Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business Goals

Social media is a game of strategy—choose the wrong platform, and you’re shouting into the void. Choose the right one, and you’re building a loyal community of customers. By understanding where your customers spend their time and how they engage, you can tailor your strategy to meet them where they are—ensuring your content resonates and drives real results.

Start with Some Internal Research

• Goals. Your business goals are the foundation of your social media strategy. But to be successful, you need to translate them into the language of social media. That means reprioritizing and redefining them. For example, a business goal of boosting brand awareness typically involves SEO optimization, ads, campaigns, and brand partnerships. On social, boosting brand awareness involves audience engagement, authentic brand personality, relevant and consistent quality content, and profile refinement. Once you’ve done this with your primary goals, reprioritize them with a focus on community relationships.
• Availability and Resources. We’ll give it to you straight: Social media is not a one-person job, and even with the best tools and experience, it’s still difficult to see measurable success. So, before you dive into any platform, reassess your availability to commit. Do you have a team available to create 3+ posts a week? Do you have resources such as filming equipment, video and design editing, and social reporting and posting tools? If you are limited, you might want to start small.
• Audience Insights. On social media, you need to get to know your audience on a different level: their level. Don’t forget that brands are the ones invading social spaces – you need to earn your spot. So, when we say audience insights, we mean more than just demographics and figuring out what platforms they spend the most time on. What are their interests, pain points, and values? How do they engage on social? What type of content do they engage most with? You’ll need to do some hefty social listening and consider sending out some surveys.

Get to Know the Most Popular Social Media Platforms

1. Facebook (3 billion active monthly users)

Unless you have a younger audience demographic (18-24), Facebook is often the primary platform for most brands. With its recent updates, Facebook’s algorithm makes it possible for a wide variety of content to receive significant reach. And because Meta owns and provides cross-posting between Facebook and Instagram, it’s an easy win for better reach.

Ideal for:

• Small and big businesses.
• Community engagement and involvement (ex: GoPro).
• Event organization.
• Updates and spotlights.
• Informative, engaging, and conversational content.
• Gen X and Baby Boomer audiences.

2. YouTube (2.5 billion)

Although the primary type of content on YouTube is still long-form, educational videos, there are many opportunities for any brand to succeed on the app. Because of the popularity of shorts and the development of social SEO, it would be a missed opportunity for your brand not to at least cross-post short-form content to the shorts feed. Not to mention ad success is high with 43% of ad buyers saying that their largest clients are advertising on YouTube Shorts.

Ideal for:

• Long-form, educational, review, and entertaining content (ex: Vogue).
• SEO optimization and driving site traffic.
• Establishing brand authority.
• Gen Z and Millennial audiences.

3. Instagram (2 billion)

Although the original photo app still prioritizes higher-quality content, Instagram has become a melting pot of many social apps. There’s room in the algorithm for both commercialized videos and silly memes. The only downside? You’ll need to keep up with the trends and conversations to stay relevant and engaged with your audience.  

Ideal for:

• High-quality photography.
• Informational, entertaining, engaging, lifestyle and trendy content (ex: Glossier).
• Addressing audience pain points.
• Community engagement and relationship building.
• Gen Z and Millennial audiences.

4. TikTok (2 billion)

Unlike the other platforms, TikTok requires a little more adaptation because the algorithm is fully driven by the users, and the content type is limited. You need to be actively involved on the platform in order to understand the trends, conversations, and type of content that drives reach and engagement. However, if you’re already producing creator-style content for other platforms, cross-posting that content to TikTok can supercharge your reach.

Ideal for:

• Entertaining, trendy, niche, user-generated, and relatable video content (ex: Chipotle).
• Showcasing brand personality and authenticity.
• Community engagement and brand interaction.
• Gen Z and Millennial audiences.

5. LinkedIn (1 billion)

While LinkedIn is still seen as a B2B platform, the range of content types is increasingly evolving, making it a great opportunity for brands to expand their strategy and repurpose content from other platforms.

Ideal for:

• Building brand authority and sentiment.
• Industry insights, company news, behind-the-scenes, employee spotlights, and employee-generated content (ex: Airbnb).
• Drive business relationships and opportunities.
• Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen X.

6. Pinterest (553 million)

Pinterest is still a very visual, product-focused platform, but like these others, short-form UGC content is making waves. So, for those in the service industry, there’s still plenty of opportunity for you to showcase services through video and lifestyle content.

Ideal for:

• Lifestyle, inspiration, home improvement, user-generated, seasonal content (ex: Anthropologie).
• Brand awareness and lifestyle integration.
• Targeted reach.
• Social referral traffic.
• Millennial and Gen Z.

Quick Tip

You can (and should!) leverage multiple platforms by strategically cross-posting content. Instead of constantly creating from scratch, repurpose existing ideas by adapting the format, highlighting key takeaways, or expanding and condensing topics to fit each platform’s unique style and audience.

Study Your Competitors (And Comparators)

Studying competitors and comparators on social media gives you valuable insights into industry trends, audience engagement, and content strategies. By analyzing their top-performing posts, engagement patterns, and messaging styles, you can identify what resonates with similar audiences and refine it. Some things to look out for:

• Content formats. What type of content are they posting most frequently (videos, photos, stories, articles, etc.)? Is it resonating with their audience? Do they have gaps that you can fill in?
• Quality. This isn’t just about looks – quality content should be engaging, appealing, accessibly, accurate, and relevant.
• Themes and topics. What subjects receive the most interaction? Are there gaps that their audience is missing?
• Frequency and timing. How often are they posting, and how does their engagement reflect on that? What times do they receive more engagement and reach?
• Audience engagement. How is their audience engaging with their posts? What are they saying?
• Personality and tone. How does their voice compare on other platforms? How is their audience responding to it?
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Learn, Adapt, and Align with Your Goals

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to social media, but the biggest mistake is not showing up at all. Choosing the right platforms is just the beginning—success comes from continually learning, adapting, and refining your strategy based on what resonates with your audience. Stay flexible, analyze performance data, and adjust your approach to ensure your content aligns with both platform trends and your business goals. Whether it’s building brand awareness, driving sales, or fostering community engagement, an intentional, goal-driven strategy will help you maximize your impact and growth.

Doing it on your own though is quite a challenge. Let our social team help! Get in touch with us here, or give us a call at 231-922-9977.