the details, you’ll be better off going to a creative marketing agency (wink, wink) that specializes in creating visually outstanding images, graphics, and videos. 

LinkedIn Is For B2B Lovers 

If you’re a B2B company, you may be feeling a little left out of the social media game. You have a highly specific audience you want to reach and these other platforms seem too end-consumer focused. Well, cheer up my friend, LinkedIn is the social media platform that is right for your social media marketing strategy.

Like it’s consumer facing cousins, LinkedIn allows company pages to share video, photo, and status updates. But unlike its less buttoned-up cousins, the social media mix for LinkedIn relies more heavily on information sharing. Also, you must consider what LinkedIn users use the platform for: professional networking. 

Businesses with a B2B model have lots of opportunities to reach out with other brands or individuals that are looking for partners or talk business. In fact, LinkedIn has a publishing platform welcomes industry professionals and thought-leaders to write long-form articles on their respective expertise. 

So, if you’re planning on adjusting your social media content mix on LinkedIn, remember to keep it informative, and professional, of course. Besides reaching your target audience through a newsfeed, LinkedIn allows you to create professional groups to discuss specific topics, and to reach out directly to users through their InMail system. 

Social Media Marketing, It’s All in the Mix

The above are just a few of the most popular social media platforms you can promote your brand. There are a few others that we’ve touched on in previous blogs, but these are definitely the top contenders with the most active users. As you can see, not all social media platforms are equal when it comes to brand content performance or target market demographics.

If you are looking to win on social media, getting the help of a full-service digital marketing agency like Cape & Bay can take you there. We have social media and content marketing experts on tap with highly visual and artistic creative artists and video producers on our team that can help you create emotionally resonate social media content to connect with your customers. 

Reach out today and learn where & can take your business’ social media strategy.