The Ongoing Battle on Social Media: Who Reigns Supreme?
With the prevalence of mobile devices, digital marketing is rapidly becoming the way to market anything. Whether it’s toothpaste, car insurance, pet care, or – curiously – funeral services, the internet and social media has created an all-new marketing landscape.
This new landscape focuses on interpersonal relationships, genuine or perceived, and marketers are reaching towards study after study to determine which social media platform guarantees that relationship that converts into sales.
But here’s the thing: there’s no such guarantee.
What is there are target demographics that are rapidly evolving to become as niche and specific as possible while still catering to the general public. In this article, we’ll tackle the social media giants that have succeeded in doing exactly that, in one form or another – and what kind of crowd you can expect to face when marketing your product or service on the platforms.
When it comes to social media, it’s practically impossible not to mention Facebook in the conversation. It’s such a presence in most people’s lives that the platform has made several official appearances in various court proceedings for various reasons – many of which Facebook has been a pioneering force, like the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018.
That being said, if you’re looking to showcase your product or service to influencers and “cool kids”, you’re better off looking towards the platform’s competitors. Facebook is “for old people”, according to Newsweek, which had published an article to this effect back in 2018 (it was an eventful year for Facebook).
To that effect, the Facebook crowd is more interested in keeping in contact with family and coworkers, and less with keeping up with the tastemaking trends. If you’re looking to advertise on Facebook, focusing on family or professional relationships or presenting your product as something they can recommend to family and friends are likely the best strategies to use.
Before proceeding, a little nugget of information that should be known: Facebook acquired the photo-sharing platform in 2012 for a whopping 1 billion US dollars. This controversial acquisition brought forward a lot of questions about platform monopolizing, but that’s a story for another time.
The story for today is that, despite sharing the same proverbial house, Facebook and Instagram can’t be any more different.
For one thing, the user base for Instagram is predominantly younger compared to Facebook’s – over 60% of Instagram users are under 35, and with considerable buying power. Instagram is where influencers and creatives thrive; Instagram users pride themselves on individuality, and so appealing to uniqueness and tastemaking goes a long way towards developing a commercial foothold on the platform.
Twitter boasts over 300 million active monthly users – and boy, are those users active.
The microblogging platform is where celebrity and personality meet rapid-fire updates head-on. The platform has made household names out of politicians better than their own campaigns have, and the millions of entertainment personalities vying for the “Verified Account” check mark next to their username created something of a paradoxical exclusive club for who’s-who that everyone can watch and throw popcorn at.
That is to say, Twitter banks heavily on entertainment in flash-quick doses – be it reputable news sources to celebrity feuds tweeted back and forth in real time. Just ask American country-pop musician Taylor Swift, whose reputation took a steep nosedive thanks to a post made by Kim Kardashian-West on the platform.
The details don’t need recounting; the important takeaway from the whole drama is that, used capably, Twitter can make or break your brand’s reputation as long as you can make it entertaining. If you’re considering Twitter for your product or service, be ready to provide content regularly, or risk losing the attention of your target market.
These three are just a few of the platforms that you need to look out for as a digital advertiser. The important question to ask, when marketing on these platforms, is whether or not you have a clear idea of who your brand is for – marketing strategies can be adjusted to suit each platform, but a poorly formed brand identity will turn off potential customers almost universally.
Like what you’ve read? Stay tuned to our blog for more digital advertising insights like this.
