Running a business these days is a lot like playing a game of soccer. You need to be always up and running in the field to score the goal, which in this case is to reach your target audience and win them over. The best way to do it is by connecting with your audience.

This is where the power of social media marketing comes into the picture.

However, with so many social media marketing channels around it can be quite a tough task for you to figure out which platform to focus your efforts. After all, you cannot become a prodigy with all the social media platforms overnight.

To help you in this task, we are going to share some tips on how to choose the best social media platform for your business. For clarity, we will present them to you one by one.

Go with the numbers

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When we say numbers we don’t just mean the platform with the highest number of users. What we are actually trying to say is that you need to invest a little time researching your niche and figuring out where the audience from your business niche is most active.

For instance, a food business can easily capture a greater audience by directly targeting Instagram users with beautiful pictures.

You need to understand the business dynamics and then plan a way to find the best suitable platform where you can weave the magic of your influence.

PS – of course, it is important to find a social media platform with a maximum number of users, but you need to be a little smarter than just that!

Look what the competitors are doing

Every business has a big dog!

You don’t need to copy that big player, but what you can do instead is to try and emulate what that big player has been doing, and succeeding with, in the market.

In simpler words, find the biggest players in your niche and then follow the social media channels they are targeting. Create a social media marketing plan built around the platforms on which those industry giants are active.

This will save you with a lot of research. And, at the same time, build confidence because something that has worked for them could easily work for you (if done right).

What else can you ask for?

It’s not about your business, it’s about the audience

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When you talk about social media marketing, one thing is pretty clear – the old school trick to praise the business and claim to be the best simply does not work.

In today’s tech-savvy world it’s all about striking the right chord with the audience. Therefore, you need to be where they are and feed them what they want to see.

So, what is the easiest way to figure out what is best? Run split tests with different forms of content.

Create videos, visuals, and articles, and spread them on different social media platforms to see which performs the best. Once you have an idea about the platform where your content is most effective, you can easily build a plan and capitalize on your findings.

It is always good to test a strategy and then feed the audience with something they’ll love, rather than walking down a dead end road without paying heed to ‘what’s next.’

After all, today’s business is all about the customer and not about the business itself.

Focus on many, but target only one

While today’s competitive world demands a business to be a jack of all trades, the harsh truth is that your business cannot be a master in everything. Spreading yourself too thin is dangerous, but focusing on less and being the best at those things is smart.

You need to, therefore, make your presence felt online on diverse social media platforms, if only in a symbolic manner. And at the same time, you should target only one channel as your potential gold mine, giving that channel your full attention.

Why? There’s a catch here.

Once you have a solid community on one channel, it becomes quite easy to spread your grasp across multiple channels. After all, now you have the social media proof needed to earn credibility. In fact, experience from one social media channel could easily be converted into fruitful seeds for another platform.

It is always a smart idea to begin with one platform as a target. Once you are able to achieve desirable success on that channel, you can simply move on to the next and work to repeat that success.

How to choose the best social media platform? Be in trend!

Image Credit: Hootsuite.com

The last bit of advice that we have for you is to never miss out on the latest trend in the market.

For instance, if we talk about the current market scenario, video marketing is making the biggest waves in the ocean. Rather than being adamant and sticking to your old tricks of social media promotions you need to quickly adapt to this change and come up with content that’s focus on the current trend.

There are plenty of examples in the past, where businesses who did not maintain a steady pace with the changing trends and ended up being lost in the crowd.

Therefore, it is important to have a target plan in mind but that plan should be flexible enough to adapt and evolve according to the changing market trends. Or else, you could end up becoming a lost name in the ever growing ocean of social media.

Never stop looking for advice

You may have heard it before and you’ll hear it again, a business should learn from everything that surrounds it, because to stop learning is to admit defeat. You just need to have a keen vision to find out what’s important to learn and what isn’t.

Never stop learning, and never stop looking for advice. Always stay updated on what the industry experts are saying, and pay attention to the predictions they are making because that is the only way to stay a step ahead in the game.

Rather than being just stubborn and sticking with one method, be flexible to change with the times.

Find a social media platform that works well in your business niche, then get together with your best strategists and create a flexible plan that can win your customers over!

Sounds quite easy, right? Implement the advice for the best social media platforms for marketing, and you may be surprised to see how it works out for yourself!