2.2 Social Media Platforms and Use
Social Media Usage
Social media is complex and rapidly changing. While there is some overlap between personal and business, one way to improve the understanding of social media is to think about social media zones. Social media zones include social communities, publishing, entertainment, and commerce. Consider the different ways you use social media and the zones you utilize. You probably use all of the zones.
Social communities focus on activities and relationships and include social networking sites (online hosts such as Facebook and LinkedIn), forums, wikis, and message boards, channels where you may already participate. Think about your profile. Whatever you type becomes a digital version of you. In social communities, you communicate and socialize with others. While you may share information with others, you must be careful how much and what information you post.
Common Social Media Platforms
What’s hot in social media is a moving target, but the following table lists and describes primary social media platforms.
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Blogs | Long- or short-form medium for communicating with audiences |
| YouTube | Video-hosting social media site |
| X | Short-form (140 characters) “microblogging” medium that is intended for text and image sharing |
| Long-form (up to 2,000 characters per post) medium for sharing text, images, videos, and other multimedia content | |
| TikTok | Short-form video content, where users can create, share, and view videos ranging from 15 seconds to three minutes in length. |
| An image-based social network that is intended as a visual medium. Does not have capabilities to drive click-through rate (CTR) because posts offer no link option | |
| Medium for sharing photos and visual content categorized by theme | |
| Long- or short-form medium for sharing text, images, videos, and other multimedia content targeted to the business community |
Facebook is a tool for sharing information and keeping in touch with people. According to Hubspot, Facebook is the most popular platform among marketers (Iskiev, 2024). Many of Facebook’s 2.9 billion monthly users use the social media platform to engage with brands and discover new products. Shopify’s Commerce Trends 2023 report also notes that 70% of global social media shoppers make purchases on Facebook either sometimes or all the time (Piccioli, 2023).
Instagram has provided a platform for creators to access massive audiences and monetize their talents. Businesses, too, benefit from having a presence on the social platform that’s a go-to for product discovery. Boasting more than two billion monthly active users, Instagram continues to be a favourite among marketers for reaching potential customers. Even as TikTok and Snapchat maintain popularity with coveted Gen Z consumers, Instagram is expected to catch up in adoption by this demographic by 2025. Instagram’s business and creator tools give you access to audience insights and other features to help you build your following and make sales.
Instagram marketing is the practice of using the platform to promote a business or personal brand to grow followers, drive traffic, generate brand awareness, or make sales. As with social media marketing on other channels, Instagram offers brands, businesses, and creators a number of ways to market to its users. These include Instagram Ads, sponsored posts and partnerships, and organic marketing through Instagram Stories, Reels, and posts.
X (formerly Twitter)
With its global reach spanning hundreds of millions of users, Twitter (now X) can give you access to a worldwide audience. Yet, the key to unlocking the app’s business potential doesn’t just lie in posting frequently or having a knack for viral social media content; it’s rooted in understanding the analytics behind these tweets. X Analytics can help you gain data-driven insights that inform and elevate your content marketing strategy.
X Analytics is a powerful suite of tools for gauging the performance of your content on the social media platform. It gathers and visualizes data associated with your X profile and posts, providing valuable insights to shape your X marketing approach.
All of the major social media platforms serve different audience segments. LinkedIn explicitly brands itself as a professional platform. For small business owners, it’s a critical channel for both customer acquisition and business development. LinkedIn is a professional social network focused on business and employment-related content and connections. LinkedIn was founded in 2002, and as of 2023, the platform has over 900 million members in 200 countries worldwide.
Private LinkedIn users rely on the platform to find job opportunities, build their professional networks, build skills, and keep up to date with industry trends. Business owners use it for these purposes as well. They reach prospective customers and bring in new business, build relationships with other professionals in their industry, build their personal brands, and connect with job seekers. Business owners can use LinkedIn to reach new clients, increase brand loyalty by providing value to target customers, acquire new connections, and strengthen their professional networks. These best practices can help you effectively leverage LinkedIn for your business:
Snapchat
Snapchat is a social media platform that allows users to send photos, videos, and text messages on a one-to-one basis or to a group of people. The differentiator is that content disappears within 10 seconds, making it the perfect place to share authentic snaps. Utilizing Snapchat allows brands to reach a younger audience and foster a close-knit community. And, with more than 616 million users, there’s plenty of opportunity for that. Instead of building a huge follower count, Snapchat lets you engage a smaller community of your most engaged followers to create an authentic relationship like no other platform. This is valuable, not just because an existing customer is 60-70% more likely to buy than a new one, but because these people are more likely to become advocates of your brand.
Old Milwaukee’s Super Bowl XLVI Commercial
To see social media’s impact, consider the buzz created by Old Milwaukee’s commercial shown during Super Bowl XLVI, which only aired locally in North Platte, Nebraska. North Platte is the second smallest television market in the country, with only 15,000 homes. Still, it is the hometown of New England Patriot Danny Woodhead. At the same time, the thirty-second spot only targeted a small audience for $700–$1500 in the local market (compared to $3.5 million for the national thirty-second spot), and the commercial created more buzz than many nationally broadcast commercials (Gillette, 2012). The YouTube version shown in the following video has been viewed over a million times, much more than the always-popular Budweiser commercials. The commercial became so popular that Old Milwaukee linked it to the commercial on their web site. Talk about the impact of social media and bragging rights!
Video: “Will Ferrell Super Bowl Ad (Hi-Res) – Old Milwaukee” by Mediabistro [0:32] is licensed under the Standard YouTube License. A transcript is not available.
Key Takeaway
Social media uses technology and mobility to provide an interactive means of communication among people, organizations, and communities that are interconnected and interdependent. Social media zones include social communities, publishing, entertainment, and commerce. More companies are using social media to promote their products as well as to recruit.
Common Social Media Platforms from “Reading: Digital Marketing Social Media” from Introduction to Business by Linda Williams and Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise noted.
“12.2 Social Media” from Principles of Marketing by [Author removed at request of original publisher] is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Facebook adapted from “The 11-Step Guide to Facebook Marketing for E-commerce” by Shopify Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise noted.
Instagram adapted from “The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Marketing (19 Tips for 2024)” by Shopify Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise noted.
X (Formerly Twitter) adapted from “Twitter Analytics: How To Measure Engagement on Twitter” by Shopify Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license unless otherwise noted.
LinkedIn adapted from “How To Use LinkedIn To Grow Your Business” by Shopify Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise noted.
Snapchat adapted from “Snapchat Marketing: Everything You Need To Know as a Business (2023)” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise noted.
