Which social media sites work best for business purposes? This is a critical question for business owners to address before becoming active on social media.

There are many factors to take into consideration when answering this question, including the demographics of your clients, which sites they use, and the sites your competitors use.

Bear in mind that the sites you use and the time you put into them are likely to vary over time.

 

Demographics of Your Clients

The age of your clients is a major consideration.

• If your clients are 45 and up, they are more likely to use Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. However, you should be aware that about 75% of all users of each of these sites are between 18 and 44.
• Eighteen to 44 is the sweet spot for Pinterest and Twitter, with the age groupings of 18-24, 25-34, and 35-44 all fairly equally represented.
• Snapchat and Instagram’s main users are between 18 and 34.

 

Your clients’ gender is another important consideration.

• Instagram users are almost evenly divided between women (49%) and men (51%).
• Slightly more women (52%) than men (48%) use Facebook.
• LinkedIn has somewhat fewer female (46%) than male (54%) users. Twitter’s breakout in terms of the sex of user is similar: 55% female and 45% male users.
• The site with the biggest discrepancy is Pinterest, which has 71% female and 29% male users.

 

Where Are Your Competitors?

• Start by going to their websites, which is a good thing to do periodically anyway. What social media sites do they link to?
• Click on the links to see what they’re doing on each site. You can get some great ideas for things you might want to do. Plus, you will find some things to avoid doing.

 

Survey Your Clients

• Ask them which social media sites they use most. Then ask which ones they’d be most likely to look for your type of business on.
• Find out what they like to see. Are they looking for information, entertainment, inspiration, etc.?
• Encourage them to follow you and your company and to share your posts.
• Ask them for feedback on what you have posted.

Here are two articles with useful information on the demographics of social media users.

http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/524669425324975744/

 

How About You?

Did you ask yourself the question – Which social media sites work best for business purposes? How did you decide which social media sites to use for your business? Did you use some of the criteria suggested above? What other criteria did you use? What advice would you offer other business owners selecting social media sites?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those ages 45 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, business development professionals, leaders of nonprofit organizations, job seekers, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.