YouTube

There’s a reason plenty of businesses have embraced social media marketing wholeheartedly: it gives them the chance to reach a wide range of potential customers. Facebook alone had approximately 2.19 billion active monthly users in the first quarter of 2018. Additionally, surveys indicate that people tend to access social media platforms multiple times a day. This gives marketers many opportunities to reach their audience.

Of course, marketers still need to abide by key best practices in order to leverage social media to its full potential. Partnering with experts at a YouTube or Facebook marketing agency can be a great way to learn these practices. This guide will also help you better understand each major platform, and how you can advertise effectively on them.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the most useful social media platforms for marketers, not only because it boasts a high number of users, but also because it offers tools to enhance and monitor a campaign.

Facebook allows marketers to target specific types of people when they run ads, using factors like geography, interests, and demographics to define an audience. Facebook also lets marketers track a wide range of metrics to assess how a campaign is performing.

It’s worth noting that Facebook is helpful because it allows marketers to post several different types of ads, including video ads, carousels, and individual images with text. To start using this platform, create a Facebook Business account.

Instagram

Did you know that 80% of Instagram users say they follow at least one business on the platform? That may be because Instagram lets marketers run visually compelling ads that don’t feel like they’re cluttering a user’s feed.

On a platform like Facebook, where posts can take several different forms, an ad doesn’t always blend into the newsfeed naturally. On Instagram, where the vast majority of posts are pictures or images, ads are more seamless. Brands can also leverage hashtags to attract customers interested in similar products or services.

YouTube

Content marketing is effective because it offers customers genuine value. Video content marketing is helpful because, as long as a potential customer watches a video through to completion, this type of ad lets you maintain engagement for an extended period of time.

Brands can publish videos on YouTube that tell a deeper story or offer more information than a basic image and text ad could. Companies can also monetize their channels with ads from other businesses.

LinkedIn

According to some experts, LinkedIn remains the most effective social media platform for marketing a B2B business. That’s because the user base typically consists of professionals who use the platform to post or find jobs and network with others in their industry.

LinkedIn is unique because you can generally be confident a person using it is willing to interact with a business. In fact, that’s what the platform is designed for. This isn’t the case with other social media sites, where users may typically rely on to stay in touch with family members or friends.

Snapchat

Because Snapchat is particularly attractive to Millennial users, it’s a helpful marketing tool for brands that serve younger customers.

Of course, Snapchat content is designed to disappear after a set amount of time. Instead of using it to publish evergreen marketing content, marketers can use Snapchat for more spontaneous and exclusive advertising tactics. For example, you could publish a short video of a behind-the-scenes event related to your brand. Customers will appreciate the innovative form of advertising you publish on this unique platform.

Deciding which of these platforms to focus on involves evaluating what kind of business you run. If you tend to serve other brands, LinkedIn is essential. If you market to Millennials, you need to be on Snapchat. Facebook, on the other hand, can be useful to companies in a wide range of industries.

As always, it’s important to experiment. The more you play around with different social media marketing tactics and platforms, the easier it is to find out what does and does not work.

About the Author: Rae Steinbach is a graduate of Tufts University with a combined International Relations and Chinese degree. After spending time living and working abroad in China, she returned to NYC to pursue her career and continue curating quality content. Rae is passionate about travel, food, and writing (of course)