Which social media platform is right for my business?

Any business that wants to be visible and relevant to online customers will need a social media marketing strategy. Many people become aware of companies through the various social channels rather than their website so being able to build up relationships with them outside the main company site is vital.

There are two main strands to a social marketing strategy: what you want it to achieve and which channels should you focus on. Some definitely have the edge for certain types of activity and your social media strategy should be guided by this.

Social media objectives

There are too many platforms for you to be active on them all so identify the most relevant and productive ones. To do this, it can be helpful to work backwards from your objectives. These will include:

• Getting new customers;
• Generating more leads;
• Increasing awareness of your brand;
• Improving search engine rankings;
• Engaging with your customers;
• Increasing traffic to your site;
• Providing customer support;
• Building a community; and
• Enhancing your brand’s reputation.

Another factor to consider is how the nature of your business relates to social media. If real-time events are important to it, then X would be a natural choice. Or if it is more visual, then TikTok and Instagram would be a good fit. If you are trying to reach a diversity of customers then consider LinkedIn and YouTube.

Who are your customers?

It is vital to know which platforms your customers use and follow them there. To find this out it is helpful to define a persona for your buyers.

Audience research will enable you to establish your customers’ demographics, interests and values. Email or WhatsApp surveys with questions about what social sites they use, where they get their information from online and which influencers they follow will give you the data you need.

Data and analytics

Your site analytics tools will tell you which social channels people arrived on your site from – they may not be the platforms you assume so it is worth building insights from this into your social strategy at an early stage.

Any site owner should know which are the best-performing pages on the site, and this knowledge indicates what customers are interested in. So, if a newly uploaded asset is not performing well, it suggests the content needs revising.

Data capture collects information about customers when they visit your site. This might be what’s known as zero-party data, which is information the customer shares with a site, such as survey responses, sign-ups, downloads and online conversations.

It is distinct from first-party data, which is also valuable, but differs in being data collected from the website and its analysis tools. Its collection does not involve the active, knowing participation of the customer.

And there are AI tools available that will analyse your data so that you can make each platform work harder for your business.

Types of content

There is a wide range of ways of getting people’s attention – these are the most important ones.

• Blogs. Regular posting will encourage customers to visit your site, keep them informed about what you are doing and keep your brand in front of them. They are good for search result rankings because they are new content and ideally will contain your search keywords.
• Podcasts. Short audio content is effective for more general marketing and for enhancing your business’s credibility.
• Testimonials. Positive reviews and testimonials from happy customers will draw in new business.
• User-generated content. Customers using your brand in their personal social activity is essentially free advertising. This is as good as it gets for social marketing – in essence people are taking on the role of being your brand ambassador, which can give your products and services a real boost in the eyes of the public.
• Videos. Eye-catching and funny videos can greatly extend the reach of your marketing as people share them with each other – just make sure they contain your keywords. Interviews, behind-the-scenes videos and challenges are all popular formats. These ideally should be in a mobile-friendly vertical format.
• Photographs. These are a chance to showcase your business – if you can make them humorous, so much the better.

What are the main platforms?

The big four ranked by active users are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Facebook for business

As the largest social media platform, with more than 3 billion users, 38 million or so of them in the UK, Facebook is the place to go for lead generation and its advertising service can be customised to meet each business’s needs. Ideally social media activity should be run through Facebook Business Manager rather than a personal account.

Its groups are popular and are a great place to meet customers and develop relationships, as well as gain insights into what buyers want. Video content tends to do well on the site, whether yours or user-generated content, and Facebook for Business is an effective way sharing company or industry news, and an ideal forum for posting special offers and publicising events.

Paid-for ads on Facebook for Business will tell you more about your customers as well as potentially increasing sales. Knowledge about who clicks on your ads can be used to tweak your social strategy to better reach those customers.

Whatever their size and type, companies should be active on Facebook as it has considerably more users than any other social media platform.

YouTube for business

Close behind Google as the second-most visited website globally, YouTube has 58 million users in the UK. Video content comes in many different forms. Some of the most effective for businesses are:

• How-to videos;
• Podcasts;
• Influencer content;
• Reviews of products;
• Q&A videos;
• Behind-the-scenes videos;
• Testimonials;
• Unboxing or reveals of products.

Its Shorts offering – set up as a rival to TikTok – is another way of reaching customers with quick, grabby promotions.

Video content is especially important as it figures prominently in search engine results, giving you another way to put yourself in front of customers. It also improves your main site’s search rankings.

