With billions of global users, social media is one of the most important channels for promoting your website. One problem for website owners is which social media platforms to use. Trying to market your online business across many platforms would take up considerable time and be very expensive. A more focused approach, choosing those which are more likely to generate the best ROI and which will help you meet your goals is the more effective solution. With this in mind, we’ll consider some of the most important social media platforms for marketing your website.
- Facebook
For sheer reach, Facebook has to be on any website’s list of social media platforms. The numbers of users are staggering, with 2.3 billion people using the site at least once a month and 1.15 billion using it every day. Significant also, is that it is used in most countries and, unlike many social media sites, is popular across most age ranges. In the UK, for example, it has 3 million users over the age of 65 and 12 million aged between 25 and 34. The site also seems to appeal equally to men as to women, with broadly equal numbers in each age range.Facebook is an ideal place to post about your website as users can like, share and comment on the things you post, helping to spread your content to a wider audience. It also offers paid advertising, which is often less expensive than AdWords PPC. And with users offering up so much personal information on Facebook, the ability to target ads precisely at the those you want to attract is there for the taking.
For eCommerce websites, there’s the added bonus that lets you sell directly from your store without your customers having to leave Facebook. And when it comes to communicating with your customers, there is Messenger, which has 1.2 billion active users and which now can be used for advertising too.
- Instagram
Part of the Facebook family, Instagram is a rapidly growing social media platform that is proving to be a big favourite for the millennial and generation-Z populations. In the UK, 80% of those aged between 18 and 34 have Instagram accounts and this number makes up 60% of the total UK Instagram users, which is currently 17 million. Globally, that figure is 700 million.The essential difference between Facebook and Instagram is that the latter focuses on letting users share their photos and video. In this sense, it seems to combine features of Facebook and YouTube for those with an interest in posting and viewing highly visual content.
This makes Instagram an ideal place to share images and videos from your website, including product photos or portfolios of the work you do. It’s also useful for telling brand stories, and you can share live video with your followers using Instagram Stories.
A benefit of using both Facebook and Instagram is that you can link accounts. This means you can post images from Facebook to Instagram and vice versa. You can also use Facebook Messenger to connect to Instagram, though Instagram does have its own messaging system called Instagram Direct.
- Twitter
With 330 million users, Twitter seems, at first, like a less attractive option. However, although smaller, it punches well above its weight. You just have to listen to the news or visit a news website or app to see how influential Tweets can be. Facebook and Instagram posts seldom get wide television and newspaper coverage, Twitter posts, on the other hand, get mentioned all the time.From President Trump’s outbursts to the #me-too movement, Tweets generate responses, start conversations and spark arguments. And these trending topics quickly become big news. For this reason, Twitter is a key social media platform for those websites wanting to share information about their products or services that are designed to get people talking.
Other uses for Twitter include tweeting and linking to content you have published on your website or on other platforms, such as blog posts, new product launches or special offers. It’s also a place to get noticed by joining in trending conversations.
Like most social media platforms, Twitter offers paid advertising and there is a range of ad formats you can choose from. One solution is to promote your tweets so that they get seen by your target audience. You can even promote a hashtag trend to engage a wider demographic.
Conclusion
Although there are many social media platforms around, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are still the major options when it comes to promoting your website. Between them, they have massive global reach, provide highly targeted advertising, have opportunities for your content to be shared to wider audiences and, with Facebook, you can even sell directly from the site.
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