Choosing the correct type of social media platform that you advertise your business on, all depends on the type of demographic that you are trying to reach, what the persona of that demographic is, and what content you have available or are going to create to entice the target demographic to your site.
The right digital marketing strategy for a social media marketing campaign will begin by researching a variety of social media posts and social media accounts which your company likes the look of and wants to take inspiration from. This could include styles, images, or captions. In the strategy, it should state which social media platforms your business should use.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
- The main benefit of social media marketing is growing brand awareness on social media platforms
- You can easily share your brand’s story and mission which can help develop a deeper personal connection with your followers
- Customers can share information and feedback regarding the products and services on a business social media account
- Promoting your products and services in graphics, copy or videos
- Your business can respond in real time to their followers in comments of posts or through direct instant messaging
- Depending on what you post you can create conversations around important topics your company are passionate about sharing in the community
- A key aspect of social media marketing is analysing data through insights such as reach, impressions, audience etc.
What Social Media Platform is right for you?
Currently, according to Wikipedia (below), 191 different Social Media platforms are live (correct as of July 2018), with many of these sites accommodating different demographics and personas from all over the world.
Below is a list of each of those Social media Platforms, what they focus on and their subscription base (if known)
| Social media platform name | Description/focus of social media platform | Registered users on social media platform |
| Academia.edu | Social networking site for academics/researchers | 18,000,000 |
| About.me | Social networking site | 5,000,000 |
| Advogato | About. me | 13,575 |
| aNobii | Books | |
| AsianAvenue | A social network for the Asian American community | |
| aSmallWorld | European jet set and social elite worldwide | 550,000 |
| Athlinks | Running, swimming | 139,458 |
| Audimated.com | Independent music | |
| Bebo | General | 117,000,000 |
| Biip.no | Norwegian community | 430,000 |
| BlackPlanet | Black Americans | 20,000,000 |
| Bolt.com | General | |
| Busuu | Language learning community (headquartered in Madrid, Spain) | 12,000,000 |
| Buzznet | Music and pop-culture | 10,000,000 |
| CafeMom | Mothers | 1,250,000 |
| Care2 | Green living and social activism | 9,961,947 |
| CaringBridge | Not for profit providing free websites that connect family and friends during a serious health event, care and recovery. | 9,500,000 |
| Classmates.com | School, college, work, and the military | 50,000,000 |
| Cloob | General. Popular in Iran | |
| CouchSurfing | Worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the communities they visit. | 2,967,421 |
| CozyCot | East Asian and Southeast Asian women | 150,000 |
| Crunchyroll | Anime and forums. | |
| Cucumbertown | Networking for cooks | |
| Cyworld | General. Popular in South Korea. | 24,000,000 |
| DailyStrength | Medical & emotional support community – physical health, mental health, support groups | |
| delicious | Social bookmarking allowing users to locate and save websites that match their interests | 8,822,921 |
| DeviantArt | Art community | 26,000,000 |
| Diaspora* | Decentralized, user-owned, open source, nonprofit, privacy aware, general | 669,000 |
| Disaboom | People with disabilities (amputees, cerebral palsy, MS, and other disabilities) | |
| Dol2day | Politic community, social network, Internet radio (German-speaking countries) | 40,200 |
| DontStayIn | Clubbing (primarily UK) | |
| Draugiem.lv | General (primarily LV, LT, HU) | 2,600,466 |
| double | Chinese Web 2.0 website is providing user review and recommendation services for movies, books, and music. | 46,850,000 |
| Doximity | U.S. Physicians and medical doctors. | 400,000 |
| Dreamwidth | Blogging. | |
| DXY.cn | Chinese online community for physicians, health care professionals, pharmacies and facilities | 2,000,000 |
| Elftown | Community and wiki around fantasy and sci-fi. | 185,000 |
| Ello | General | |
| Elixio | Business executives jet set and global elite. | 80,000 |
| English, baby! | Students and teachers of English as a second language | 1,600,000 |
| Eons.com | For baby boomers and mature internet users age 40 and beyond. | |
| eToro | Social investing, finance | 2,500,000 |
| Experience Project | Life Experiences | |
| General: photos, videos, blogs, apps. | 1,280,000,000 | |
| Fetlife | People who are into BDSM | 2,701,715 |
| FilmAffinity | Movies and TV series | 250,000 |
| Filmow | Movies and TV series | |
| FledgeWing | Entrepreneurial community targeted towards worldwide university students | |
| Flixster | Movies | 63,000,000 |
| Flickr | Photo sharing, commenting, photography related networking, worldwide | 32,000,000 |
| Focus.com | Business-to-business, worldwide | 850,000 |
