You’ve probably wondered why we don’t use the same content for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The reason is that there are different audiences on each of these channels. Sure they are generally called social media, but each channel is built differently and has essentially transformed for various uses. When we apply this user behaviour strategy to managing social media accounts for businesses, we need to tailor our content for each social channel in order to deliver our message efficiently. In this blog, I will break down my observation, experiences and researched data on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Facebook: 2 billion active users (June 2017)
Facebook is powerful for marketers with their large user base and consumer insights. 20% of Americans’ time on mobile is spent on Facebook and Instagram. Users go on Facebook to find:
- Friends, family, acquaintances
- News, opinions, reactions (you would be more likely to see your Facebook friends get into a political argument on Facebook instead of Instagram)
- An example of news/event info:
Instagram: 700 million active users (April 2017)
- Younger audience group compare to Facebook
- Visual heavy
- Personal: Instagram has 4x more engagement than Facebook
- Story telling
- An example:
Twitter: 328 million active users (April 2017)
Twitter has a younger demographic compared to Facebook. Businesses use Twitter to communicate with their audience and redirect traffic to their websites. Users use Twitter to:
- Search for Breaking News
- Short story: I was hanging at my friend’s place in Downtown. From his solarium, we saw that Granville Street was blocked by two fire trucks. Police cars were present and an ambulance is also on standby. I couldn’t tell what was going on spectating from the 28th floor, on the same side of the street. My friend and I took out our phones and started a “see who can find out what’s going on” race. I went to Twitter immediately and searched Vancouver Police and #
- Have short & direct conversation with brands & celebrities
- An example:
Since each channel has different usage, a business needs to publish consistent content with different voices and tones to reach targeted groups. There are so many factors that marketers have to consider when creating social media posts. This blog only introduces the fundamentals of each channel. To learn more about scheduling, social listening, writing strategies and Facebook & Instagram Ads, stay tuned for our upcoming newsletters.
In the meantime, check out these articles on social media marketing:
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/brand-voice/
- https://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-craft-the-perfect-post-on-facebook-twitter-and-instagram