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Top 10 social media platforms for your business

Billions of people worldwide are using one social media platform or the other every day. It is no longer a secret that these social media platforms can help you reach millions of potential customers. So, taking your business to these sites is one of the ways to push your brand to the frontline of your industry. The good news is that there’re many social media platforms for businesses to explore in this era. Moreover, you can use more than one platform that matches your marketing strategy.





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All you need to do is match your strategy, content, and goals to the platforms we have here and pick the suitable ones.





Good Luck!





More About social media platforms





In 2019, Statista recorded that 91% of all businesses operating in the United States are using social media platforms.





That was one year ago, and given the rate at which the number of active users is increasing every day, it’s safe to say that the figure has increased.





We’re not surprised because customers spend hours every day on social media.





It’s either they’re meeting up with their friends or engaging with brands like yours.





That’s why we recommend that every business must develop an effective social media marketing strategy to attract its target market because that’s where the action is these days.





You may not know, but 81% of the United States population are on one social media platform or the other.





Also, 70% of existing B2C businesses acquire customers through Facebook alone.





Also, 93% of the people on Pinterest make buying decisions through the network.





As for Instagram, up to 1/3 of the users have bought one product online through its network.





When you search for social media statistics, you’ll be shocked to discover that billions are on these platforms every day.





Therefore, this is why you must select one of the social media platforms for business to push your brand forward on the networks.





By doing that, you can connect millions of people if your social media marketing strategies are effective.





Best social media apps for business:





There are more than 20 social media apps to use for business.





But in this article, we’ll pick the top 10 for your perusal.





1. Facebook





Facebook is the most popular social media platform for any business to utilize.





With more than 2 billion users every day on Facebook, you can be sure of brand reach and recognition.





It doesn’t matter the goal you want to achieve for your business; Facebook has all it takes to attain them.





For instance, you can create more brand awareness on Facebook, attract more website traffic, generate millions of leads, and also achieve high online conversions.









Facebook is very popular amongst top businesses because it has broad demographics when it comes to its users.





This means that you can reach many people from different countries, age brackets, occupations, habits, etc.





However, all you need to do is leverage Facebook Advertising’s power to draw your target market to your brand’s Facebook page.





With the Facebook advertising feature plus high-quality content, you can achieve lots of goals.





Since the social media platform has broad demographics, you can focus your advertising strategies on the ones that suit your business.





For instance, you can target your audience on Facebook based on interests, age, purchasing behavior, employment status, relationship status, etc.





With that, you can use an appropriate ad campaign to reach them easily.





Benefits of using Facebook





  • Massive reach
  • It offers an opportunity for targeted ads.
  • Features powerful analytics to gauge your performance
  • Facilitates customer interactions

Disadvantages of using Facebook for business





  • Facebook ads are expensive to run.
  • Business pages can be suspended.
  • The platform requires consistent engagement.

2. Instagram





If you’re not considering Facebook, here’s is one of the social media platforms for businesses to check out.





This social media platform records more than 500 million daily users, and it’s another popular platform for businesses worldwide.





The most exciting thing about this platform is that Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, also created and launched it in 2010.





Instagram has a broad user base like Facebook and also offers the same advertising platform for businesses.





Therefore, if you’ve used Facebook Messenger, you’ll notice that it’s similar to Instagram in this feature.





instagram app like a platform for your social media business
Image from Pixabay




This means that using Instagram for your business exposes you to all the Facebook benefits plus other amazing organic benefits that won’t cost a cent.





For instance, if you want to grow your followership on Facebook, you’ll need to invest some dollars.





That way, you can expand the visibility of your posts and brand page.





But when you use Instagram, you don’t need to spend a cent.





You can gain more followers organically and also achieve a longer reach with your posts and profile.





That’s why this social media platform is very economical and worth considering for small businesses who can’t invest in a paid advertisement.





Benefits of using Instagram





  • It is economical for small businesses.
  • You can leverage the broad audience to reach
  • Instagram stories make your brand relatable.
  • Influencers can help grow your business.
  • With hashtags, you can achieve brand visibility.

