Having the right social media presence crucial for your business

Whether it’s Facebook or Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram, almost everyone is on some form of social media these days. Almost 4 billion people are on a social media platform, and according to Pew Research, 72% of Americans engage with it every month. 

Therefore, from a marketing and advertising perspective, it’s of crucial importance to understand the best way of conveying your message on each medium. This is a massive pool of potential customers you can cast your net into. However, identifying and getting in front of the right audience is the challenge. 

Facebook, which is in the process of rebranding itself to Meta, is still a monolith in terms of traffic, with 2.9 billion active users each month — ahead of YouTube’s 2.2 billion, Instagram’s 1.4 billion and TikTok’s 1 billion. Facebook, like other older social media (e.g. Twitter), is predominantly text-driven with an algorithm powered by textual recognition and repetition. Much like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), its algorithm is driven by trending terms and volume, as well as shares of material deemed to be from authoritative sources. As such, Facebook can offer a valuable synergy with other SEO and backlink strategies.

However, Facebook users are predominantly in the older 25-54 demographic and above, and many people under 30 regard Facebook as “your parents’ social media,” preferring the more visually-driven Instagram, Snapchat, and, particularly among teens and those under 30, TikTok. 

Roughly 62% of TikTok’s 1 billion users are under age 30, and 60% of those users are female. 

Unlike the text-dominated Facebook, TikTok is a condensed video medium, giving it an advantage in quickly conveying information. Studies show that whereas only 10-20% of information is captured upon reading it the first time, over 90% of information in video has that same quick resonance.

That new paradigm of information gathering was echoed in a recent study from the New Media Insight Project showing 91% of people under 40 get their weekly news from social media, with 40% getting it from video channels on YouTube, and more than half under 25 turning to TikTok.

Social media is an opportunity to build quality, personal and lasting relationships with your customers. Knowing which media suits your message best allows you to create a social media presence that supports your goals and business needs, whether that’s Facebook, TikTok or some up-and-coming platform that’s yet to fully emerge. 

Sean Leary is vice president of creative and web at TAG, Davenport. He can be reached at seanl@tagteamagency.com.

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