When it comes to figuring out the best social media for your business, the first step is to prioritize what’s important to you. Is it expanding your reach? Is it generating more leads? Is it about brand awareness? From there, it’s about determining which platform will give you the right exposure with the right audience. Is your brand very visual so it lends itself to platforms like Instagram or TikTok? Is it focused on real-time events and would work well on Twitter? Or is your audience diverse and so needs a combination of platforms such as YouTube and LinkedIn? Let’s dive into the social media networks to find out.

Define Your Social Media Goals

There are many benefits to using social media, but it’s important to have specific goals before you move forward. That way you can create a successful social media strategy for your business.

For one, your objectives will help determine not only the social platform you choose, but also the content you create, the audience you target, and more.

Determine What Channels Your Audience Uses

The entire point of successful social media marketing is to put you in contact with your most receptive audience. So, it’s not advisable to choose a platform where your audience doesn’t operate. Unfortunately, there’s no ‘Field of Dreams’ opportunity here where your prospects will start using the social platform of your choice just because you’ve created a profile. Instead, it’s a much better idea to analyze which platforms your audience prefers and seek them out on the networks they already use.

A key thing to do when starting this process is to conduct some audience research to define a buyer persona. That way you know who you are looking for and can narrow down the platforms that they use by gender, demographics, interests etc. There are a few different ways you can go about finding where your audience is hanging out online. One of the most straightforward is a simple customer survey. Ask questions like what social sites they use, where they get their information online, and which influencers they listen to.

Another way to get information about your audience is through the social media sites themselves. For paid advertising, you can tell platforms like Facebook about your ideal customers, and they’ll estimate the audience size for you. You can also use analytics to determine who your audience is and are what they are doing.

Examine the Type of Content You Create

Different types of content work better with certain social media platforms, so it’s key that you consider carefully the type of content you like to create and distribute that will work best with your brand.

Instagram, for instance, is all about visuals, so it may not be the right place to share long-form content like whitepapers. The type of content you create will depend on several things, including your industry, your brand, and your target audience.

Pair Your Goals, Audience, and Content with the Right Platform

Once you’ve settled on the social media goals, have determined where your audience is, and decided what type of content works best, you can compare the different social media platforms to determine which one will meet your needs. Do a rundown of the top platforms by audience size, what they’re good for, and what a typical user looks like.