Disadvantages of Using Instagram for business





  • Less organic reach and visibility
  • Not centered on Commerce
  • Placing ads can be expensive.
  • It’s not feature-rich for businesses.
  • Instagram is exclusively on Mobile.

3. Pinterest





This is another social media platform for businesses in the creative industry.





If your product or service is also female-friendly, this platform is what you need to grow.





Lots of Pinterest users are women who rely on the platform to get information and plan for what to buy next.





But the recent trend shows that men are now using the platform too to get information about businesses.





According to Google, Pinterest has more than 290 million users every month.





Out of the total users, 87% have purchased one product or the other because of the information they got on Pinterest.





Also, 93% of those who pin consistently on the platform says they use it to plan their future purchases.





Also, a little research we did showed that what people search for mostly on Pinterest include wedding inspirations, outfit ideas, food recipes, home décor, photography, lifestyle, and how-to article.





This means that any business operating under these categories will do well on Pinterest.





Pinterest also offers the opportunity to push your brand in front of millions of monthly users.





You can use ads on the platform to be more visible and also track your conversions.





You can also leverage the organic capabilities of Pinterest to drive traffic to your business.





For instance, with the right amount of keywords in your post, your business can appear easily to the audience searching for what you offer.





Instead of spending more on the advertisement, you can improve your SEO by adding relevant keywords to your content.





Benefits of Using Pinterest for business





  • Effective in driving traffic to businesses
  • Pinterest ads are more affordable.
  • Offers a lot of tools to enhance performance

Disadvantages of using Pinterest for business





  • It needs consistent posting to achieve more followers.
  • There’s more competition to face.
  • Pinterest doesn’t cater to all types of business.

4. YouTube





This social media platform is growing so fast that many businesses have taken notice of it.





YouTube has more than 2 billion active users every month, and the figure is still growing.





This means that once you upload a video for your brand, more than 30 million people will likely watch it.





One thing to note about YouTube is that it features only visual content.





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The good thing about this is that many people focus on what they can see than what they can read.





Not because of anything else other than the ease of consuming the contents.





Another important thing to note is that Google owns Instagram.





This means that YouTube has direct access to the search engine giant advertising platform.





With that, your YouTube ads are likely to hit amazing success.





Google also features YouTube content on its search result pages.





This means that if you optimize your video content with the right keywords, it’ll be easy to reach your target market.





Moreover, if you’re an SEO pro and understand the right keyword placement.





So, you’ll increase your brand’s ranking on the search engine.





Benefits of Using YouTube for Business





  • Videos offer higher conversion rates.
  • YouTube videos will place your brand on Google.
  • Your brand can reach millions of potential customers on YouTube.
  • YouTube ads can help you to reach a larger audience.
  • Videos are more persuasive.

Disadvantages of using YouTube for business





  • Unwanted ads diminish the viewers’ attention.
  • Personal support from customer service is poor.

5. LinkedIn





LinkedIn is a social media platform that businesses operating with the B2B model can utilize to expand their reach.





It has more than 300 million active users every month who are either in the working class or in businesses close to the corporate setting.





So, if your business targets clients based on their job title, you can make good progress on LinkedIn.









One thing to note about LinkedIn is that many professionals are on the platform.





It is often regarded as the platform that caters to business more than personal uses.





Every potential lead you get on LinkedIn is legit because people add accurate information about themselves, work-life, email addresses, etc.





So, all these accurate information will help you even to reach them directly.





When it comes to ads, LinkedIn ads are not as robust as that of Facebook.





But you get to access many job titles to target for your advertising campaigns.





Benefits of using LinkedIn for business





  • You can generate more leads.
  • It exposes your brand to professionals in different industries.
  • Customers can trust you faster on LinkedIn.
  • Easy to connect with like-minded businessmen and women

Disadvantages of using LinkedIn for business





  • You have limited categories of people to interact with on LinkedIn.
  • Many people send spam messages and requests on the platform.
  • You may discover hidden costs for better service on LinkedIn.

6. Twitter





This is one of the trendy social media platforms for business in this era.





Almost everyone is on Twitter tweeting or reading tweets.