| Fotki | Photo sharing, video hosting, photo contests, journals, forums, flexible privacy protection, friend’s feed, audio comments, and unlimited custom design integration. | |
| Fotolog | Photoblogging. Popular in South America and Spain | 20,000,000 |
| Foursquare | Location-based mobile social network | 20,000,000 |
| Friendica | Distributed, federated, privacy aware, open source, general | |
| Friendster | General. Popular in Southeast Asia. No longer popular in the western world | 90,000,000 |
| Fuelmyblog | Blogging community | 50,000 |
| Fyuse | A spatial photography app and website which lets users capture and share interactive 3D images. | |
| Gab.ai | social networking service created as an alternative to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. | 310,000 |
| Gaia Online | Anime and games. Popular in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Moderately popular around Asia. | 23,523,663 |
| GamerDNA | Computer and video games | 310,000 |
| Gapyear.com | Travel social network | |
| Gather.com | The article, picture, and video sharing, as well as group discussions | 465,000 |
| Gays.com | Social network for the LGBT community, a guide for LGBT bars, restaurants, clubs, shopping | 100,000 |
| Geni.com | Families, genealogy | 15,000,000 |
| Gentlemint | Community for sharing and discussing all things manly | |
| GetGlue | Social network for entertainment. | 2,000,000 |
| GirlsAskGuys | A community where people help each other by sharing their experiences & opinions. | 450,000 |
| Gogoyoko | Fair play in music – a social networking site for musicians and music lovers. | |
| Goodreads | Library cataloging, book lovers. | 13,000,000 |
| Goodwizz | Social network with matchmaking and personality games to find new contacts. Global, based in France. | 110,000 |
| Google+ | General | 1,600,000,000 |
| Grindr | For gay and bisexual men. | 2,400,000 |
| Grono.net | Poland | 2,000,000 |
| Habbo | General for teens. Over 31 communities worldwide. Chat room and user profiles. | 268,000,000 |
| hi5 | General. Popular in Nepal, Mongolia, Thailand, Romania, Jamaica, Central Africa, Portugal, and Latin America. Not very popular in the United States. | 80,000,000 |
| Hospitality Club | Hospitality | 328,629 |
| Hotlist | Geo-social aggregator rooted in the concept of knowing where users’ friends are, were and will be. | 80,000 |
| HR.com | Social networking site for human resources professionals. | 194,000 |
| Hub Culture | Global influencers focused on worth creation. | 20,000 |
| Ibibo | Talent-based social networking site that allows users to promote themselves and discover new talent. Most popular in India. | 3,500,000 |
| Identi.ca | Twitter-like service is popular with hackers and software freedom advocates. | 395,695 |
| Indaba Music | Online collaboration for musicians, remix contests, and networking. | 350,000 |
| Influenster | Online product sampling and review platform. | 850,000 |
| A photo and video sharing site. | 300,000,000 | |
| IRC-Galleria | Finland | 505,000 |
| italki | Language learning social network. 100+ languages. | 500,000 |
| Jaiku | General. Microblogging. Owned by Google | |
| Jiepang | Location-based mobile social network. In the Chinese language | 3,000,000 |
| Kaixin001 | General. In Simplified Chinese; caters for mainland China users | |
| Kiwibox | General. | 2,400,000 |
| LaiBhaari | Marathi social networking | 250,000 |
| Last.fm | Music | 30,000,000 |
| Late Night Shots | Message boards, member profile pages, spotting other members | 20,000 |
| LibraryThing | Book lovers | 1,300,000 |
| Lifeknot | Shared interests, hobbies | |
| Business and professional networking | 200,000,000 | |
| LinkExpats | Social networking website for expatriates. 100+ countries. | |
| Listography | Lists. Autobiography | |
| LiveJournal | Blogging. Popular in Russia and among the Russian-speaking diaspora abroad. | 17,564,977 |
| Livemocha | Online language learning | 5,000,000 |
| Makeoutclub | General | |
| MEETin | General | |
| Meetup (website) | General. Used to plan offline meetings for people interested in various activities | |
| Meettheboss | Business and finance community, worldwide. | |
| MillatFacebook | General, created in response to Facebook [189] | 461,200 |
| Minds | Free, open source, decentralized and based on a foundation of transparency and privacy | 1,000,000 |
| mixi | Japan | 24,323,160 |
| MocoSpace | Mobile community, worldwide | 3,000,000 |
| MOG | Music | |
| MouthShut.com | The social network, social media, consumer reviews | |
| Mubi | Auteur cinema | 200,000 |
| MyHeritage | Family-oriented social network service | 30,000,000 |
| Myspace | General | 30,000,000 |
| Nasza-klasa.pl | School, college and friends. Popular in Poland | 11,000,000 |
| Netlog | General. Popular in Europe, Turkey, the Arab world and Canada’s Québec province. Formerly known as Facebox and Redbox.[210] | 95,000,000 |
| Nexopia | Canada | 1,400,000 |
| Ning | Users create their social websites and social networks | |
| Odnoklassniki | Connect with old classmates. Popular in Russia and former Soviet republics | 45,000,000 |
| Open Diary | First online blogging community, founded in 1998 | 5,000,000 |
| OUTeverywhere | Gay/LGBTQ community | |
| PatientsLikeMe | An online community for patients with life-changing illnesses to find other patients like them, share their data with others, and learn more about their condition to improve their outcome. | 109,587 |
