Discover the Perfect Platforms for Brand Awareness by Answering These 5 Questions
If you've been in marketing for the past few years, you've probably been asked, "Should we be on TikTok?" by an executive more than once. Before that, it was Snapchat and Instagram; even Facebook was considered a hot platform at one point.
So, what's the correct answer? Should your brand be on the hottest platforms? Or should you focus on the platforms you're already on? Of course, a yes or no answer would make everything so simple, but when is digital marketing ever simple?
The truth is every social media platform is a unique ecosystem. There are benefits to joining if you can provide their users with the content they are looking for. However, that doesn't mean you should film your CEO dancing to a Dua Lipa song just yet.
Before pulling out the tripod and learning viral choreography, ask yourself these five questions about whether the platform is right for your brand at this time:
1. Does your content match the platform?
To answer the question of whether your brand should be on TikTok, the first thing to ask yourself is whether your content matches the platform. Suppose your content team is heavy on writers and designers. In that case, your time might be better spent on your own platforms, like developing content for organic SEO or explainer videos on YouTube. But if you're a dance company, your content creation capabilities are an excellent match for TikTok.
There is a lot of grey area here, but the idea is to play to your strengths. That way, when you encounter users on a platform, they associate you with what you are good at, not a clumsy attempt to jump onto the latest social media trend.
When Platforms and Content Don't Match
Your boss making a cheesy video for TikTok most likely wouldn't do too much to hurt your brand in the long run unless it goes viral for all the wrong reasons. But creating content for the wrong platform can have more severe consequences.
Misinformation has been plaguing social media platforms like Facebook in recent years. This issue has caused users to call for more government oversight. Interestingly, according to Pew Research Center, there is a disparity between the platforms journalists choose to publish news on and where users prefer to get their news.
In the infographic above, you can see that Twitter is the platform preferred by professional journalists, but Facebook is where more users prefer to get their news. Even more interesting is that according to experts in social media, Facebook is among the least prepared to handle misinformation of all the platforms. And although TikTok is rising as a social media news source, they are even less effective at controlling misinformation.
So, should journalists move their content to Facebook and TikTok to lend credibility to the platforms? Or should users look for news on different platforms? The reality is that neither party is likely to change its content distribution or consumption habits anytime soon. But it does bring up the critical question of who is currently on the platform.
2. Who's on the platform already?
When it comes to choosing the right platform, think about the audience that's already on there first. Creating demand for your content is a costly gamble. Giving users what they are already searching for is usually a win-win. So, it's essential to look at the demographics of each platform to determine if there is value in connecting with their users.
According to the 2021 Pew Research Center Social Media Fact Sheet, 72% of the US public uses some type of social media. To go back to the TikTok example, only 21% of these social media users are on TikTok, and 48% are between the ages of 18-29. If your social media strategy centers around Gen Z, TikTok makes a lot of sense. But if you're going for adults ages 30-49, you're only going to find 22% of them on TikTok. Meanwhile, 91% of adults between the ages of 30-49 are on YouTube. So, if you are sitting in a meeting debating where to launch a campaign targeting Millennials, look at Pew’s social media fact sheet first.
Aside from researching demographics like age, you should also check out the content on the platforms you are considering. Is it relevant to your industry or niche? Are there content gaps that you can fill? How many people follow or view a particular hashtag? What types of influencers have the biggest following? These are all things to consider before launching a social media campaign.
If you're trying to reach women, have you considered Pinterest? According to HootSuite, 77.1% of their users are women. Men are on Reddit more than women, and most other platforms are relatively balanced regarding gender.
Once you have nailed down what content you would like to create and where to distribute it, you can begin thinking of what format makes the most sense to convey your knowledge.
3. What's the best format to convey your knowledge?
Choosing the right platform for your content is also about selecting the correct format. Visual platforms like Instagram and TikTok make perfect sense if you're in the beauty industry. But if you're a thought leader in technology, these platforms may be a part of your content distribution strategy, but you might want to focus on long-form formats like podcasts and YouTube, where people are already following thought leaders and searching for information in your niche.
