How to pick the best Social Media platform for your business?

Latest great piece by new contributor Robert Alexander Founder/CEO of @360WiseMedia Recognized Top Brand In @Onalytica360Wise® | Partnership with @AP | Featured In @spinmagazine @YahooFinance @Irish_TechNews

Always evaluate based on answering the 3 W’s ~ Who Where What. Who is your customer?

Knowing your customer means you will understand your target audience and you should be be able to decide if the social media platform you are considering is appropriate for that customer base. For instance according to Mediapost.com “Gen Xers, defined as adults ages 35-49, spend significantly more time on social media than Millennials, ages 18-34″, according to a new report from Nielsen, based on data collected in the third quarter of 2016.

The older cohort clocks in at six hours and 58 minutes per week, compared to six hours and 19 minutes per week for the younger group. This reflects a general trend, as Gen Xers spend more time with media of all types than Millennials, at 31 hours and 40 minutes per week versus 26 hours and 49 minutes for the younger group. .Additionally, the growth rate of social-media usage is higher among Gen Xers than Millennials, Nielsen found, with a 29% year-over-year increase in time spent for the former cohort versus a 21% increase for the latter.”

So Generation X adults are spending more time on social media, how does this information help you choose “The Best Social Media Platform”? Well you have to ask yourself: “Are my customers adults in the age range of 35-49?” Once you have answered that question your next question is: Where can I find “my customer” on social media?. PewInternet.com the leading authority on Internet demographic and trends suggests that social media usage among youth is dropping off /even decreasing — as the baby boomers sign up in growing numbers.

How to grow your brand digitally, global branding expert, Robert Alexander, 360WiseMedia

Starting in July 2015 to November 2016, Pew found the percentage of all Americans using at least one social-media site increased from 65% to 69%. But this growth was not evenly distributed across age groups. In fact, the proportion of Americans ages 50-64 who use at least one social-media site jumped from 51% to 64%, and the proportion of those ages 30-49 edged up from 77% to 80%.

Now we focus on, the proportion of Americans ages 18-29 who use at least one social site and guess what Pew found? That number actually decreased slightly, from 90% to 86%, over the same period. According to Pew, “92% of Americans ages 18-29 owned a smartphone in November 2016, while 99% had access to broadband Internet, including 77% with access at home. Turning to the overall population again, the most popular social-media platform by far is – surprise – Facebook, with a remarkable 68% of all Americans signed on, compared to 28% for Instagram (owned by Facebook), 26% for Pinterest, 25% for LinkedIn, and 21% for Twitter. Among the 18-29 age group, the proportions rise to 88% for Facebook, 59% for Instagram, 36% for Twitter, 36% for Pinterest, and 34% for LinkedIn.” Interestingly in spite of what most people believe young people are STILL on Facebook as their top social media site.

Take note that both USA election campaigns Obama and Trump had heavy social media usage post election, not to mention the now POTUS Donald Trump takes a strong stance against basically all media outlets except for one….. #Twitter.

Now that we have pinpointed where you can find your customer on social media. The next question to answer is: “What is your customer doing on Social Media? Based on the above statistics and this link from Pew Internet  You can figure out what your customers are doing on their social media platform. For instance: Facebook is used mainly for posting and updating how you are doing or sharing videos you are watching. Twitter and Pinterest is used mainly for sharing text based links. Instagram is used for mainly showing pics and posting videos. Now that you have answered those 3 questions you are ready to pick a platform!

We want to know what platform you picked please leave us a comment below and tell us about your platform and your business so we can follow you on social media. ~ #360Wise

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