| Partyflock | Dutch virtual community for people interested in house music and other electronic dance music. | 321,125 |
| Pingsta | A collaborative platform for the world’s internetwork experts | |
| Online pinboard for organizing and sharing things you love | ||
| Plaxo | Aggregator | 50,000,000 |
| Playfire | Computer and video games | |
| Playlist.com | General, music | |
| Plurk | Micro-blogging, RSS, updates. Very popular in Taiwan | |
| Poolwo | Social networking site from India | 12,350 |
| Quechup | General, friendship, dating | |
| Quora | Questions and answers | |
| Qzone | General. In Simplified Chinese; caters for mainland China users | 480,000,000 |
| Raptr | Video games | |
| Ravelry | Knitting and crochet | 3,000,000 |
| Renren | A significant site in China. Was known as 校内 (Xiaonei) until August 2009. | 160,000,000 |
| ReverbNation.com | Social network for musician and bands | 500,000 |
| Rooster Teeth | Social network and community site | 2,581,527 |
| ScienceStage | Science-oriented multimedia platform and network for scientists | |
| ShareTheMusic | Music community. Sharing and listening to music free and legally | |
| Shelfari | Books | |
| Sina Weibo | Social microblogging site in mainland China. | 300,000,000 |
| Skoob | Collaborative social network for Brazilian readers | 420,000 |
| Skyrock | The social network in the French-speaking world | 22,000,000 |
| SocialVibe | Social network for charity | 435,000 |
| Sonico.com | General. Popular in Latin America and Spanish and Portuguese speaking regions. | 50,000,000 |
| SoundCloud | Repository of original music pieces and networking. | 10,000,000 |
| Spaces | Russian social network targeted to mobile phone users | |
| Spot.IM | A service for webmasters to add social networking functionality to their websites | 250,000 |
| Spring.me | Social network for meeting people | |
| Streetlife | The UK based. Links members according to where they live | 1,000,000 |
| StudiVZ | University students, mostly in the German-speaking countries. School students and those out of education sign up via its partner sites schülerVZ and meinVZ. | 17,000,000 |
| Students Circle Network | A social network is connecting students, teachers and institutions to course resources, study groups and learning spaces. | |
| StumbleUpon | Stumble through websites that match users’ selected interests | 20,000,000 |
| Tagged | General. | 100,000,000 |
| Talkbiznow | Business networking | |
| Taringa! | General (primarily Argentina) | 11,000,000 |
| TeachStreet | Education / learning / teaching – more than 400 subjects | |
| TermWiki | Learning / languages / translation – 1.2 million terms in more than 1300 subjects | |
| The Sphere | A private online social luxury network with exclusive personalized services | 1,300 |
| TravBuddy.com | Travel | 1,588,000 |
| Travellerspoint | Travel | 310,000 |
| Tsu | General | |
| tribe.net | General | |
| Tuenti | Spanish-based university and high school social network. | 12,000,000 |
| Tumblr | Microblogging platform and social networking website. | 226,950,000 |
| General. Micro-blogging, RSS, updates | 645,750,000 | |
| Tylted | Mobile social game network[306] | 3,000,000 |
| Untappd | Beer check-in social network.[309] | 3,200,000 |
| Uplike | General | 1,050,039 |
| VK | General, including music upload, listening and search. Popular in Russia and former Soviet republics. | 249,409,900 |
| Vampirefreaks.com | Gothic and industrial subculture | 1,931,049 |
| Video | Global social networking and campus networking available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese | 35,000,000 |
| Virb | A social network that focuses heavily on artists, including musicians and photographers | |
| Vox | Blogging | |
| Wattpad | For readers and authors to interact and e-book sharing | |
| WAYN | Travel and lifestyle | 10,000,000 |
| WeeWorld | Teenagers – 9 to 17 | 30,000,000 |
| We Heart It | Image-based social network focused on inspiration, expression, and creativity | 20,000,000 |
| Wellwer | A community without borders, where sharing is everything. | |
| Wepolls.com | Social polling network | |
| weRead | Books | 4,000,000 |
| Wooxie | Blogging and micro-blogging | |
| WriteAPrisoner.com | Site networking inmates, friends, family | 66,000 |
| Xanga | Blogs and “metro” areas | 27,000,000 |
| Business (primarily Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)) | 11,100,000 | |
| Xt3 | Catholic social networking, created for World Youth Day 2008 | |
| Yammer | Social networking for office colleagues | |
| Yelp, Inc. | Local business review and talk | |
| Yookos | General: photos, videos, blogs, games. | |
| Zoo.gr | Greek web meeting point | 890,000 |
As you can see, with the complete variance of different social media platforms available, a good understanding of the demographics, the personas and the goals of the campaign can help you a long way and match you up with the right social media platform.
All social media platforms have their unique selling point, but some are more congested than others. For instance, if you are trying to sell a book, it might be easier to get noticed on ‘We Read‘ rather than ‘Twitter‘.
If you need help in finding the best social media platform for your business get in contact with HC Media Group today.