Nearly two decades have elapsed since social media sites like MySpace and Facebook burst onto the scene. In that time, social media has evolved into a world of its own. With more than 4.48 billion active users, more opportunities exist than ever to place your service or product in front of your social media target audience.
How Target Audience Impacts Social Media Marketing Strategies
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube consistently alter our reality. These companies change how we spend our time, communicate, and make purchasing decisions. The ever-shifting social media landscape also continues to shape digital marketing agencies and their efforts to service clients. Brands are creating online identities, and it is now widely accepted for a company to form relationships with consumers in a more relaxed, personable way. Social media is allowing brands to constantly customize and cater to consumers across all generations while maintaining an overall, consistent, and credible brand image.
Social media is gaining importance in the eyes of marketers. A study done by the Social Media Examiner (2021) found that more than 88% of all marketers say that social media marketing has increased the reputation and exposure of their business. It’s no secret the power that having a solid social media plan and presence can accomplish for your brand.
Before diving into marketing through social media channels and developing social media content, it’s best first to get an understanding of where different audiences are spending their time on social media. Knowing this information will give your brand a better sense of which social platforms to target so you can begin to resonate more strongly with your social media target audience.
Different Target Audiences on Social Media Apps
Facebook is by far the most widely used social network today. With more than 2.9 billion active monthly users, Facebook is where many brands go to advertise and display their messages. Compared to other social networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram), Facebook contains the most mature audience. More than 77% of U.S. adults aged 30-49 say that they actively use the app. Although only 50% of U.S. adults aged 65 and older say they use Facebook, this number is the highest of any other social networking platform, proving that older generations engage and check-in. Facebook users also tend to be very active. 70% of its users visit the site at least once per day, making it the most visited social network on the Internet. A lot of users check the site an average of 8 times per day. The frequency gives marketers a great opportunity to repeatedly push their content to viewers in a single day. Marketers wanting to use Facebook to advertise also need to be aware of the devices people use to open and load Facebook. An astounding 81.8% of users reportedly never access Facebook outside their mobile app. This illustrates the need to create mobile-centric creative ads and landing pages to attract and convert new qualified leads.
If Facebook is busy capturing a more mature audience, then Twitter is busy gaining the attention of the younger generations. Approximately 42% of all 18-29-year old’s that live in the U.S. tweet and use Twitter relatively consistently. Younger demographics are much more active on Twitter, which makes it a great opportunity for you to target the younger demographic. It’s also important to know that more than 77% of the active accounts on Twitter live and tweet outside the United States. If you are trying to grow a product or brand internationally, then Twitter is a great platform to advertise on because of the large presence of international consumers.
Like Twitter, Instagram attracts the younger crowds. A recent study found that 65% of all U.S. 18-29-year old’s currently have an Instagram account. You and your digital marketing agency can benefit from this information, knowing that this is where younger people like to spend their time online. Instagram also has very active and retentive users. More than 59% of their users check the site multiple times a day. More women tend to use the site than men, but this shouldn’t stop you from advertising your brand on Instagram. In fact, 71% of United States businesses already have an Instagram account, proving that it’s a credible marketplace for advertising.
Pinterest is very different from other social networks because it strongly attracts a larger percentage of women. Research has found that U.S. women aged 25-54 comprise an astounding 30.4% of the platform’s advertising audience. However, in recent years, Pinterest is growing in popularity among the male demographic, with the platform noting it is the fastest-growing audience segment in 2021. Marketing on Pinterest can be very beneficial for any brand. The company 90% of weekly pinners use the platform to make purchasing decisions. This statistic shows that people are constantly taking in brand-related information and using it to convert.
LinkedIn is also a little different from the other social platforms. A lot of people view this site as more professional than the other platforms and see it as a great networking tool. However, marketers can still take advantage of advertising on LinkedIn if they want to try and reach a more knowledgeable and higher-educated audience. Over 50% of Americans that have a college degree use LinkedIn, and it seems to resonate most strongly with 25- to 49-year-olds that are currently working or in the job market. LinkedIn can also be very efficient for businesses that are looking to market a brand or information to other businesses (B2B).
TikTok
Experiencing a meteoric rise, TikTok was released only four years ago and just celebrated its 1 billionth user in September 2021. Despite its relatively young age, TikTok is the fifth most popular social media app among 18-29-year-olds, clocking in with nearly 48% saturation. What does this mean for your brand? While many companies and digital marketing agencies are hesitant and unsure of the proper path to take with TikTok, one thing is clear: the next generation uses social media and TikTok plays a massive role in its consumption. Exposing this emerging demographic to your brand by partnering with influencers prior to the generation reaching peak buying power is a viable long-term social media strategy.
Snapchat
Similar to TikTok, Snapchat experienced a swift incline in users and has consistently conducted updates to the app to remain popular with Generation Z users. Unlike TikTok, Snapchat has made specific changes to make the platform friendly for advertisers. Many updates have allowed for brands and products to integrate directly into the experience, allowing the target audience to view brand messaging as native to the channels it’s viewing. Keep in mind, Snapchat is almost entirely experienced on mobile devices, with the app ranking second globally in mobile usage. If you embark on a digital marketing campaign on Snapchat, you must have properly optimized your landing pages and website for the mobile experience.
YouTube
In a category of its own, YouTube is a hybrid between a social media platform and a video content hub. Recent additions to the platform allow for channels to reach users beyond just videos. Through the community section, creators and brands can utilize blog posts, polls, and other announcements. Furthermore, adopting similar practices by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, YouTube now allows users to place hashtags in video and playlist descriptions. Viewers can click on these hashtags and view related content across the site. This is all in an attempt to diversify how consumers use YouTube social media and boost virality and engagement.
Marketing Through Social Media Platforms with Different Types of Content
By processing the analytics and determining where consumers are spending their time online, you and your digital marketing agency partner can begin to better target messages and ads to those you want to reach. By serving messages that will connect and resonate better with an intended audience, you can begin to build new relationships with consumers that weren’t possible before. The power of social media is rapidly growing, and it’s time to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in front of you. It is also useful to diversify and properly allocate different content across these channels. Short-form videos are best served through Instagram Reels and TikTok, while long-form videos belong on Facebook and YouTube. Whether you are a small business or a major company, content can be developed more easily than ever before, allowing you to customize it for the platform and its consumers.
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