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Social Media Marketing: Popular Platforms

Thank you to Georgetown University for allowing us to reuse their Social Media Marketing LibGuide.

How to choose a platform

  • Take a look at the demographics for each social media platform to find where your target audience is most active
  • Choose the application that will benefit you most
  • Use one or a select few applications very well rather than using multiple social media outlets without being able to keep up with them all

Demographics

Use of different online platforms by demographic groups

What are social media platforms used for?

What social media are used for in the US

Leading social media platforms used by marketers

Leading social media platforms used by marketers worldwide as of January 2018

Overviews of select social platforms

Which social media sites do you want to target?

   Facebook                                                                                                                                    

BEST FOR: Social Networking

   "Facebook is a social network service and website, which was launched in February 2004." - Facebook: The Most Popular Social Network

Facebook Most Popular

      See: Facebooking The Past

             Using Facebook and Tumblr to Engage Students

   Instagram                                                                                                                                                                                                  BEST FOR: Photo Sharing

 "Instagram is a photo sharing app for iPhones that makes it easy to take pictures on a iPhone and share them with your Twitter followers, Facebook friends, or connections on your Instagram account. Instagram allows users to apply a series of filters to their photos in order to create a vintage look for their images that resembles a polaroid." - Business Insider

      See: Five Ways Marketers Can Use Instagram

   Pinterest                                                                                                                                        

BEST FOR: Visual Inspiration

   "Pinterest is the virtual version of cutting out pictures from a magazine and hanging them on a bulletin board. The social media site allows people to create boards and "pin" images to their board that they want to share with others." -Should Pinterest Be Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy

      See: Surprising Pinterests Insights Every Marketer Needs

             Infographic: The Role of Pinterest Inside & Outside the Classroom

  • 87% of Pinterest users are female
  • The most popular age range is 35-44 (29%) followed by ages 25-34 (27%)
  • The average income of users is between $25,000-49,999 (37%) followed by $50,000-74,999 (33%)

         Statistics from http://blog.omnipress.com/2012/07/5-tips-pinterest-target-audience-association/

   Twitter                                                                                                                                          

BEST FOR: Social Networking

   "The popular social networking website and micro-blogging service allows users to post their latest updates in a quick, burst-like fashion of 140 characters or less. It’s basically mass texting via website and is probably one of the simplest things you will ever do." - Digital Trends: How To Use Twitter

       See: 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter

              How Higher Education Professionals Are Using Twitter

   Youtube                                                                                                                                                                                                  

BEST FOR: Video Sharing

    "Youtube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. Youtube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small." -Youtube

      See: 7 Things You Should Know About Youtube

  • Adult Men: Audience 27.9 million men, ages 18-54, Reach 62% of men all ages 18-24 are on Youtube.
  • Adult Women: Audience 34.7 million women ages 18-54, Reach 55% of all women ages 18-54 are on Youtube.
  • Teens: Audience 21.6 million teens, Reach 54% of all teens are on Youtube.
  • Hispanics: Audience 8.6 million Hispanics, Reach 59% of all Hispanics are on Youtube.

   VoiceThread                                                                                                                                                                     

BEST FOR: Interactive Presentation

    "With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected from anywhere in the world at any time and shared in one place, all with no   software to install. A VoiceThread is a collaborative, interactive, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos. It allows people to navigate through the slides and leave comments in 5 ways: using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file (for VoiceThread Pro users), or video (via a webcam)."

         See: 7 Things You Should Know About VoiceThread

         VIDEO: An Introduction to VoiceThread

   Blogger / Wordpress                                                                                                                                                                                   

BEST FOR: Blogging

   "A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules." - Blogger

 

 See: 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs

         

  • 53.3% of bloggers are 21-35 years old
  • 20.2% of bloggers are under 20 years old
  • 19.4% of bloggers are 36-50 years old

   LinkedIn                                                                                                                                                                               

BEST FOR: Professional Networking

   "With a LinkedIn profile, you can connect with former classmates, browse job listings by locations and job field, and contact fellow professionals in your field to increase your professional network." - What Is LinkedIn?

 LinkedIn stats also show that 59% of users are male and 41% are female.   Of these users 21% are between the ages of 18 – 24, 36% are between the ages of 25 – 34, 36% are between the ages of 35 – 54 and 7% are 54 and over. [Source]