Let me guess, between trying to rank on google, go viral on TikTok, and grow your follower count on Instagram, your head is spinning, and you’re starting to feel like a full time content creator instead of a business owner? Well, no more! In today’s post I’ll break down pros and cons of the most popular social media platforms, and help you choose the best social media platform for marketing your small business, so you can focus your efforts, eliminate overwhelm, and see real results.  

Three things to consider when narrowing the choices

Before we get into the specifics of each platform, there are a few things you’ll need to know first. Each of these will help you build a marketing foundation that not only get results but feels good to create. 

Decide how much time you’re willing/able to commit to it

This is without a doubt the most important factor and the number one thing that female founders fail to consider when deciding which platform is best for their business – their time.  It’s undeniable that the thing all social media platforms have in common is the need for consistency. Without realistically and honestly assessing the amount of time you are willing and able to spend on social media, you’re setting yourself up for inconsistency, burnout, or failure.  This will ebb and flow during different seasons in your business, but each time you consider adding or prioritizing a social media platform to your marketing strategy, it’s crucial to assess the amount of time it will take to perform well and decide whether or not that is realistic for your business.   

Here are a few questions to consider when deciding how much time you’re able to commit:

• How much time, per week, can I (or my team) commit to social media?
• How much time, per week, will this platform require of me (or my team)?
• Is the content produced on this platform something that I can easily repurpose?
• What systems/resources will I need in order to begin marketing on this platform and what does the time investment of that setup look like?
• What style of content is easiest/fastest for me to create? (writing, video, audio recording, etc.)

Define your ideal client/target audience

I know you hear this everywhere, but it’s true the first step in building any successful marketing strategy, including selecting the right social media platform is to define your ideal client or target audience. Who your ideal client is, their demographics, interests, and preferences will influence the platforms where they are most likely to engage with your content. The more you know about your ideal client the better decision you’ll be able to make. 

Here are a few questions to consider when defining your ideal client:

• What stage of life are they in? 
• What’s their gender?
• Where do they enjoy spending their time, money, or energy?
• Are they more influenced by photos or video?
• What does their typical day look like?

Determine your goals

Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses when it comes to achieving specific marketing objectives, and some platforms are better than others for particular places in your funnel. Your goals will determine not only what platform is best, but also the type of content you create, the audience you market to, and more. So, is your goal for this platform to increase your visibility and reach more new people? Is it to drive traffic to your website? Or grow your email list? Or is it to nurture your existing audience and increase conversions and referrals? It’s easy to say “well I want it to do all of that” but your strategy will be most effective if you can narrow down one or two specific goals. 

Here are a few questions to consider when determining your goals:

• What do I need most in my business right now: more exposure or more conversions?
• Do I want to use social media to convert (or email, my website, etc)?
• How do you plan to measure the success of your social media efforts?

Once you’ve assessed how much time you have to commit, defined your ideal client, and determined your goals – you’ll be able to weigh those three things against the pros and cons of each platform you’re considering to make the best choice. 

Evaluate the Pros and Cons of Each Social Platform

Below is a breakdown of each of the most popular social media platforms. I assessed them based on each of the factors above.

Time Investment: the level of output required to grow, the average purchase intent of users, and length of content lifespan. 

Ideal Client: the number of active users, the type of content that is posted, the demographic that is most likely to see your content.

Your goals: the funnel phase or type of lead generation that it’s best for.

Instagram 

• Over 2 billion users
• Mix of photo and video content
• Most likely to see your content: Millennial women
• Users spend about 30 minutes per day on the platform
• Best for: Trust building/Nurturing (80% use Instagram to help decide if they’re going to buy something.)
• Level of output required: 8/10 (recommended 1 post per day + daily stories + daily engagement for growth)
• Purchase intent: 7/10
• Content Lifespan: 4/10

TikTok 

• Over 1 billion users
• Most likely to see your content: Gen Z women
• Video driven platform where less-polished short videos perform best 
• Dominating the US market as the platform that Americans spend the most amount of time (95 minutes per day) consuming content on. 
• Best for: High Visibility 
• Level of output required: 9/10 (recommended 5 posts per day + daily engagement for growth)
• Purchase intent: 5/10
• Content Lifespan: 1/10

Youtube

• Over 2 billion users
• Most likely to see your content: Millennial Women 
• Users spend about 45 minutes per day on the platform
• Best for: Exposure (especially great for educators)
• Level of output required: 7/10
• Purchase intent: 6/10
• Content Lifespan: 3/10

Linkedin

• About 875 million users
• Most likely to see your content: Millennial Men
• Users spend about 34 minutes per day on the platform
• Best for: B2B lead generation
• Purchase intent: 3/10 
• Level of output required: 8/10
• Content Lifespan: 2/10

Facebook

• 3 billion active users
• Users spend about 33 minutes per day on the platform
• Most likely to see your content: Men age 25-34
• Best for: Advertising & Customer Service
• Level of output required: 8/10
• Purchase intent: 4/10
• Content Lifespan: 2/10

Pinterest

Contrary to popular belief, Pinterest actually isn’t a social media platform at all, but since it often gets lumped together with social media and it’s one of my favorite visibility platforms, I decided it was worth mentioning. 

• About 445 million active users
• Users spend about 14 minutes per day on the platform
• Most likely to see your content: Women age 25-34
• Best for discoverability: 97% of top Pinterest searches are unbranded, meaning they’re just looking for someone who can offer a solution or inspiration (aka you)
• Level of output required: 5/10
• Purchase intent: 9/10
• Content Lifespan: 10/10

Phew, that was a lot. But now that you have all the deets, you can make the best decision for your business from all aspects. In general, I recommend that my clients have a presence on at least two platforms for visibility. 

My preferred platforms 

My preferred platforms for curating a soft, sustainable digital marketing strategy are Instagram and Pinterest for discoverability, and then I leverage email marketing for conversion.

While social media is an amazing free (and fun) marketing tool – there’s one super important disclaimer that I need to mention. Relying solely on social media to build your business is extremely risky (10/10 do not recommend). 

The best way to use social media for your business is to capture the attention of your ideal client, and funnel them off of the app (and on to your email list or website) as soon as possible. It’s gotten all too common in this age of digital marketing to rely on building a following and converting in the DM’s as a growth strategy, but all it takes is one hacker, one Instagram glitch, or one Congress bill (too soon?) to make it all come crashing down.

Ultimately, social media should be just one part of your overall marketing strategy, complementing other channels such as email marketing, SEO, and long form content. By diversifying your marketing efforts, you’ll build a stronger and more resilient business in the long run.

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In case we haven’t met yet, I’m Michaela – content writer, behind the scenes expert, and chaos coordinator (aka the virgo energy to your creative spirit). And I’m completely obsessed with helping you turn your journal full of ideas into profit driving offers with research backed strategy, magnetic content, and streamlined systems.

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