I’ve briefly spoken about how social media is a powerful tool if it is used ‘correctly’, but what exactly does that mean?
Each social media platform has a different purpose, is designed to share different content and therefore has a different target audience who uses it.
In a previous blog I mentioned the most followed brand on Instagram was National Geographic, because instagram has and always will be an image based platform. Although statistics show videos do the best on the platform, the general consensus is if it is visually interesting and beautiful, well made, funny or part of a trend, it does well.
This means the Target Audience for instagram has changed slightly, when it was first created it was similar to BeReal, an image based sharing platform to share the real beauty of everyday life. Now it’s a golden opportunity for brands and celebrities to appear ‘real’, to join in on trends and to stay in touch with customers and fans. Instagrams target audience has a mass appeal, from 13 plus to a crossover of the Facebook generation, it all depends on who they choose to follow. The trick is to find your niche and target that audience through the use of hashtags.
TikTok
Cast your mind back if you will to the ancient days of Vine, the days of 6 second videos, shooting Shawn Mendes to fame and creating memes that will live on in our memories forever. Then with the death of Vine came the birth of Musical.ly which created dance trends that we saw continue on through to the rise of TikTok. The point I’m trying to make is, TikTok is often seen as the newest social media but it’s concept is one that’s been around for a decade. Attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter and if your TikTok can capture a person's interest in those vital first few seconds then you may have found yourself a new customer. TikTok is trend based and you have to keep up with the fast paced nature of this platform, keep your finger on the pulse, TikTok themselves recommend to stop thinking about ‘who’ your target audience are and start thinking about ‘what’ interests them.
Facebook’s USP is it’s vast array of groups allowing people to connect not only with friends and family but with people from all over the world with the same niche interests or from the same local areas, this allows you as a brand or business to target really specific locations and niches and allows you to listen to and target your audience in these established groups.
Traditionally the ‘Facebook Generation’ are older than users of the other social media platforms however members of niche groups may be of any age.
Twitter’s main purpose is for news. For journalists and news outlets to share news fast. The character limit means everything you type counts and must have a purpose and impact. The other side of twitter is the viral memes and hashtags used when second screening. This is when your scrolling through social media while watching TV for example watching Love Island and looking through the Hashtag Love Island on twitter.
For obvious reasons these attract two very different target audiences and while twitter can be used to build a connection between you and your audience, tweeting your daily thoughts will get lost if you are not directing them to a specific audience.
Next month is September and it’s back to routine after the sunshine, this opens up new and exciting opportunities for engagement and I’ll be talking through some easy ways of advertising through a busy month, especially if you have children.
Get in touch by emailing me at contact@mollymcguinness.co.uk.
I look forward to hearing from you and seeing how I can help elevate your brand or business.
If you have any suggestions for future blog posts or need any quick advice, please feel free to contact me with your suggestions or questions.
Source TikTok for businesses
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