No one can deny the impact of social media on influencing behavior among its users. However, this influence doesn’t come cheap. Where should you put your money and efforts and what are the channels that should come last on your priority list?
The answer largely depends on two main factors: your industry and audience. Most brands aim to be present at every social media channel, and by doing so they end up with disoriented efforts, posting the exact same content everywhere regardless of the nature of these channels.
The way to prioritize goes through identifying your audience in relevance to your objectives and the specific social medium that provides you with the best access to your audience.
Community: If your business is community oriented and you are looking to get people living in certain communities involved with your brand. Or if you are looking to associate your brand with a cause, the best social media network would be Facebook.
Business: If you are trying to reach businesses and like minded individuals working in related industry you have to be on LinkedIn.
News: Twitter is the go to platform for news oriented business, with new developments happening in your industry and commentaries you should be there.
Youthful: For youthful audience and visual brands your priority should be Instagram, Tiktok and Pinterest.
These are some of the main factors you have to take into consideration. Still you need to keep on mind that no matter the numbers of followers you get on social media, your reach will be minimal unless paid. With this perspective, you can choose to change your priorities and aim to be on these channels.
Youtube: Being the 2nd largest search engine in the world, Youtube should be a top priority, just like you aim to be on Google.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn algorithm focuses on quality engaging content rather than sponsored content. It starts first by testing the content you shared with your network for quality, once it passes the quality check, it will be pushed through to a sample of your network to gauge their interest, if they find it engaging LinkedIn will share it with a larger number. This Algorithm gives you as a brand the room to control the reach, if you make sure your content is engaging and of high quality.
Twitter: With Twitter’s Latest feed working along side the Top feed, you have a chance getting to your audience by posting at the right time on the right topic. The Latest feed allows posts to appear in real time, which basically mean that your efforts will be seen by people following you or the hashtag you are using the moment you post. However, this will also mean that users checking their account an hour later, might not see your post. The other alternative is the algorithm based Top post feed, which allows your post to be among the top given it is relevant and engaging.
Instagram: Instagram displays posts based on users interests and engagement, making brands posts less visible unless paid. Which means no matter the number of followers you have, your posts are not luckily to show up unless you are ready to invest heavily in creating and promoting engaging posts.
Facebook: Facebook prioritizes post from friends and groups to advertisers which limits your chances of appearing in front of your audience, unless you have paid for the honor. For years, marketers have taken a negative view of Facebook as a marketing tool. You are basically placing efforts and resources to gain followers that your will need to pay again to reach them and this is why it is often place as the least priority among social media channels.
Looking at the different algorithms, you can understand the need for native content. Being there for your audience not as a brand marketing your service, but as a part of the community, building relationships and showing interest in what really matters to them. How about this for a priority?
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