Ready to get your business on social media? How do you know which is the right social media platform for your business??
There are a few things to do that will help find which social media is right for you, your business and your customers.
Understand your customers
First things first, do you know who your ideal customers are? Most established business owners have a pretty good idea who their ideal customer are, but it’s still really good exercise to do 2-3 user personas for your customers. It will really help you build a more rounded picture of them and their needs.
If you are a new business, then it’s essential that you go through the exercise of understanding the demogrpahics of your ideal customers.
The key questions to ask are:
- Which gender?
- How old are they?
- Do they have children, grandchildren, pets?
- Where do they live?
- What other brands do they like?
- Why would they like your brand or even be interested
- What are their pain points?
I have a handy freebie download to use to take you through establishing your ideal customer – here’s my User Persona Template. This is a fairly simple template, but usually enough to get you started. There are 3 blank templates in there and I would suggest doing at least two. I think it’s useful to give them names, because when you are thinking about the messaging for your social media posts, you feel like you are talking to the person. There’s a section in there too for thiniing about their routines, so you can target the best times for postng – oviously you can review the best times for posting after a few weeks of engagement on your posts.
What platforms are your personas using?
Once you have that rounded picture of your customers then we can look at social media demographics to see where they hang out. The headline demographics may shift a little so it’s always best to check the most up to date.
As you can see the demographics differ per platform. Based on the information you know about your customers, e.g. gender, age, etc, you should be able to match up a couple of platforms where your customers are already active.
There are plenty of really good guidleines out there to the latest demogrpahics using platforms – justdo a quick Google. There’s also changing social media platforms and in 2025 we have seem millions of users migrating from X (or Twitter as most of still call ti) over the BlueSky. Twitter has also tradtionally been the main hangout for authors and may of these have moved to Threads (Instagram) or BlueSky.
Because platforms ebb and flow with popularity and the demographics shift, it’s usefull to keep an eye on this so if it looks like your ideal customers are starting to shift to a new platform, that you are ready to test moving over with them. But, and this is something I always stress, do not try and stretch yourself over every social media platform just for the sake of it.
Which social media suits your business type?
You may spend a lot of time loving Instagram, and scrolling through beautiful feeds but does it suit your business?
Instagram is very heavy on the visual side of social media so it can be more difficult to find enough content to use if your business and products are not very ‘photogenic’. That’s not to say it can’t be done, but it is certainly a consideration. I have worked with accountants that have used Instgarm effectively, because they have a quirky brand which leant itself well to Instagram – and it’s where they woudl find the right clients
If your business generates blogs, how to guides and FAQs for your industry then LinkedIn may be a good fit. LinkedIn can work very well with created rather than curated content. LinkedIn is also great for B2B engagement. A little while I would have said LinkedIn was an untapped ressource that many people were disguarding as merely a CV network. Those days are gone now, and there is a lot more noise on LinkedIn, but it can still be a great place for showcasing and networking. It can be a really good place to build business authority.
Higher proportions of curated content are considered acceptable on Facebook and Twitter (X), which is great if your business doesn’t generate much content. For a few years, many digital marketers have been saying the Facebook is dead, but it continues to keep on keeping on. It can be a slightly older demographics, but it still commands massive numbers of people checking it out every day. It;s also true, whilst many bsuinesses might not have Facebook Pages or Groups, the individuals who own or work at those businesses will have a Facebook profile – even if it’s just for keeping in touch with mum and dad! You can still get your posts in front of these people and amplify them with Facebook Ads.
X (yes I know I keep switching between calling it Twitter and X) is seeing more of a backlash in 2025. Some have been moving to Threads or BlueSky due to the current ownership and the biased algorithms – and that’s if we just count the bias of paying for special privilege with their subscription model.
Some social media is better for B2B, for example LinkedIn, and some platforms work well for B2C, for example Facebook.
Choosing social media for your business
So, with the combination of the users personas and the type of business, you should be able to choose 1-2 social media platforms that you can concentrate on.
Now is a good time to check out those platforms and see if your competitors are there and what they are posting. Are there any influencers for your industry? Start to follow them.
Before you start posting tactically, try to think strategically:
- What your customers will be engaged by?
- What kind of posts will be valuable and helpful to them?
- Do the socisl media platforms give preference to type of psosts in their algorithm, e.g. video or polls?
- Think about your tone of voice – what is the personality of your business?
- What branding can you use – colours, logos?
- Posting schedule – what times/days are your customers online?
It’ also useful to check out what scheduling tools you can use on the platforms to save you some time. Facebook and Instagram have Meta tools that will allow you to post to both platforms and tweak the text and images on those posts. There are also free versions of scheduling tools that will let you hook up a couple of very different platforms like Pinterest and Twitter and do the same.
Getting results from your social media
Getting the right platforms, the right content, and the right schedule are all a good starting point for getting results online. You also need to listen to your audience and be engaging.
By far the best results from social media will be with a social media marketing strategy so contact me aout Digital Marketing. Spending the time upfront on this will allow you to focus on your business goals through social media.
You also need to adapt a test-learn-test method with social media. Keep an eye on your statistics to see what is performing well and adapt your content based on that.
Need help?
Why not book a free Discovery Call with Plumb.Digital and find out how we can help you to get results online for your business?