A guide to social networks and why you must understand them.

There is little doubt that Social Media can be one of the most powerful tool for maximising goals, attracting an audience to your brand and promoting your products and services. But have you ever considered which social networks you should be focusing on? After all the several platforms open to you vary in effectiveness depending not only on your business, but your clientele.

Marketers and bloggers face this dilemma when setting out on a digital marketing strategy as different products require different audience and have different promotional impacts. Spending all your digital advertising budget on a wrongly focused audience is both wasteful and worse, damaging to your brand.

For example let’s examine Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook has nearly 50% of the entire internet’s population, over 1.5 billion users whilst LinkedIn although not as popular, has positioned itself as a B2B and business related services. For many though, LinkedIn is primarily focussed on discovering new talent for hire, almost as if a public online resume.

Using Instagram or Pinterest? If your brand is highly visual (like photographers, fashion brands or lifestyle bloggers/vloggers) then Instagram is a powerful marketing tool that should not be ignored. Pinterest is not about designing patterns, it is a powerful search engine that conveys a vast wealth of infographics, blog posts and business tips that is ideal for those looking for more than just words to read.

But what about these networks clientele? Who uses which platform? What is the best content to produce for every each network? After all what works for one industry will not work for another.

Demographics of major social networks:

Pinterest:

72% of Pinterest’s audience are 30 years or older. 64% of all adults are making $50,000+ on Pinterest.

Facebook:

82% of all online users between 18-29 are on Facebook.  Largest markets are from USA (14%), India (9%) and Brazil (7%).

Twitter:

Twitter attracts younger and mostly urban, semi-urban audience. 54% of online adults who make over $50,000+ are on Twitter.

LinkedIn:

Professional and business related network. 75% of users earn over $50,000. 50% of LinkedIn users have a higher university degree.

Google+:

Only 55% of Google+ users are American. 18% are Indian and 6% are Brazilian. According to GlobalWebIndex.net, 22% of people in bottom 25% of income earners are on Google+. More men than women and slightly younger audience.

Instagram:

More women than men, only 24% are college graduates. 53% of all 18-29 year olds are on Instagram.

Here is the easy to read and great infographic produced by bloggingwizzard about the psychology behind social network use.

**Need advice about which platform to use, speak to one of the team’s social media marketing specialists about how we can help.”