Which Social Media Platform(s) Should I Use For My Small Business?

More than 84% of the UK population are active social media users, so they are a critical marketing channel for any business. But how do you choose the right platform(s) for your small business?

To help you get started, I’ve pulled together the key information for some of the most popular social media platforms so you can see which will best fit with your business.

First though, there are a few important things to think about.

Who is my target audience?

Consider your target audience when choosing your social media platform as some may match your audience better than others. For example, LinkedIn has a business to business audience, Pinterest has a predominantly female audience and TikTok has a mainly younger audience.

The big platforms do allow you to target advertising on a very granular level which is great for small businesses because it means you are only spending money reaching those users most likely to be interested in your product/service.

What am I trying to achieve?

Outlining your goals for your social media activity will help you narrow down the right platform for you. For example are you trying to raise awareness; generate leads; improve customer service? As you'll see in the overviews below, different platforms lend themselves better to different objectives so being clear about what your objectives are from the outset is important.

What type of content will I use?

Similiarly, different types of content lend themselves best to different social media platforms. Your type(s) of content will be influenced by your brand/offering, your objectives, your skillset and your available time/resource.

For example, if your brand is lifestyle based eg clothing, cosmetics, interiors etc, then striking visuals will be central to your content and that will lend itself well to Instagram. But if your offering is more complex and requires longer form content and/or more consumer interaction then it will work better on Facebook.

What platforms are your competitors using?

Make sure to check out which platforms your competitors are using. Look at the type of content they are producing, what is working well for them and what is not and use that as an additional guide for where to focus your energies.

How many social media platforms should I use?

Doing social media well requires time so don't commit to running multiple social media feeds if you are not certain you have the resource to do it well. You are much better to have a strong single feed than two or three mediocre ones.

Now let’s take a look at some of the major social media platforms...

Facebook

Facebook is a great social media platform for small business as it is perhaps the most versatile in terms of content and engagement. It has a huge audience and it facilitates very specific targeting. It’s a great choice if you plan to share content that contains links for example to landing pages, blogs, promotions etc. It also works really well for short-form video content (less than 90 secs) which now accounts for half of time spent on the platform.

Total Audience: 3bn

Audience Gender: 44% Female; 56% Male

Largest age demographic: 25-34 (30%)

% of internet users in UK that use platform each month: 71%

YouTube

YouTube is the world’s largest video sharing social media platform. It has vast global reach and is a great way to reach new audiences. An effective YouTube presence can not only help you build brand awareness, it can drive traffic to your site, improve your Google search visibility and it’s great for both B2B and consumer target markets. Like all platforms it does require a regular schedule of posting to gain traction and typically video content is more time/resource heavy to produce so this can be demanding for a small business to maintain.

Total Audience: 2.5bn

Audience Gender: 46% Female; 54% Male

Largest age demographic: 25-34 (20%)

% of internet users in UK that use platform each month: 84%

Instagram

Instagram has a slightly younger demographic than Facebook and is more visually oriented. It has higher engagement rates than Facebook, but use of clickable links is very limited. For example, it does not allow you to include a clickable link in captions on your photo posts. Although swipe up links can be added to stories, that only applies when you have 10k followers or more and that level of followership takes time to build. So who does Instagram suit best? If you are targeting a younger consumer audience with an easy to understand offering that either looks great itself (eg clothes) or offers very visual results (eg cosmetics) then Instagram could be a great choice for you.

Total Audience: 2bn

Audience Gender: 48% Female; 52% Male

Largest age demographic: 18-24 (31%)

% of internet users in UK that use platform each month: 56%

TikTok

TikTok is a short form video sharing platform and is one of the fastest growing social media channels in the world. You can make videos within the platform as it offers lots of editing functionality, so it doesn't necessarily need to cost a lot to create strong content. Videos are up to 15 secs in length but, similar to Instagram, it offers limited facility to serve clickable links. The key question when it comes to TikTok though remains audience age demographic. Unless you are targeting primarily the Gen Z audience (i.e. born late 90's early 2000's), this probably won't be your first choice social media platform.

Total Audience: 1.2bn

Audience Gender: 54% Female; 46% Male

Largest age demographic: 13-17 (25%)

% of internet users in UK that use platform each month: 38%

X/Twitter

X (or as many of us still call it Twitter) is a popular social media platform. It offers small businesses some great opportunities to get noticed, to drive traffic and to strengthen customer service. Its use of hashtags means you can reach audiences in an organic way who are interested in your product. Your posts are limited to 280 characters of text and you can include imagery,video and links allowing you to direct traffic to your sites/blogs/offers etc. X also facilitiates direct messaging meaning you can respond quickly to customers. The biggest drawback for small business is probably the short lifespan of posts which means you ideally need to post several times a day, that can be a big commitment for small business.

Total Audience: 619m

Audience Gender: 37% Female; 63% Male

Largest age demographic: 25-34 (39%)

% of internet users in UK that use platform each month: 43%

Like Instagram, Pinterest is a highly visual platform, so it lends itself well to particular products/services. This is for the most part lifestyle brands eg beauty, homewares, clothing, food etc. Unlike Instagram, Pinterest does allow you to post links and people who like your content will pin it (save it) to a board meaning they can reference it later and many users use the platform specifically to research products. The main difficulty for small business owners trying to succeed on Pinterest is that (as on Instagram) your content needs to be very high quality making it demanding of resource.

Total Audience: 482m

Audience Gender: 76% Female; 24% Male

Largest age demographic: 18-24 (32%)

% of internet users in UK that use platform each month: 26%

LinkedIn has a smaller audience than the other platforms, but it is a must for business to business marketing. You can post lots of different types of content both short and long form and its lifespan is generally much longer than on the consumer platforms meaning you don't have to post as frequently. Use of hashtags can help you target interested audiences.

Total Audience: 310m

Audience Gender: 43% Female; 57% Male

Largest age demographic: 25-34 (60%)

% of internet users in UK that use platform each month: 27%