Get the most bang for your buck by choosing networks where the user base matches your ideal customer.
As you know, social media is no longer an optional marketing technique, but how do you know which social media channels are best suited to your particular audience? Do you know which ones would be the best investment for the time and energy you put into them and why?
Are you sure?
Here are the most popular social media channels, their main demographic, and the most effective types of content for each.
The U.S. currently accounts for the largest number of Facebook users (approximately 2 billion), with India and Brazil closely trailing behind. Facebook also has a solid mobile presence in local markets with Facebook and Facebook Messenger being one of the most popular mobile apps in the U.S. over the last few years.
- The largest Facebook demographic group consists of ages 25-34 which is 12.5% of its users, with other age groups not far behind.
- The content that drives the most engagement on Facebook are posts that answer user questions directly, are authentic in tone and content, appeal to emotion, humor (which enhances brand recall), entertainment, inspirational, witty, clever, intelligently appealing to your audience’s personality, written in story-form, real-time information, visually appealing (infographics, graphs, screenshots, GIFs), and live-streaming.
- Facebook pages are easy to setup and maintain.
- Facebook Ads make it easy to micro-target any given group and put your messages in front of millions of potential buyers.
Instagram is owned by Facebook and has approximately 800 million users. It’s a visual social media platform that’s built completely on pictures and video content. And, 25% of all Instagram ads are single videos which receive higher engagement rates; however, they are more expensive than Instagram photo ads.
- The largest Instagram demographic group consists of ages 18-29 which is 59% of its users.
- All content on Instagram consists of pictures and video.
- Posts with a location receive 79% more engagement than those that don’t.
- And, 75% of Instagram users take action after reading an Instagram advertising post.
Approximately 24% of all online adults use Twitter. In addition, 29% of Twitter users are highly educated and hold a college degree.
- The largest Twitter demographic group consists of ages 18-29 which is 36% of its users.
- There are more younger people using Twitter than people 65 and older at just 10% of its users.
- The best type of content for Twitter is anything that’s currently trending in the news, updates, and other major media topics.
- Hashtags are paramount in building viral momentum for your posts.
Pinterest is a visually interactive platform that allows its users to save, organize, and display content by “pinning ” it to digital bulletin boards. Pins can be images, pictures and/or videos. Active Pinterest users topped 200 million in 2017, which is up from 150 million at the end of 2016. Approximately 31% of Americans use Pinterest the majority (81%) of which are women.
- The largest Pinterest demographic group consists of ages 18-49 at 34% of its users with ages 50-64 not being far behind at 26%.
- Millennials use Pinterest just as often as they do Instagram with a median user age of 40.
- The best type of content for Pinterest is anything visually appealing with the most popular categories being food, arts and crafts, fashion, home decor, and anything health-related.
- Businesses must use a business account to use Pinterest for business purposes.
Tumbler
Tumbler is a multimedia microblogging platform launched in 2007 by Yahoo and currently has approximately 794 million active monthly users. This site is a content blogging site where the type of content you post is practically unlimited.
- The largest Tumbler demographic group consists of ages 18-29 with 27% of them being male and 14% of them being female.
- The best types of content to post on Tumbler are GIFs, pop culture memes, humor, fashion, art, DIY, food, vintage, and more.
- The average Tumbler user visits about 67 pages each month.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a mobile-only social media site that is visually based and widely known for its disappearing content. You can send pictures and video content to others and it’s only visible for up to 10 seconds at a time. Or, you can post your content to Stories which disappears from the site after 24 hours. Approximately 158 million people use Snapchat every day and open it about 18 times per day.
- The largest Snapchat demographic group consists of ages 18-24 and is widely used by Millennials.
- About 83% of all U.S. mobile users aged 18-24 are active on Snapchat.
- The best types of content to post on Snapchat are pictures, videos, stories, documenting your day-to-day operations (behind the scenes content), 10-second interviewing of random people, posting a big reveal, sharing tips, Q&A sessions, etc.
YouTube
YouTube, founded in 2005, is a video-sharing platform that’s owned by Google and is the second largest search engine. It’s the biggest online video-sharing site in the world featuring a variety of user-generated and corporate media content on just about any topic imaginable. YouTube currently has approximately 185 million users in the U.S. alone and 1.5 billion users worldwide.
- The largest YouTube demographic group consists of ages 18-24 which is approximately 32 million users.
- The best types of content to post on YouTube are videos of music, TV clips, blogs, gaming, instructional, DIY, how-to, and educational content. However, any type of industry-specific topic or piece of content can be a powerful money-making tool.
- YouTube is the most popular mobile app on Google Play and the Apple Store.
- About 90% of the U.S. population has used YouTube at one time or another.
- More than half of all mobile users watch YouTube videos every day and often several times each day.
The Bottom Line
If you want to use social media to your advantage, spend a little time studying the demographics of each platform, including their wants and needs, likes and dislikes, hobbies, and especially how and where they spend their time. Next, designate some of your team members to create demographic specific content designed for each specific social media platform. Then have those team members actively engage with your followers on each of the social media platforms you’re active on. This is also a great way to keep on top of and manage your brand’s online reputation so you can take control and manage any situation (good, bad, true, false) that might arise.
