Social Media: Make sure you’re using the right platform

New entrants into the social media arena offer additional opportunities to reach segmented audiences.  But which are best for your business?

Do you know which social media platform is best for your business?  Research undertaken in August 2012 by MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute  provides some useful insights.  Whilst the survey base was B2B enterprises in North America, it’s likely that the UK and Europe will follow similar trends.

Some 87% of respondents claimed to use social media to drive content awareness.  As tracking and moderating social media feeds can be a drain on the time of key people in the business, it’s useful to understand which platforms warrant the most attention. 

So who’s tops and, perhaps more importantly, what are the trends?

B2B Social Media Trends

Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are pretty much equal with around 80% of respondents claiming to use them (up from around 70% in 2011 suggesting the trend is entrenched but maybe plateauing). 

One interpretation of this is that businesses are playing safe and posting to all three so that they don’t miss out.  If this is the case then we can expect a fourth to be joining the top tier soon in the shape of Google+ which shows clear growth.

The interesting trend is the appearance of many new entrants.  This could be the start of some serious fragmentation in the social media world.  Some of the strongest starts are among platforms that are “graphically” oriented.  It will be interesting to see if Instagram, Foursquare, Vimeo and Pinterest start to align more with particular industry types and whether they start to take share away from the likes of YouTube.

Of course, any trend towards more graphically oriented sites will require businesses to produce images and videos of suitable quality, and in sufficient quantity, to maintain a competitive presence.  This would mean diverting budget into a new area which, given current market conditions, might be a bold move for some.

If your business offering lends itself to graphical formats it may pay to create some appropriate assets and test the water.  These new formats certainly look set to attract new visitors over the coming year, but whether they generate sustainable business remains to be seen.

In the meantime, if time is limited, it looks like posting to at least one of the top three platforms will see your content distributed amongst the largest audiences actively using social tools.

Search for: 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks – North America, Marketing Profs, Content Marketing Institute.

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