Many businesses are also using the platform to reach millions of people and to create large followership.





Twitter has more than 330 million monthly users.





As a business, you can leverage the platform’s far-reaching power to attract millions of potential customers to your products or service.





With eye-catching pictures and engaging brand videos, your business can soar on Twitter.





The most exciting thing about Twitter is that people upload pictures, information, videos in real-time.





As events occur, everything about it is already on Twitter, and people can closely follow events’ progress.





Therefore, the use of hashtags on Twitter can work to your advantage as you can use them to locate posts from businesses and customers who have used them.





It is also very easy to connect with potential clients on Twitter, and given its user base, you can never want for the people to serve.





Benefits of using Twitter for business





  • Posts on Twitter are concise and easy to assimilate
  • Planners have layout freedom in designing posts.
  • Twitter increases web traffic.
  • Exposes businesses to a global audience
  • Encourages collaborations amongst businesses

Disadvantages of using Twitter for Business





  • There’re lots of distractions on Twitter.
  • Building a following on Twitter is time-consuming.

7. Snapchat





This is part of the social media platforms for businesses to consider for your media marketing.





So, your content on Snapchat can be a video or photo which you send directly to your audience on the platform.





You can send it to them directly or send it to their “Snapchat Story.”





snapchat
Image by M. H. from Pixabay




If you send a Snapchat directly to another user, he/she can only view the content once.





But if you send it to Story, it stays visible to them for 24 hours before disappearing.





One thing to note is that the people who use Snapchat are mostly the younger generation.





This means that your audience will comprise youths, which can be good if they’re your target market.





People who use Snapchat daily are 203 million, while the monthly users are above 350 million.





It may surprise you to know that ½ of Snapchat users are between 18 and 24 years.





These figures are encouraging for businesses that cater to the needs of the youths.





One impressive thing about Snapchat is the conversion rates.





Since the contents are either videos or photos, a larger audience can relate easily to them.





There’re also some advertising options to explore for your business on the social media platform.





Once you can post consistently on your brand’s Snapchat Story or in your target audience’s Story feed, you’ll achieve your goals faster.





Advantages of using Snapchat for Business





  • You can send more engaging ads to your target market.
  • Snapcodes feature allows you to redirect your target market to your website.
  • Snapchat Chat service facilitates communication between businesses and customers.
  • Snapchat Story features help brands share essential details with their audience.

Disadvantages of Using Snapchat for business





  • User engagement is often limited.
  • Difficulties in sharing long content due to limited time
  • Users cannot re-share your content.

8. TikTok





Here’s one of the newest social media platforms that joined the industry in 2018.





Surprisingly, TikTok now has 500 users every month and a total of 1.2 billion users worldwide.





It’ll shock you to know that the newest baby is now garnering more users than LinkedIn, Snapchat, and even Twitter.





This social media app enables users to create and share 15-second videos of almost anything.





But the platform is not entirely the best for advertising your business like others.





Therefore, the good thing about TikTok is that the Gen Z generation seems to be very interested in using the platform.





Image by iXimus from Pixabay




This means that you can employ social media influencers’ expertise to push your brand to the front lines.





Another important thing to note is that TikTok is not saturated like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.





So, you still good grounds to target the newest generation as other brands are doing.





Benefits of using TikTok for your business





  • You can reach a global audience.
  • Video contents have higher conversion rates.
  • Connecting and retaining your audience is easier.
  • TikTok users are growing faster than other platforms.

Disadvantages of using TikTok for business





  • You can only share video content on TikTok.
  • It may be challenging to maintain a top position on the app.
  • Your audience demographics are limited.

9. Quora





If you’ve been overlooking this social media platform for your business, let’s shock you a bit.





Quora has been around since 2009 and has more than 300 million active users.





When you hear quora, one thing that comes to mind is to get answers to a different question from the community of global users.





So it usually seems like a learning platform where people share different information.





This function is also good for your business.





If you’re engaged in social media marketing, you probably know the importance of web traffic.





So, with quora, you stand a good chance of driving lots of traffic to your website.





