Why This Platform? Understanding How Brands And Users Connect On Social Media

Every social media platform excels at a different function - you don’t post video to the same platform as you post quick information updates - but businesses often fail to approach social media strategy in a uniform way. Luckily, Smart Paper Help’s recent infographic on both business and user engagement offers some insight into where to angle social media strategies. This is a great infographic to reference before your business launches a campaign.

Where Influencers Belong

Influencer marketing is a strategy that allows you to present a post or video from someone with an established following in an attempt to convert some of their users. But of course, it doesn’t make much sense to try to build these connections on low impact sites - Smart Paper Help’s infographic indicates that Google + users only spend about 7 minutes a month on the site. That isn’t worthwhile impact.

Instead, you want to put your influencers on live video streaming or YouTube or even Facebook if you want people to spend time with this content. These sites draw much more user time and attention - certainly enough to watch videos or engage with larger posts.

Gather Where They Gather

In order to really impact users, you need to know your demographics and reach them effectively. If you’re going to target tech-savvy coders professional outlets like LinkedIn are better suited since most of their users - nearly 80% - are 35 or older, established in their role. Snapchat, on the other hand is almost entirely under 35. If you’re looking for casual communication with youth, then this may be your platform.

Small Commitments, Big Results

One common myth that keeps businesses away from Twitter is the idea that since the site is real time you have to spend hours every day working on the site. In fact, Smart Paper Help points out that more that 40% of users have never even sent a Tweet. Sure, as a content generator, you’ll need to send a few, but you can also repost from other popular users.

To make Twitter work, you can link it to your other social media accounts, having them simultaneously generate posts. You can also just plug a quick sentence and a link into your posts. Because Twitter is microblogging, businesses should be able to use it with minimal time commitment.

Why Strategy Matters

Ultimately the most important thing that Smart Paper Help’s recent social media infographic offers us is an insight into why strategy matters. If you treat every platform the same or focus on platforms that don’t suit your demographic, you’ll be wasting time and energy. Instead, think through what you want to say and who you want to say it to - then head back to the infographic. From there, you’ll know what should come next - the statistics on social media use don’t lie. They lead to success.