social media classes

Which platform is best for your business? The best way to determine that is to find out who is on those platforms.

Referencing data from the Pew Research Center’s Annual Internet Project Survey, 72% of adults online are on Facebook. 28% are on Instagram, 25% on LinkedIN, and 23% are on Twitter.

There are more women than men on Facebook and Instagram. Though almost even, LinkedIN and Twitter have more men users than women.

Young adults are still the most likely to use social media. 90% of online adults ages 18-29 are active while 77% aged 30-49 are also active on social media. However, the fastest growing segment are adults aged 50-64. 51% are engaged on a social platform (up 5% from 2005), and 35% of adults aged 65+ partake in the medium. That’s up from 2% in 2005.

The study reviews income and education demographics of multiple social platforms as well. By reviewing each of the demographics, you will see a general profile of the people using specific social sites. Here’s a couple of quick reviews:

Facebook

Founded in 2004, this 12-year old platform is the most used social site. It’s been around the longest too. An entire generation has “grown up” on it.

70% of Facebook users check their account daily. On average, users check their account 14 times a day.

TWITTER

This 10-year old platform touts 313 million active monthly users. Over 50 million tweets are posted daily. Who is posting all of that information?

36% of Twitter’s users check their account daily.

Adding an interesting mix to the fold are the statistics showing people on multiple platforms. Over 25% of online adults are engaged in more than one social network while 17% are on three. This is growing trend worth watching.

You can learn more about “who” is on “which” platform by attending our Marketing for Small Business Social Media Classes.

Your business should be active on at least one social platform. Advertising is inexpensive, it helps your search engine optimization (at no cost), and enables your clients (both existing and potential) to interact with you. If you know who your clients are, choose the platform that has your audience/client base engaged and get started today!

Why should your business be on Twitter? It’s a great way to stay connected to your customers, it’s an excellent lead generation platform, you can share information quickly and gather feedback in real time.

Twitter is a recipient driven platform. People choose to follow your account. Messaging is quick to read and write, exchangeable anywhere and is easy to integrate into multiple networks such as Twitter, Instagram, and your website.

There are a few cautions to note. Be sure to check out the profile before you follow someone. Pornography sites are prevalent, hackers are present, and stay away from people selling “followers”. Lastly, be careful about aggressive tweeting – hounding people to follow you, pushing people to interact, you could get your account shut down. Respect the platform and see who starts to follow you and be sure to follow those whose tweets you want to see more of.

Messaging is limited to 140 characters per tweet (for now). This includes website links and pictures. Be sure that you write well though. Don’t start using short hand unless it’s necessary. You’ll find the more you’re on Twitter, the more concise your writing will become!

Best Practices

SHARE! Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them!

Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about you, your co-workers and your company, brand, and products.

Ask – Respond – Engage

Ask questions of your followers to gain valuable insights and show you are listening.

Respond to compliments and feedback as soon as you can.

Engage existing & prospective clients; it may not seem so, it adds a personal touch.

Demonstrate Wider Leadership. Reference articles and links about the bigger picture as it relates to your business.

Champion Your Stakeholders. Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by your followers and customers.

Establish the right voice.

Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of course, a likable tone from you, think about your voice as you Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?

The very best way to become comfortable within Twitter, is to start using it. Search for people and businesses to follow. Start with following your current clients. Then start Tweeting.

You can also attend one of our many Marketing for Small Business classes. We offer training on how to choose the right social platform for your business as well as how to use those platforms. Our next HOW TO: Twitter class is on Wednesday, October 5, 2016 from 11:30 – 1:00pm. Register here today!