Social media for brands: Is it necessary to be present everywhere?
Thanks to the swift technological development (neural networks, bots, advertising opportunities of platforms) and the emergence of multiple successful cases on the market, we hear the clients' question "Do we actually need social media?" less and less. However, the questions of which social media to start with or which of them to choose for the most effective communication always remain relevant. So, let's sort it out.
1. Audience
Today, according to various studies, there are approximately 20 million Internet users in Ukraine, which is significantly fewer than the figures before the full-scale invasion. Nevertheless, the number of active social media users is increasing. This is due to the fact that Ukrainians want to quickly and conveniently interact with essential information, news in particular.
According to Ukrainian audience research data, there are 19.6M Meta users in Ukraine (excluding the occupied territories which cannot be targeted). Of these, 13.7M are Facebook users, whereas 11.6M of them are on Instagram.
TikTok is actively gaining momentum and today has more than 10M Ukrainian users, along with Telegram breaking into the leader category, with the potential to reach over 90% of the Ukrainian audience. YouTube is another significant player among the platforms, reaching more than 98% of the audience of Ukrainian Internet users.
It is worth remembering that one or another platform has different potential for reaching certain age segments of users. So, for example, Instagram is ahead of Facebook in reaching the audience under the age of 31, while YouTube lags behind TikTok in reaching the young 18-24 age group.
So, what is the point of all this boring statistics? It's simple, since the first and most crucial question you should ask yourself during communication planning is: where exactly should we search for potential consumers? Analyse the potential of the chosen media in terms of reaching the audience.
Identify and describe your audience, and only then it will be much easier for you to choose the most relevant platforms for communication with them and allocate resources effectively.
For example, if you sell products to the 50+ consumer category, then it's no use focusing on a content strategy on TikTok, just like focusing on Facebook promotion only when your target audience is teenagers and young adults.
2. Goal setting
An important step in planning is goal setting. Once you have determined the priority platforms for communication with your target audience, clearly defined goals will help you choose the most effective split for the campaign.
For example, if you have launched a new product or trademark, it is important for you that as many members of your target audience as possible become aware of it. Your key goal is reach. According to the defined goal, you choose the platforms with the greatest potential of reaching your audience and develop a relevant promotion strategy.
It is also vital to consider long-term and tactical goals. Social media help brands not only with building a strong and attractive brand, but also serve as an amplifier for tactical, for instance, seasonal campaigns, when there is a need to increase the number of sales, launch a new product, etc.
3. Competition
Most likely, your product is not the only one fighting for consumers loyalty on social media. Therefore, active behaviour of your competitors is an important lever to consider while making a decision to engage with a particular platform in your SMM strategy.
If your active competitors fully use social media, meaning they are present on all the key platforms for your target audience, whereas your presence is limited to just one social network, you may need to reconsider your promotion strategy.
Let's return to point 1 – we are to determine the potential of platforms that we have not engaged with yet, analyse the content strategies of competitors as well as promotion strategies. Once we are confident about the platform's importance for our potential consumers and have analysed the activity of the competitors, we can start developing our own promotion strategy on this platform.
It is worth noting that sometimes large global brands competing with each other for 0.001% of the market in an aggressive environment try to maintain a high level of presence by using all possible channels and tools. Social media are no exception. Here, brands strive not only to establish themselves as trendsetters but also to create a new consumer experience with the help of their creative solutions. For example, just yesterday we could not even imagine how many advertising opportunities virtual reality and neural networks would offer us. While today we see countless global brands that successfully use technological innovations.
4. Budget
Last but not least. When planning communication on social media, it is necessary to remember that the budget is the decisive factor. In line with this point, we have to ask ourselves the following question: do we have enough resources to create high-quality and attractive content that will be seen by our target audience on all the mentioned platforms and stand out from the competitors?
In conditions when the budget is limited, we recommend clients focus on key platforms – traditional ones in the digital split (Meta: Instagram and/or Facebook). They offer a wide range of opportunities for paid promotion, non-standard solutions, interesting projects with influencers and, most importantly, great potential for reaching almost the entire Ukrainian segment of social network users.
Today, we also see a growing demand from Ukrainian brands for managing TikTok channels. And this is not surprising, since the platform has grown significantly in the scope of users in Ukraine in recent years, on top of that, it has managed to attract not only young people, but also representatives of elder generations, whose numbers are increasing every month.
Regardless of which platform you choose as your primary one, there is always a possibility to strengthen your brand presence via comprehensive influencer campaigns (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok) and media integrations (e.g., Telegram).
So, let's answer the question: is it necessary to be everywhere? The answer is simple: you need to be where your target audience is. And this is not only related to the fact that it's where you can reach them, but vice versa – your audience can find you there. If you are on social media – it means you exist. Consumers can use this channel as a feedback tool: leaving reviews, asking about certain product features, placing orders, etc. Besides, simply sharing a post with their favourite brand and tagging it in the photo as if it were their "bro".
Fill out the form on our website and we will help you choose the right platform for your brand.
Prepared by Nikita Pashkovskiy, Creative Strategist at VIVID brand content hub
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