In the new digital first world that we now live in, businesses across all industries are embracing the power of social media to stay relevant and visible. If your company isn’t on social media, you’re pretty much non-existent, not to mention missing out on a tremendous opportunity. At a GDS Marketing Summit Tom Adams, a Partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers, said “Marketing must use technology to highlight activity, to build, retain and engages across the whole customer journey.” The Digital 2022 Global Statshot report found that there 4.65 billion active social media users on the planet. That is a massive database of potential customers just a mouse click away. The question is with so many social media platforms out there, which ones should companies choose to best get out their brand message? After all, different types of content work better on certain social media platforms. Let’s start with the big behemoth in this space: Meta.
Meta aka Facebook
Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg Meta, formerly known as Facebook, remains the biggest social media platform in the history of the world according to Statista. However, the platform has seen a steady decline in recent years, I rarely use it myself. Nevertheless, the platform remains dominant with nearly 3 billion active users. According to Marketing experts, nearly 100 million businesses are using Facebook pages, and millions more are using the advertising platform. The numbers tell the story, Meta is the clear favorite and most important channel for both B2B and B2C marketers.
Owned by Meta, Instagram is another social media channel, more and more marketers are optimizing in their campaigns. The app now has more than 1 billion users. Marketers can post beautiful pictures, use Instagram reels, or share stories to engage customers and get their messages out.
TikTok
Nipping at the heels of Meta is TikTok, the app where you can share short, fun, user generated videos. Unbelievably, it’s only been around 6 years, but is the fastest growing social media platform. TikTok is expected to reach nearly 2 billion active users by the end of this year. Marketers are taking notice of Tik Tok’s rising popularity and using it in their campaigns. On a recent Meet the Boss roundtable, an executive from Revlon said Tik Tok is the social platform they’re leveraging most to reach potential customers. Another executive from a food manufacturing company said a recent campaign they launched on TikTok generated billions of impressions. 8 billion to be exact!
Now, let’s talk LinkedIn. LinkedIn has transformed itself from a social media channel for job seekers to a powerhouse platform for professionals. According to Kinsta, LinkedIn currently has 830 million members in 58 million registered companies. You can see why LinkedIn would be popular with B2B marketers, who can target a treasure trove of professionals across various industries all in one convenient place. HubSpot found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for generating leads than both Facebook and Twitter.
Lastly, we can’t forget about Twitter. The little bird app is still hugely popular. Twitter currently has about 217 million daily active users. Because it limits each tweet to 280 characters marketers get right to the point in their messaging. This social media platform is a great place to create polls, ask questions and promote events and web content.
Its clear social media marketing is here to stay. Brands that will not only succeed but thrive, are those who know how to best leverage each channel for their strategic goals.
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