Social Media Success Depends on Selecting the Social Media Platform That’s Right for Your Marketing Needs.

Selecting the social media networks that best meet your organization’s needs is among the critical decisions marketers make. The decision creates the foundation for all social media campaigns.

Some companies want to jump on every social media platform. Some marketers chase the newest, hottest network like teen-agers chasing the latest band. However, most companies don’t have to be active on every network. Depending on the business, focusing on the major ones — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube — could also be a mistake.

Each social media platform has its pros and cons, even while many platforms have overlapping audiences.

CMO’s Guide to the 2014 Social Landscape, an infographic, provides worthwhile insights into the pros and cons of the major networks based on value to SEO, brand awareness, customer communication and traffic generation. The annual review began in 2012 with the big four, and expanded to cover Pinterest, Instagram and Google+ in 2013. SlideShare was added this year.

New Trends Unveiled

The infographic reveals some new trends.

Referral traffic from Twitter is growing faster than on any other platform. Photos and videos can make tweets more clickable, while paying for promoted tweets can attract larger audiences.

Other platforms received mixed reviews.

By a wide margin, Facebook remains the leader in traffic generation, but its share of referred visits fell 15 percent last year. It’s also effective for SEO and customer communication, but may be weakening in brand awareness. A recent survey of over 100 brand pages shows that its organic reach dropped 49 percent in the four months following October 2013. Facebook remains by far the most important social media network to reach consumers.

LinkedIn is in the second-tier for SEO and brand awareness, and offers good opportunities for improving brand awareness and customer communication. LinkedIn’s professional audience makes it a primary choice for B2B marketing and PR.

YouTube is excellent for customer communication and an important source of traffic, but its share has dropped.

Go Where the Customers Are

Businesses that have limited social media marketing resources face the conundrum of too many social networks with too little budget and time. The quandary is in choosing the most appropriate and effective social network or set of networks to meet the organization’s marketing and PR goals. The simple answer: select the social platforms that your customers use and which have features that meet your marketing objectives.

Gary Vaynerchuk, chief executive of VaynerMedia and a widely-recognized expert on social media, offered his own succinct overview of the positioning of the major social networks in The New York Times. Facebook remains so large it’s mandatory. Instagram, the newest large social network and owned by Facebook, is popular with 15 to 45 year olds. Pinterest is best for businesses with visually oriented products for women like clothing and flowers. Snapchat is best for youth-oriented brands.

Most social media experts regard Twitter as mandatory for providing online customer service.

Royce Leather, a manufacturer of high-end leather goods featured in the New York Times article, epitomizes the struggle small businesses face when they market through social media. The company worked to build a presence on Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat, but soon abandoned the effort. Luxury goods customers ranging in age from 30 to 70 weren’t on those social networks. The company then turned to LinkedIn and Facebook.

While Royce has garnered more than 100,000 likes on Facebook, it’s still not clear if the company’s social media efforts are paying off. The audience of engaged 18- to 24-year-olds is outside the company’s target market. But 100,000 likes and penetration into the Facebook network can be addicting to a marketer. “Even if they aren’t paying customers, or even if we don’t know who they are, their networks will see that they endorse our product,” says Royce CEO Andrew Royce Bauer.

Because Royce’s investment in social media marketing did not include paid advertising, the sunk cost was minimal. Bauer believes that the brand awareness created on Facebook will eventually translate to sales. More likely, engaging the more mature professional audience on LinkedIn will prove to be a better marketing investment for a maker of consumer luxury goods, even though LinkedIn is more oriented to B2B products.

Bottom Line: The social media platform for your organization or brand is the platform that your customers use and that enables you to fulfill your marketing goals.

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