WhatsApp for business

WhatsApp has about 41 million UK users, and a Business profile on the app acts as a virtual storefront. As a messaging app it is brilliant for promotions and customer service, allowing for real-time communication with individuals and responses to queries and complaints. The business app is a standalone channel from the personal one.

Messages on the app have a good read rate, often higher than that of emails, and can be used for things like engaging with people who have abandoned their shopping cart and managing deliveries.

Instagram for business

Instagram has about 34 million UK users, a high proportion of whom are 18 to 24 years old, making it one of the main social marketing platforms, whether that is via Reels (videos), Stories (photo content), ads, promotions or one- on-one chat. Video content is great for personalising your business and aligning your company with the demographics it is targeting.

Instagram offers a guide to using it for business, which offers tools such as an AI search grader, a blog ideas generator and one that uses AI to turn text into videos.

Instagram Shopping lets people buy products in the app and companies can include collections, product tags and product details pages. Content should link back to the main company site. Instagram probably should be one of your platforms if you are in areas such as travel, fashion, food and beauty.

New features are regularly being added to Instagram; however, Reels remains for now the best way of reaching new customers. Content should consistently reflect the brand, be visually compelling but try not to make your feed seem like a scrolling advertisement.

X for business

X (formerly Twitter) had roughly 17 million users in the UK in 2024, skewing towards men and a broadly similar demographic to Facebook. It is a fast-moving site and content has to be short (280 characters maximum) and up to date. Trends come and go quickly on X so posts should be topical. This makes X ideal for updates, comments on other posts, special offers and other time-limited content.

Promoting content from other accounts and retweeting are great for expanding reach, and specially produced images and made-for-X content are effective for promoting new products and special offers. You can upload short videos – which will also boost your company in search engine results – and use hashtags to get your tweets to a wider audience. Hashtags can put you right in the middle of trending conversations and also enable you to categorise your products.

TikTok for business

TikTok has about 23 million users, approximately a third of them 24 years old or younger, feeding a seemingly insatiable appetite for short-form video. The platform is good for people with limited video production skills as much of the content on it is user generated. TikTok challenges are popular and can be use to increase brand awareness.

However, a lot of the content is lighthearted and playful so it might be a poor fit for some companies. It has a particular style, which it is worth familiarising yourself with so that your content fits in. Most clips are 15 to 30 seconds long so this would be a good length to aim for.

Like Instagram, TikTok is the natural home of the influencer so many businesses try to build up links with people who will promote their business, whether organically (voluntarily) or as a commercial deal. You can advertise your business on TikTok, often at lower rates than for the other major sites, whether by Top View (the video ad served when people open TikTok) or means of in-feed ads. The Promote service is an advertising tool that tracks companies’ audience data and ad campaign costs.

People are increasingly using TikTok for search so it’s always worth including trending hashtags and keywords.

Pinterest for business

Pinterest is another primarily visual platform, where people can discover ideas and products often with a domestic or personal theme, such as cooking, make-up, home decor and accessories. Its ‘Pins’ and ‘Boards’ have a less commercial, more authentic feel than other platforms and suit mainly smaller businesses that sell visually attractive personal items such as clothes or items for the home. It has about 15 million UK users, about 70% of whom are women.

Although Pinterest started out with mainly user-generated content big brands are now active on it. Pins can be used to promote products and create catalogues of goods, and as a sales channel. Pins can be images or videos and many companies will include a link back to their website. Its Trends tool allows companies to see what is trending by location enabling them to target users they can potentially convert into customers.

LinkedIn for business

The professionals’ platform has about 42 million UK users and a similar age demographic to the main social platforms, and the numbers of male and female users is broadly equal.

It is very useful for sharing news about your business and demonstrating you are up to date with new trends. It can also provide insights into your company culture and activities, including events attended or awards won.

Narrowing down the field

The wide choice of platforms available means it is essential to focus on the few that are the best fit for your business and your social strategy – you can’t be everywhere at once. The choice of which they are should be based on where your audience is and which platforms your competitors are using – and how their customers engage with what they post. Two or at most three is enough.

Conclusion

For those who are interested in knowing more about using social media effectively please take a look at Finsbury Robinson’s other articles about online marketing, which include the top 10 SEO improvements for your website and what you need to know if you are setting up a company website for the first time.

And if you would like to take advantage of Finsbury Robinson's tax, accounting and business advisory services, please contact our friendly and highly experienced team on 020 8858 4303 or via email at info@finsburyrobinson.co.uk