It allows you to deliver spot-on answers to questions in your industry, thereby establishing your authority in the subject matter.





Many people who read your answers can easily follow your URL for more information.





But be careful not to overdo it.





Quora moderators are watching out for shameless self-promotion.





Instead of sounding like a billboard, try to answer the question accurately.





Then watch the response and the interest in your brand.





Benefits of using Quora for business





  • Quora can be a source of business information.
  • You can establish a niche authority in the platform.
  • Quora millions of users can increase web traffic to your website.
  • You can use the Quora blogging platform to increase your reach.

Disadvantages of using Quora for business





  • It might be difficult to find the questions in your niche.
  • Self-advertising can cause issues if you overdo it.

10. WhatsApp





Also, it may surprise you to know that WhatsApp is now a go-to social media platform for business.





Many people from more than 180 countries are using the platform for communications and business interactions.





Initially, WhatsApp was a social media platform to send and receive messages from family members and friends.





whatsapp
Image by M. H. from Pixabay




Gradually, the network has expanded to include business transactions.





Now, there are WhatsApp Applications for small businesses to transact and a WhatsApp Business API for medium & large businesses.





You can utilize the amazing features of WhatsApp Business API to push your brand forward.





Benefits of using WhatsApp Business





  • It enables businesses to establish branded connections.
  • Businesses can engage more with their customers in real-time.
  • It facilitates instant messaging all over the world.

Disadvantages of using WhatsApp for business





  • There’s no distinction between business and private communications.
  • Enterprise file-sharing solution is not supported.
  • Lack of transparency

What social media platforms should I use for my business?





Many social media platforms for business exist in this era, but not all are suitable for every kind of business.





social media platforms' icons for your business
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay




While we can’t choose the right one for your business, we can give you some pointers on how to decide on the best one.





1. Define your social media marketing goals.





Before taking your business to the media, you must define the goals you want to achieve.





Once you spell out these goals, you can pick the platform that can facilitate its achievement.





2. Find out the platform that your target market is using.





Social media marketing focuses on bringing your business closer to your audience.





So, it’ll be a mistake to use Pinterest when you’re targeting youths who are all over TikTok.





3. Examine your usual contents.





Do you use blog posts, videos, pictures, animations to pass your message to your audience?





Which type of content represents your business well?





When you decide on this, you can easily choose the platform that supports your type of content.





For instance, you don’t have any business on YouTube if you don’t make brand videos.





Therefore, after determining your media marketing goals, discovering where your audience is, and studying your suitable content type.





You can now decide on the platform that best accommodates all of them.





How to use different social media platforms for marketing?





Using multiple social media platforms for business is not a simple task.





Even though it’s possible and necessary, you need to invest your time, effort, and money to be effective in all.





So, if you’re willing to appear on multiple platforms, do the following:





1. Invest in a social media management software.





This is the best decision you can make if you want to appear on multiple platforms.





With the right app, you can manage all the accounts in one simple dashboard.





Imagine having to log in to 4 or 5 social media platforms at once.





Instead of that, get this tool and simplify your life.





2. Create platform-friendly strategies.





Every platform is unique, and your strategies for each should be appropriate, or you won’t achieve your goals.





So, let your strategies cover areas such as posting schedule and frequency, content type, actionable expansion plans, and your objectives on each platform.





3. Ensure constant audience engagement.





Make sure that you focus on your audience no matter the platform you are using.





Don’t forget to reply to questions, messages, comments, mentions, etc.





That way, you’ll be visible and available for your audience.





Final Words





One of the trendy methods of marketing for businesses of all sizes is social media marketing.





There’re lots of networks that focus on connecting businesses to customers and also facilitating transactions.





If you’re still hesitating about taking your brand to the internet, it’s time to take action.





You can reach millions of potential customers on any of the popular social media platforms for business.





All you need is the right strategy for your social media marketing efforts across the existing platforms.





You don’t need to focus your efforts only on one platform when you can use multiple networks for better results.





For instance, you can take your business to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., make sure that you tailor your content to suit each platform’s requirement.





Don’t forget to invest in the best social media management tool to be more productive with your efforts.


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