Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS #MKTOGuide Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS There are many different social media platforms you can utilize to reach and engage with your audience. In this section, we will cover some of the core social platforms for your business. Many of these platforms have media platforms to focus on. Some We’ll cover a variety of social capabilities that overlap and likely are better suited for meeting your media platforms and their benefits will continue to develop more as objectives for earlier stages of the for marketers, including some Reminder each platform evolves to improve customer lifecycle, while others, platforms that have become The content you share on each of these the user experience. Some have ad with more advanced targeting the bread and butter of many social media platforms will vary depending targeting options to enable you to options, allow you to reach buyers social media marketing strategies on the target personas you are trying to serve content to distinct audience at every stage of the customer and others that offer different reach and your objectives for each stage of segments. lifecycle. As you navigate the social capabilities and new formats. It’s the customer lifecycle. As with any of your marketing media landscape, it’s important to important to remember that it’s campaigns, the best platforms have a solid understanding of each not enough to merely post on any to be on are where your buyers are. channel’s features and capabilities of these sites; the key is to engage Keep your audience and objectives in order to help map a strategy and build relationships with your in mind as you choose which social that determines which platforms to audience continuously. participate on. "Choosing the right social media "Only commit to channels that you "It all comes back to asking yourself "I believe too many marketers are "I'm a big fan of embracing new platforms comes down to asking, can consistently deliver valuable how you can make your story creating strategies focused on tools and platforms with a sandbox 'Where are my customers?' If they information. This means you might relevant to that space. Learning to where their audience is today. Not mentality: Get in there, and get your are on Snapchat, go there. If they only activate content in a few adapt to evolving technologies will only does that not embrace change, hands dirty. Then decide if you can are on Pinterest, get there. If they channels and use the others as change the way that we connect but it forgets to factor in where your see a use for your business. Or not. prefer live video, it's time to adopt listening posts." with people and tell our stories." audience will be tomorrow." (Snapchat? Maybe. Sorry, Ello.) Facebook Live." JOE PULIZZI Founder, Content BRYAN KRAMER Best Selling BRIAN FANZO Change Evangelist ANN HANDLEY Chief Content MICHAEL STELZNER Founder Marketing Institute Author, CEO, PureMatter, TED Talk & CEO, iSocialFanz LLC Officer, MarketingProfs and CEO, Social Media Examiner & Keynote Speaker Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms Facebook interacting with you. This sets the Facebook is one of the most widely stage for you to build stronger, more adopted social media platforms. In authentic relationships with them. % OF ALL AMERICAN ADULTS AND INTERNET-USING fact, according to Pew Research ADULTS WHO USE AT LEAST ONE SOCIAL PLATFORM Center, 71% of American adult A Facebook Page, the business internet users are Facebook users as equivalent of a Facebook profile, well. And globally, there are more is the central hub of your brand. 100 than 1.59 billion active users and Creating a Facebook Page for your 1.44 billion active mobile users on company has many benefits: it Facebook every month. Its continued makes your business discoverable success is largely attributable to its in Facebook search, allows you to 75 focus on customer experience and connect one-on-one with your its ability to navigate the shift to a followers, helps you reach large mobile-first world. groups, and gives you deeper insights into your audience. Facebook offers more than just a 50 way to stay connected to friends, But to accomplish this, businesses family, and colleagues; it’s an need to strike the critical balance of essential tool to connect with your offering content that is relevant and buyers. Since it officially created adds value with content that just 25 Internet Users a space for brands in 2007, it has plain entertains. For your Facebook All Adults continued to evolve the ways that posts, be sure to have a mix of fun, marketers can engage with their ungated (without a form as a barrier) audience. Facebook allows your content and offers as well as more 0 business to be available to people on educational, gated content and 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 a trusted, popular platform, where promotions (using a form as a barrier potential customers can not only to your asset or promotion). Source: Pew Research Center engage with your brand, but also see “real” people (their network) 3 Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms Facebook IS MY POST GOING TO BE SEEN? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FACEBOOK’S NEWS FEED ALGORITHM: Facebook’s algorithm changes Marten L. Shelly D David N over time have had an impact on 2hr• 1hr• 4hr• organic impressions, and now, Actions on videos: Behavior differs a bit Reduction of posting for the sake of posting for video, and people don’t necessarily like, click-baiting headlines: can actually hurt your chances of comment, or share videos that they enjoy. Facebook counts other actions as metrics You won't being seen. Facebook is very user- of success, such as how long someone believe what centric and continually optimizes watched a video, whether someone turned happened next... their platform to ensure that the on sound, made the video full screen, News Feed helps their users—your Time spent reading a post: In the and enabled high-definition. Relevance is past, brands could have manipulated their audience—connect to stories that key—think about sharing fun, educational, engagement rates by running a contest in or humorous video content that is “Clickbaiting” happens when a publisher matter to them the most. Posting which users were required to like, share, or immediately engaging. posts a link with a headline that’s content that is overly promotional comment on a post, but this is no longer misleading or leaves out important will cause your Page’s organic effective. Facebook measures the number information to get users to click on it. of seconds a user spends on each post to distribution to fall over time. So While these posts get a lot of clicks, understand whether the content resonated Facebook research shows that 80% of how do you make sure your post with them. If individuals spend more time the time, people prefer headlines that are is seen? Understand how the on a particular post in their News Feed more informative. So instead, Facebook following issues impact it and compared to others, it’s a good indicator looks at how long people spend reading that it was important to them. how to overcome them: the article and the ratio of people clicking on the content compared to people Time spent with content: Facebook Diversity of posts: Facebook discovered discussing and sharing it. Facebook has starts measuring after your content has that people enjoy reading articles from a also identified phrases that are commonly fully loaded and looks at time spent within wide range of publishers, so they’re reducing used in clickbait headlines to determine a threshold so that longer articles don’t get how often people see several posts in a row which posts are clickbait and which web ranked higher. Ensure that you provide users from the same source. This means it benefits domains they’re coming from. Links shared with timely, relevant, and valuable content you to spread your posts throughout the day from those Pages or domains will appear that your audience will actually read. to increase the chances of them getting seen lower in the News Feed until they stop by your audience. posting clickbait headlines. Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms Facebook IMPORTANT FEATURES Bonus! Marketing automation users: Tabs and Apps Tabs and apps sit in two places on The benefit of using tabs instead The best solutions allow you to publish multiple landing pages directly your Facebook page: in the navigation of directing a user right to a landing to Facebook. Rather than redirecting Facebook visitors to your website, these pages allow you to gather data from customer behavior on bar under your Page’s cover photo page is that the Facebook user is able Facebook—in the same way that you can gather data from a page built on to stay within the Facebook ecosystem and on the left side of your timeline. your marketing automation platform. From a paid promotion perspective, Tabs come with your Page and help and does not navigate away. marketing automation users, specifically Marketo users, can also use users navigate through content such Facebook Groups Facebook Lead Ads to promote specific offers and capture lead data that syncs seamlessly with your marketing automation platform. as your photos, videos, and events. The Group feature is useful for Tabs can also be used to host a variety demonstrating your company’s of apps, which help a business extend passion and expertise in a topic their capabilities directly on their and connects like-minded people Facebook Page, including running to share ideas and insights.