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Your Audience is on Social Media – But Where?

Your Audience is on Social Media – But Where?

The New State of Social Media

social media

Social Media, we’ve heard it before and we’ll hear it again. It’s unavoidable, even for those folks that are “off the grid”. Social media has grown as a way for many, especially younger people, to communicate with peers and organizations. During the early era of social media, MySpace ruled the world with Facebook following shortly after. Today, Facebook has adapted into an advertising powerhouse.  Social media has continued to grow with platforms like Pinterest – literally a virtual pin board for anything and everything. Instagram, another way to share your personal keepsakes with the world. But those are just the top social channels at this time, it could all change tomorrow.

As an organization, your social media presence needs to be at the forefront of any one of these channels in order to reach your audience. According to a social media survey conducted by the and-social-media-2015/” target=”_blank”>more than doubled since 2012 while other platforms have been growing at a slower rate. This means that your marketing team may need to rethink where your audience is and how you’re reaching out to them.

Where Oh Where have my Audience Gone?

Some of social media’s best practices span across the board. Note the items below when preparing a campaign for any social channel.

  • Post content that compliments your product or service offering – People are following you for a reason, they’re interested in what you have to display.
  • Mix it up – Not everything on your page has to be original content. You’re allowed to “piggy-back” off another company’s posting. If it’s relevant to your company and audience – share it! (Be sure to reference the individual or organization you’re sharing)!
  • Engage with your followers – Some social channels (like Twitter) are used as a secondary customer service. If a follower posts a question or a comment, respond back. Don’t ever leave your audience hanging, it shows you don’t care about them.
  • Cross Promotion – Ensure that your blog readers can make their way from your blog page to your social channels. They’re more likely to share your content if this path is clear and easily recognizable.
  • Consistency – Each page on your website looks the same, as should your social media handles, messaging and posts. Keep your branding consistent from your website all the way down to your social channels.

Let’s dig a little deeper and take a look at the top five social media channels, their demographics and best practices!
*Please note that demographic percentages are based off the total number of adult internet users in the United States.

Facebook – Post 2x/day, Thursday-Friday between 1pm and 3pm.

Facebook is still a HUGE player in the social game with 72% of adult internet users actively logging in. Post about twice a day between lunch and dinner time, your audience will lose interest or may see your posts as an annoyance if you post excessively. Post content rich in media and graphics that drive your audience back to your website,and don’t forget a call to action. Recently, Facebook has been used by organizations more often for its advertising benefits, rather than a free resource to connect with customers. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult for your content to organically reach your audience without sponsored content or Facebook ads.

Gender
Men: 66%
Women: 77%

Age
18-29: 82%
30-49: 79%
50-64: 64%
65+: 48%

Education
High School or Less: 71%
Some College: 72%
College+: 72%

Gross Income per year:
Less than $30k: 73%
$30k-$49k: 42%
$50k-$74.9k: 66%
$75k+: 78%

Location
Urban: 74%
Suburban: 72%
Rural: 67%

Pinterest– Post 5x/day, Saturday between 8pm and 11pm.

Pinterest’s active users have more than doubled since 2012 with 31% of adult internet users being members. In the past, Pinterest has been used mostly by women but that has changed, not drastically but none the less. Pinterest posts should be colorful and creative images that link directly back to your website, created using keyword driven verbiage. This channel is popular with retailers as postings can be created in which the audience can purchase directly from the post without ever having to leave your page. Go ahead and post in Pinterest at least five times a day, your posts could be lost easily in the shuffle of ever-updating pins from other users – posting relevant content often won’t hurt your efforts.

Gender
Men: 16%
Women: 44%

Age
18-29: 37%
30-49: 36%
50-64: 24%
65+: 16%

Education
High School or Less: 25%
Some College: 37%
College+: 31%

Gross Income per year:
Less than $30k: 24%
$30k-$49k: 37%
$50k-$74.9k: 24%
$75k+: 16%

Location
Urban: 26%
Suburban: 34%
Rural: 31%

Instagram – Post an Average of 1.5x/day, Monday between 3pm and 4pm

In the social media world, Instagram is one of the newer platforms but don’t let that lead you to believe it isn’t being used. Like Pinterest, Instagram’s usage has more than doubled since 2012 with 28% of adult internet users with their own handle. Post rich media images and videos, use hashtags and update posts about 1.5 times per day. You won’t see a drop off in followers or user engagement if you choose to post more often than that. If your target audience is between the ages of 18 and 29, this is your social channel of choice!

Gender
Men: 24%
Women: 31%

Age
18-29: 55%
30-49: 28%
50-64: 11%
65+: 4%

Education
High School or Less: 25%
Some College: 32%
College+: 26%

Gross Income per year:
Less than $30k: 26%
$30k-$49k: 27%
$50k-$74.9k: 30%
$75k+: 26%

Location
Urban: 26%
Suburban: 34%
Rural: 31%

LinkedIn – Post 1x/day, Tuesday through Thursday between 10am and 6pm.

LinkedIn is a great professional social network that connects your business with similar businesses and professionals of all kinds. Through LinkedIn, your business can build followers of like businesses and professionals looking to network or collaborate. Often times, companies will use LinkedIn to recruit employees. According to Moz, LinkedIn had 238 million users in 200 different countries as of January of 2013. Today, 25% of adult internet users can be found on LinkedIn.

As a business, sponsored content is the way to go when posting through this channel. It’s a great platform to showcase your products and services and keep the industry to date on your business. Sponsored InMail is another one of LinkedIn’s internal resources that enables you to touch base with hard to reach individuals. You’ll also want to join groups that resonate with your business, often times this is a good way to get your message out to a larger group of people.

Gender
Men: 26%
Women: 25%

Age
18-29: 22%
30-49: 32%
50-64: 26%
65+: 12%

Education
High School or Less: 9%
Some College: 25%
College+: 46%

Gross Income per year:
Less than $30k: 17%
$30k-$49k: 21%
$50k-$74.9k: 32%
$75k+: 41%

Location
Urban: 30%
Suburban: 26%
Rural: 12%

Twitter – Post 3x/day, Monday-Friday between 12pm and 6pm.

While Twitter still has nearly 300 million active users, its rise to the top has slowed down a bit with the introduction of Instagram and Pinterest. However, don’t let that stop you from using the platform on a daily basis as 23% of all internet users are using Twitter. Showcase your brand on Twitter, telling your followers WHO you are, both as a company and the people that make up the organization. While it has become hard to be organically seen on Facebook (unless you choose to sponsor your content), Twitter is still a good place to be seen by your followers with smart use of hashtags and retweeting.

Gender
Men: 25%
Women: 21%

Age
18-29: 32%
30-49: 29%
50-64: 13%
65+: 6%

Education
High School or Less: 19%
Some College: 23%
College+: 27%

Gross Income per year:
Less than $30k: 21%
$30k-$49k: 19%
$50k-$74.9k: 25%
$75k+: 26%

Location
Urban: 30%
Suburban: 21%
Rural: 15%

Biznet Digital can Help You Manage Your Social Media Channels

As you can tell, social media is here to stay and will only continue to grow. This is just the tip of iceberg as we only covered five of today’s most popular social media channels. If this seems a little overwhelming, don’t worry because you’re certainly not alone. Finding the time to create, post, share, tweet, sponsor and all of the above is easier said than done. Reach out to Biznet Digital and see how we can help you manage your social media channels today!