Tired of spending too much time on social media managing too many social platforms for your business - without getting what you expect from your efforts?

It’s time to find out how to grow interactions on social media using only the platforms that can drive ROI for your brand. When you create a strategy that prioritizes your goals for social marketing success, you can connect with your ideal audience of customers and prospects in the places where they are the most socially active and available to you.

Whether you’re interacting with them to improve the exposure of your brand, talk up your products and services, build a sense of community with current customers, or reach new ones – all great reasons for you to be active on social media as a company, by the way - your marketing efforts on those platforms are more likely to drive traffic for your business.

Why Use Social Media Marketing?

According to HubSpot’s latest Social Media Trends Report, 90% of social media marketers say building an active online community is critical to their success in 2023. Cultivating lasting relationships with your social followers is just one reason to invest in a social media presence for your company. Here are a few more.

• Boosting brand awareness – One recent report finds at least 30% of all consumers use social media for sharing feedback about a product and 33% will reach out on social media about customer service issues or to ask a question. Combined with all those likes, comments, shares, reposts, and saves, it drives robust engagement with your prospects. Just the inclusion of a website link in your social profile and posts will help to direct traffic easily to your website. If you don’t have a social media presence, the potential to engage huge amounts of people is lost.
• Generating leads and conversions – According to the Sprout Social Index, 88% of marketers believe social media positively influences sales. This is likely because the followers they’re engaging with have decided on their own to connect with their companies on social media to stay informed.
• Competing better in your market – 90% of marketers agree that social media helps them stay ahead of the competition. Keeping track of what your competitors are doing on social media can help make sure your marketing will be unique and stand out. You can learn what’s working or what’s not working for them, which can help you refine your own approach to social media campaigns, follower interactions, and more.

6 Tips for Choosing the Best Social Platforms for Your Business

You have at least 17 different social media platforms to choose from. Depending on each platform’s salient attributes such as audience demographics, the ones that your ideal audience uses, the industry you’re in, where your competitors have a presence, and the type of content that tells your brand story best, among other considerations, you can narrow down your choices.

1. Have a presence on the social platforms your ideal customers use.

Knowing where you can find your customers and prospects on social media helps in deciding the platforms that can give you a return on your investment. One way to find out where they are is to look at your website data on referrals. Pay attention to where they are clicking from and what they’re clicking on.  

2. Rank platforms based on your industry.

Just as different platforms appeal to different audiences, they also differ in terms of industry appeal. For instance, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube work well for brands and consumers. Sports companies like Twitter. Do research into which platforms work best for your industry and the market you work in.

3. Know what works for your competition.

Data from social media is great for revealing the ups and downs of products, services, and customer loyalty. Do a performance analysis of your competitors’ social media profiles, content, and follower interactions. If the competition is succeeding on a certain social platform, chances are you should consider that platform as well.

4. Let your marketing goals for social media be your guide.

Your goals for social can help you to identify the top platforms for reaching those goals based on the advantages of each platform. Social marketing research reveals:

• 70% of marketers use social media to increase brand awareness.
• 59% of marketers use social media to generate leads.
• 48% of marketers use social media to increase community engagement.
• 46% of marketers use social media to grow their audience.
• 45% of marketers use social media to increase web traffic.

Look again into the top advantages of each platform and then match the platform to your goals.

5. Use trends to inform your choices.

HubSpot research has revealed the following trends in social media for 2023:

• Social media is the next go-to shopping destination - 71% of Gen Z-ers and 51% of Millennials prefer to discover new products on social media.
• TikTok as the new platform for brands -  A little more than half (56%) of current marketers plan to increase their TikTok investment in 2023, the highest of any social media platform.
• Focusing on three to five social platforms is the sweet spot for most marketers – Facebook is the most used social media platform, used by 64% of marketers, followed by Instagram (58%), YouTube (57%), Twitter (43%), and TikTok (42%).

Once you see a trend that’s working, watch where it leads before jumping on the bandwagon.

6. Content type often drives social platform decisions.

Video, images, text, stories, live streams, photos, illustrations, polls, offers, and more all have a place on the smorgasbord of effective content for social media – as long as you choose a platform that lends itself to the type of content. If your business is producing a lot of quality videos for instance, then you should consider a presence on YouTube and Facebook.

But let’s look at content type another way. In 2023, the top five most effective types of content on social media are:

1. Funny content
2. Relatable content
3. Trendy content like cultural moments and news stories
4. Authentic, behind-the-scenes content
5. Interactive content such as polls, games, and augmented reality

This research also shows that mid-size and large businesses are getting the best ROI from funny and interactive content while small businesses get better results with educational and relatable content. And 33% of small businesses say leveraging user-generated content (UGC) is how they’re reporting the best social media ROI.

Whatever type of content you create, the focus needs to be on content quality that adds value when it comes to using that content for marketing on social media.

11outof11 Knows Social Media Content Strategy

If you need help creating your social media content strategy to grow interactions on social media, including determining the best social platforms for ROI, connect with 11outof11. Request a complimentary call with an 11outof11 expert. Contact us to learn more.