Social Media Accounts Unraveled
Before identifying what social media platforms are right for your business, it is important to know what aspects of each platform you can use to your advantage to ensure you present the best possible digital advertisement. Also, who is your target audience? Which platform are they most active on? With this information, you will be able to put your best foot forward. With that being said, what are the most popular social media sites that everyone is raving about?
Facebook is home to a billion users which makes your target audience pool endless, and regardless how many filters your audience, it is guaranteed that you will still get sufficient numbers. Facebook Ads allows you to narrow by location, demographics, interests, behaviors, and connections. On top of that, if someone likes your ad or has bought from you, they are able to add their positive experience to give you more credibility by sharing your advertisement. Facebook is amazing in how many people it can reach. When used effectively, your small business will see and experience the first-hand increase in sales and traffic.
Facebook Statistics
Active Users: 1.65 billion monthly
Mobile Active Users: 1.51 billion
Most Common Age Demographic: Ages 25-34. This is 29.7% of total users.
YouTube
The power of motion, sound, and sight. Videos are becoming increasingly popular as visual aids helps stimulate learning and processing information. If your demographic is between the ages of 18-34, YouTube reaches that audience more than any cable network. YouTube videos are also getting more frequent exposure on Google’s search engine. This shows that Google considers videos to be just as important as text-only pages. By creating great content and creating complementary videos, you will be golden. Depending on your product and/or service, it is important to have your ads shown on specific videos as videos are sometimes heavily segregated in terms of gender: women are more likely to watch makeup tutorials and promotions while men are more likely to go for gaming channels.
YouTube Statistics
Active Users: 1 billion
Mobile Active Users: More than half.
Google+
Google+ is what most people call a Facebook clone. And while both platforms do have similarities, there is one major difference between the two: Google+ helps you connect with people you want to know. Much like Facebook, you can share interests, ideas, comment on events, and share your abundance of knowledge but within circles you create. With Facebook, your posts are reached to everyone and that includes people who probably don’t care about your undying craving and love for pizza. But using Google+, you are able to filter that valuable information to people you have in a “circle” called “Pizza Pals.”
Google+ has implemented a digital advertising tool called Adwords Express which allows the platform to automatically promote your ad. Well, that's all great and all. But how does Adwords Express work? Adwords Express makes creating an ad extremely simple: write an ad, decide on a budget, and select the product and/or service your business offers. Google+ will automatically come up with related search phrases and automatically manage your ad.
What are benefits of Adwords Express?
- You pay only when people click on your ad.
- Your ad is eligible to appear directly on Google Maps or beneath search results.
- Minimal ongoing management.
- Review effectiveness in your dashboard.
- Whether visitors are using desktops or mobile devices, they will all be targeted.
- Attract more customers to your website or Google+ page.
Now, don’t get Adwords Express and Adwords mixed up. There is a crucial difference between the two. Adwords Express is designed for local small businesses with automatic control over ad campaigns. Adwords targets customers regionally and nationwide; it is for those who want much more control over your ad campaigns such as picking your own keywords, write multiple ads, promote multiple products or services.
Why should I bother creating a page on Google+ if Adwords Express makes advertising a piece of cake?
Don’t forget that the key to continuous business is creating positive and solid relationships. Your ad helps people find you but your page tells much more about you which is something people can essentially relate to. Your ad can also have a link back to your page which has your business website and other valuable information that they might find intriguing, and by creating social circles it will be easier for others to recommend you and find you too. Build bridges, not walls.
When you first join Google+, it will feel very isolating. But don’t forget that you’re surrounded by millions of people who you can reach out to by doing two simple and cliche sounding tasks: listening and sharing. Who do you want to hear from? By answering this question, you can narrow your search and begin circling those people. What do I want people to know about myself or my business? Share this information in your profile as it will make interested people easier to find you.
Google+ Statistics
Active Users: 540 million
Most Common Age Demographic: Ages 15-34. This is 28% of total users.
With Instagram, big and small businesses are able to share their high-quality advertisements to an engaged audience that drives action. Due to the popularity of Instagram, the platform has created more ad solutions for interested advertisers. There are three ad formats Instagram offers that can boost website and product engagement:
Photo Ads: By taking and promoting beautiful high-quality images, people will naturally want to learn more about your product or give it a simple like. Small things like angles, lighting, and positioning can have a big positive effect on your engagement.
Video Ads: While YouTube videos can go on forever and ever, Instagram allows up to 60 seconds to get your message across. Again, by producing high-quality content, your determination and seriousness will be reflected and make the customer want to learn more about what you have to offer.
Carousel Ads: An interested customer will want to see more images or video of products or the company itself. Carousel ads allow people to swipe left to see additional images and a call to action. One way to optimize the effectiveness of a carousel ad is by allowing people to see the behind of scenes. What are the different features of your product? What is being put together? Or deconstruct your product.
Instagram also provides advertising solutions to support many successful marketing objectives: clicks to website, website conversions, mobile app engagement, mobile app installs, video views, reach and frequency, page post engagement, and mass awareness. While not all objectives are compatible with all ad formats, Instagram is an important media platform to keep in mind. By creating high quality and visually stimulating content, your ads can gain the attention of nonfollowers as your posts may appear on the News Tab (non-followers can see users they follow like your posts) or the Explore Tab (surfaces interesting content by using algorithms).
Instagram Statistics
Active Users: 400 million
Most Common Age Demographic: Ages 25-34. This is 25.6% of total users. Next is 18-24-year-olds with 22.9% of total users.
Short, simple, and sometimes sweet. Like with most social platforms, Twitter is useful for taking advantage of images and short captions to amplify your message. There are many campaign types you can use with Twitter.
Increase Website Visits: Increase your website visits by using a Website Card. A Website Card is an image that is your company logo or your promoted product. Coupled with a headline, a Website Card can drive specific actions, grow your website traffic, or stimulate online purchases.
Increase Twitter Followers: There are some notable statistics about your twitter followers you should be aware of. 69% of users are more likely to buy from a business they follow on Twitter. 73% of users feel more positively about a business after following and reading its tweets. 74% of users follow small businesses to get updates on future products. The ‘Increase Twitter Followers’ campaign promotes your Twitter account to desktop and mobile users in places like their Home timeline and the Who to follow panel. When using this campaign, include a powerful reason for people to follow you such as an exclusive discount, updates on upcoming products, and access to research findings. For optimal results, create 3-4 campaign tweets with different wording to see which is more effective. Also, including an image may or may not be distracting. Experimentation is key.
Increase Tweet Engagements: Produce compelling Tweets to engage people in conversation. An active engagement is great for raising brand awareness, build relationships, and create advocates.
Promote Your Mobile App: Over 80% of Twitter’s users are on mobile and looking for apps to download. By using the App Card, you can allow mobile users to view your app ratings, preview an image, and install or open an app directly from their timelines. App cards increase downloads, encourage people to re-engage with your app, and target users most likely to install your app.
Twitter Statistics
Daily Active Users: 100 million
Social media is extremely powerful in how many people it can reach in such a short amount of time. More and more businesses are implementing a strict social media campaign strategy with it being monitored daily. Keep in mind that any social media platform can be used for digital advertising. It’s all in how to make use of its benefits to your advantage. Because when two great things come together, something magical happens.
