Choosing Your Social Media Marketing Platform By Demographic

With so many social media platforms out there – choosing the right one for your business can be difficult. You don’t want to spend thousands of dollars to market on Instagram if your target audience demographic is nowhere to be found on there, right?!?  Of course not, the best thing to do is to understand which platform they are using.

Keep in mind – it is a good idea to have a “presence” all over the most popular social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) and build your brand. You also want to make it easy for people to find you. And sometimes, you have others doing the buying for your actual target audience – so you need to be easily found! (I.e: A mom looking for a gift for her teenage son may not be on the same social sites her son is on. You want to therefore expand your platforms a bit so you reach the person who would want the gift: a.k.a the son – as well as the person who would make the purchase: aka the mom)

Today we are here to tell you which sites you should focus on when it comes to the majority of your time and marketing budget based on their demographics.

1. Facebook: Baby boomers and Grandparents!  They want to stay in touch with their kids and grandchildren, and FaceBook is the best way to do that. Millennials also still love Facebook they grew up using Myspace and Facebook and many of them have stayed along for the ride.

   Who’s not on FB? Teenagers. They may have a profile (more than likely not) but the truth is, they aren’t too excited about hanging out on social media with us “older folk” – sorry!

   Facebook facts (via OMNICORE)

   • Facebook users are 53% female and 47% male.
   • Average Facebook user has 155 “friends”.
   • 56% of online Seniors aged 65+ are on Facebook and 63% are between age 50-64.
   • 87% of online users of age 18-29 are on Facebook.
   • 74% college graduates are on Facebook.
   • 72% of online users of income more than $75K are on Facebook.
   • 82 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds online in the U.S. use Facebook.
   • 79 percent of 30 to 49-year-olds online in the U.S. use Facebook.
   • 56 percent of U.S. online users ages 65 and up use Facebook.

2. Instagram: Millennials! (And teens)  Millennials absolutely love Instagram and everything about it and can spend many hours scrolling through or adding their own pics and live streams, especially since messaging and Instagram Stories was instituted.

   Instagram is also a great fit if your business is highly visual; meaning – you can make it look pretty and post pretty photos. But you don’t have to – even posting inspirational quotes can be enough to have a successful Instagram account. If you are using influencers in your marketing (or plan to) then you need to give Instagram a shot! Instagram does amazingly well with influencers posting beautiful photos about things they love, use and recommend (giving your product exposure!).

   Instagram facts: (via OMNICORE)

   • 68% of Instagram users are Females.
   • 80% of Instagram users come from outside of the U.S.
   • 77.6 million Instagram users are from US.
   • Instagram is used by 31% of American women and 24% of men.
   • 32% of all Internet users are on Instagram.
   • 59% of internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 use Instagram and 33% of internet users between the ages of 30 and 49 use Instagram
   • 38% of female internet users use Instagram and 26% of male internet users use Instagram
   • 17% of teens say Instagram is the most important social media site (up from 12% in 2012)
   • Posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement.
   • When Instagram introduced videos, 5 million videos were uploaded in the first 24 hours.
   • Instagram videos get 2 times the engagement of photos that any other social media platform.
   • Instagram influencers are charging up to $100,000 for a sponsored post.

3. Pinterest: (In-between) Millennials and Gen X: Especially if you are trying to reach the 30-44 year old female demographic, Pinterest is where you need to be. What’s interesting is that this demographic still hold the vast majority of the purchasing power in the household, and many people will purchase things they saw on Pinterest.

   Baby boomers also like Pinterest and can be found pinning their favorite recipes as well as gifts for their grandkids! (hint-hint)

   Pinterest facts: (via OMNICORE)

   • 81% of Pinterest users are actually Females.
   • 40% of New Signups are Men; 60% New Signups are Women.
   • Men account for only 7% of total pins on Pinterest.
   • Millennials use Pinterest as much as Instagram.
   • Median age of a Pinterest user is 40, however majority of active pinners are below 40.
   • Half of Pinterest users is $50K or greater per year, with 10 percent of Pinteresting households making greater than $125K.
   • 30% of all US social media users are Pinterest users.
   • 60% of Pinterest users are from US.
   • 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest
   • 72% of Pinners use Pinterest to decide what to buy offline.
   • 67% of Pinners are under 40-years-old.
   • Pinterest said 80% of its users access Pinterest through a mobile device.
   • 93% of active pinners said they use Pinterest to plan for purchases and 87% said they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest.

4. Snapchat: Teenagers: THIS is where the teens are hiding (and snapping)! It’s a social network that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s young and a little silly (Who doesn’t love a silly dog face filter, right?), but it is still growing, so don’t underestimate it as a marketing tool! (this is also why Instagram and Facebook have tried to spin off Snapchats video clip messaging – but SnapChat is still holding on to their crown as top platform for this!

   You will also find some of the older (in their 20s) Millennials and a few GenX-ers (typically in their 30s) on Snapchat. But, it is still ruled by teens!

   SnapChat facts: (via OMNICORE)

   • 71% of Snapchat users are under 34 years old.
   • Roughly 70% of Snapchat users are female.
   • 30% of US Millennial Internet Users use Snapchat regularly.
   • People under the age of 25 use Snapchat for 40 minutes on average every day, more than instagram’s latest stat for same demographic.Active Snapchatters open the app 18+ time every day.
   • More than 400 million Snapchat stories are created per day.
   • The average daily user of Snapchat creates more than 20 messages, or “snaps,” per day.
   • More than 20,000 photos are shared every second.

5. Twitter: Twitter is more of a universal platform. Although you can find a vast majority of demographics – most users are found to be based out of the USA.  So, if you are marketing globally, then you may want to spend more time on twitter. If you are a smaller business or your focus is on US business – we would recommend to build an account, share products and information (sales etc) but do not focus thousands of marketing dollars here.

   However, don’t IGNORE Twitter…Teens/millennials do use twitter often as well! This is where they will usually go first to say thanks or to complain about your business, products or services! So make sure you are ON Twitter and paying attention to what they are saying!

   Twitter facts: (via OMNICORE)

   • 24% of All Internet male users use Twitter, whereas 21% of All Internet Female users use Twitter.
   • 79% of Twitter accounts are based outside the United States
   • There are over 67 million Twitter users in US.
   • Total number of Twitter users in UK is 13 million.
   • 37% of Twitter users are between ages of 18 and 29, 25% users are 30-49 years old.
   • 54% of Twitter users earn more than $50,000 a year at least.
   • The top three countries by user count outside the U.S. are Brazil (27.7 million users), Japan (25.9 million), and Mexico (23.5 million).

Again, remember – it is still a super great idea to use a few platforms so that you make a strong social presence and make sure you build your brand! Do not be afraid to test a marketing campaign on more than one of the sites! You can still reach a target demographic when using paid ads in any of these pages. There are many brands that can successfully market in various platforms. But, hopefully with the information above, you can narrow down your top platforms and focus on those to make a stronger presence.

What is your favorite platform when it comes to targeting your audience and target demographic?