Social Media Platforms & Their Target Audiences Part 1
Social media is a key form of marketing that many businesses are (and should be) taking advantage of. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, and Twitter allow your business to reach a wider audience. Let’s start with the original four social media platforms and their key audiences.
Facebook these days tends to have a slighter older audience, thanks to the influx of baby boomers to the platform. While it is said that the younger generation, aka gen z, isn’t really on Facebook anymore, is only slightly true. They are still on it, but they don’t use it as much as they use the other platforms. However, the largest audience on Facebook is that millennial and gen x range of 25-34. Facebook skews slightly male and there are about 2.7 billion active users. Facebook tends to be the home base of social media, with everyone having one, even if they don’t use it all that often.
Instagram is similar to Facebook in the fact that its largest audience group is the 25-34 range of millennials and gen x, but Instagram skews towards females. Instagram is now the second-largest network but is slowly and surely gaining even more of a following with a billion active users. Now that Facebook and Instagram share the same ad platform, running ads is even easier. Instagram is continuously adding new features to keep up with other platforms and trying to keep a tight hold on the even younger audiences in gen z. Instagram has also basically created the world of influencers.
Thanks to memes, and well, certain celebrity tweets, Twitter has been brought back to reality from a slight hiatus. Twitter greatly skews towards males and has a higher age group with the majority being 30-49. Twitter is best used for quick updates, breaking news, and straight forwards facts. Twitter tends to yo-yo in popularity, at the moment there are 187 million active users.
LinkedIn is the platform for networking professionals and because of this, takes the top spot as catering to the highest age group 46-55. Linked In is also evenly split between males and females and caters to higher educated individuals.
Those are the four of the social media marketing platforms, but they are certainly not the last. New social media platforms sprout and trend each year, some lasting and some not lasting, but all making an impression. Check out part two for four of the newer social media platforms and the way to reach those audiences.