Choosing The Right Social Media Channels For Your Business
It seems like every month, there’s a new social media channel that pops up. Should you create a TikTok account? Clubhouse? Would Twitter Spaces work for your business? It can be tempting to be active on all the available social media channels but is that the right course of action?
Instead, it’s best to strategically choose the right social media channels for your business. Going through the process of creating a social media strategy will help you determine which channels are best for your business. There are also several points for you to consider before you hit that create account button.
Does your business need a social media channel?
The short answer is yes but the long one is more complicated. It depends.
Depends on what? A number of factors go into deciding if your business should hop onto a social media channel.
If your goals, audience and KPIs all align without social media, then you may be doing fine without it. But if you want to increase exposure or reach new and current customers, then you should consider at least one social media channel.
A recent Sprout Social Index™ report found that consumers prefer to use social media for sharing feedback about a product (31%) and reaching out with a customer service issue or question (33%). On the marketing end, marketers use social media to collect data in a number of ways. From the same study, 88% of marketers report that their social media strategy positively influenced their sales and 90% agree that social media helps them stay ahead of their competitors.
So the long answer to “does your business need a social media channel?” is yes, if you want to build up your community, increase brand awareness, generate sales leads and keep tabs on your competitors.
Let’s take a look at what you should consider when choosing a social media channel.
1.) What are your goals?
Different platforms offer different advantages. Oftentimes, social media goals align with your overall business goals. So when you’re setting your social media goals, a few platforms will stand out as the best ones to reach those goals.
According to marketers, their top goals in social are to:
- increase brand awareness (70%)
- generate leads (59%)
- increase community engagement (48%)
Once you’ve identified your top goals, write them down to reference as you consider your channel choices.
2.) What resources are available to you?
Let’s be honest. Social media takes time and effort. Between creating content and scheduling posts, there are strategies to consider and new features to keep up with.
Reflect on these questions:
- Do you currently have a social media team? If not, who will be part of this team or have these responsibilities?
- Do you have enough people to manage all the channels you want to be on?
- How much time can you really dedicate to each channel? Include the learning curve time for a new channel.
- Who is creating your social content and who will manage them?
Resources aren’t limited to people or time, either. Within the cost calculation of your social media ROI includes the software that you use to post and analyze. There is a wide range of digital marketing tools available. The question for you to think about is if they will be included in your resources.
3.) What content types do you have?
Some companies already have an established media library. That’s great. That’s visual content for you to repurpose into social media content. You might also have blog posts already written. That’s even more content that you can use on social.
Take stock of the existing content you have and if you’ll be able to create more content. But consider how and who will be creating that new content? Will the social media manager also be the social media photographer? Are videos being outsourced?
There are five main types of social media content: video, images, text, stories and live video. The content that you create and curate will directly influence your social media channel decision.
Are you able to upload a lot of video content? Then Facebook, YouTube and Instagram should be at the top of your list. Yes, it might be very tempting to jump into TikTok but if you aren’t able to create the video content that is necessary for the platform, then this channel is not for you.
It’s best to be realistic because content curation and creation take time. When you start out on a new network, you want to make sure you have the right type and amount of content to post on a consistent basis.
Article written by Jenn Chen for SproutSocial.com.