You might think that nobody has time to watch an 8-minute explainer video about 5G technology, but watch time and average view duration are important metrics on YouTube. So, creating engaging long-form content gives your brand a better chance than only producing short-form content. In this case, you would make the 8-minute video, then create short snippets to promote the video across social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. So, it's not about choosing one platform over the other but using them to your advantage.
Video Formats
There was a time not too long ago when shooting, editing, and uploading videos was time-consuming, tedious, and expensive. Today, shooting and sharing videos is easier than ever. That doesn't necessarily mean everyone should be publishing videos, but it makes a strong argument for it.
According to Sprout Social, 85% of social media users want more videos from brands. And yet video is still an underutilized format across social media platforms. We can all be a little camera shy, but with content creation platforms like Canva or even iMovie, you can edit together a video with ease, and you don't even have to be in it if you get creative.
Audio Formats
If shooting videos sounds like too much work, audio formats might be right up your alley. You can record a podcast in your pajamas and give people a more intimate experience of your personality than you could by writing a blog on the same subject, for example (ideally, you would do both).
Aside from podcasting platforms, you can also use audio on video platforms like YouTube or Instagram Stories. Instead of filming yourself, record a voiceover and play b-roll footage. Audio formats also allow you to be conversational and long-winded without losing your audience.
Written Formats
No matter what platform you're working on, writing is always a part of the process. From video scripts to optimized headlines, a good writer should always be at the helm of brand communications.
Quality writing is crucial to success when it comes to long-form content, like ebooks, white papers, annual reports, and cornerstone content pieces. Search engines rank things like content, context, grammar, proper spelling, and best practices when it comes to digital copy. It's also an excellent way to document your process when you don't have time to edit a video or create social media images. It's the foundation for your content.
4. How does the platform fit into your long-term brand strategy?
By now, you've thought about your audience, the platforms they are already on, and the types of content they consume on those platforms. But those aren't the only considerations. You must tie all of these elements to your brand strategy for your brand to achieve long-term success.
What happens if you spend your entire marketing budget on Instagram ads and followers, and then the platform falls out of favor with your target audience? (Remember Friendster and MySpace?) If you didn't spend time bringing people into your sales funnel from the platform, you could lose a lot of money and possibly most of the audience you spent time developing over the years.
In this case, investing in platforms like your brand's official website, creating organic content for search engines, and promoting your brand through word of mouth is a better investment for your long-term brand strategy. That doesn't mean you can avoid social media platforms entirely, but only as content distribution platforms and places to run ads, make sales, and develop a community. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. And only focusing on social media platforms leaves you at the mercy of their leadership decisions, government regulations, and the platform's reputation.
5. Do you have the bandwidth to create content and engage with your audience consistently?
When researching a brand, I always pay attention to the last time they posted content and how frequently they engage on platforms. If some comments or reviews have yet to be responded to, they have very few blog posts or dated content; I know that they are not investing the time and money in content marketing that it takes to keep a brand current across platforms.
When choosing the right platform, make sure you have the time and capability to be on the platform consistently and engage with the people who follow you and the people you want to follow your brand.
On the footer of this website, we write that we are not on social media. It's not because we're against social media. But as a solopreneur, I focus my content creation efforts on writing blogs and posting them on my LinkedIn account instead of creating short-form social media content. They aren't mutually exclusive, but I have to prioritize. So, I will launch a social media strategy when I have the budget and bandwidth. But for now, I want my audience to see that I am still active in creating long-form content since that's what I do for most of my clients at the moment.
It all comes down to strategy and priorities
Choosing the right platforms for your content strategy is all about priorities. Even the most prominent companies must ensure that their marketing budget provides a return on investment, so sinking money into the wrong platform will always be costly. If you've made the sacrifices necessary to start your own brand, be careful not to overcommit and underproduce on platforms that may not even have the audience you're looking for.
Don't be the person who listens to one Gary Vaynerchuk podcast, walks into the office, and says we need to be on TikTok right now. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to content marketing, especially if your goal is to create a purpose-driven brand.
