Small business owners often need to wear multiple hats. They don't necessarily prioritize social media marketing as a part of their overall business strategy due to a lack of resources and time.
No matter your company size, you will typically find that using social media is essential to effectively increase brand awareness, engage with your customers, and increase sales and revenue.
But small businesses need not necessarily be present on all social media platforms to reap its benefits. They need to figure out those social platforms where their audience is most active and where they have better chances of standing out.
If you are thinking about which is the one social media platform where you should start to grow your business, stick around for our invaluable list of the top 10 social media for small business promotion.
1. Facebook/Meta
Monthly active users: 2910 million
Facebook is a great social platform for building brand loyalty. Small businesses can create a Facebook page and use it to post updates, images, videos, and other information that depicts their brand value.
With Facebook ads, small businesses can target specific demographics in specific locations. You can also target your ads to people interested in topics related to your niche or who already like your page.
Key features
- Engage with posts from the brand page
- Comprehensive list of all the pages which liked your post/page
- Hide comments on Facebook to protect your brand reputation from spam, trolls, and other irrelevant comments.
- Saved replies feature
- Schedule posts
- Built-in page insights
Tips for small businesses to grow on Facebook
- Optimize your profile page and get verified
- Create a Facebook group
- Publish media directly instead of linking out
2. Instagram
Monthly active users: 1478 million Instagram is the perfect social platform to engage with your target audience and get eyeballs on your brand, especially for product-based small businesses and influencers. Instagram's content is primarily in the form of photo posts and videos, which can be used to directly promote, advertise or sell your products through aesthetics.
Key features
- Create reels and stories
- All-in-one professional dashboard for business owners and creators
- Add interactive bio
- Host live sessions with maximum 4 users at a time
- Pin comments under your post
- Co-create content with other creators using the Collab feature
- Story highlights
- Brand Collab Manager
- Remix reels
- Cross-app messaging between Facebook and Instagram
- Tag products to create shoppable posts
Tips for small businesses to grow on Instagram
- Use Stories to better engage with your audience
- Create shoppable posts and an Instagram shop
- Explore influencer marketing with other brands and creators
- Find out the best time to post on Instagram
3. TikTok
Monthly active users: 1000 million
TikTok is based on short-form video content. It is dominated by the Gen Z audience, with the vast majority of its users under the age of 18. So if your target demographic is Gen Z and Millenials, there's no better platform to build your brand than TikTok.
Key features
- Video editing and uploading
- Short-form content
- TopView and In-feed ads
- Social sharing
- Duets feature
- Live video streaming
- Real-time analytics
Tips for small businesses to grow on TikTok
- Share user-generated content
- Partner with TikTok influencers
- Hop on trending audios
- Keep up with the latest trends
4. YouTube
Monthly active users: 2562 million
YouTube is an excellent tool to engage with customers and present your business in a friendly manner using video content.
You can create how-to and instructional YouTube videos for your products or services in a way to engage with potential customers. You can even publish entire educational series for your product lines, be it actual physical hands-on demonstrative videos or simple text-based informational videos.
Key features
- YouTube Studio
- Feature a video or playlist
- YouTube Analytics
- Add links to video descriptions
Tips for small businesses to grow on YouTube
- Customize your YouTube video thumbnails
- Write intriguing video titles
- Create playlists
5. Twitter
Monthly active users: 436 million
Twitter allows its users to post short messages (called "tweets") of up to 280 characters. It's a great way to share your voice with your audience, provide them with information about your brand, and have conversations in a public forum.
Key features
- Post tweets and Twitter threads
- Retweet others content
- Host polls
- Quoting and pinning a tweet
- Tagging accounts in tweets
- Twitter Amplify
- Twitter analytics
Tips for small businesses to grow on Twitter
- Respond to your mentions and brand hashtags
- Leverage Twitter threads
- Create a catchy Twitter Header
- Create existing Twitter polls
6. LinkedIn
Monthly active users: 310 million
LinkedIn is the most geared social platform toward business professionals from all the top social media platforms. It helps to create a network of highly influential professionals who can partner with you and help increase your sales and reach.
Key features
- Work history
- Private messaging
- Resume builder
- Job posting
- Build connections
- Manage skills and endorsement
- Save searches
Tips for small businesses to grow on LinkedIn
- Join LinkedIn groups – and stay active
- Boost your company’s LinkedIn Page
- Activate your employees
7. WhatsApp
Monthly active users: 2000 million
Small businesses have the opportunity to tap into a massive user base through 'Conversational Commerce' with the launch of WhatsApp Business. It offers AI-driven chatbots that provide human-like assistance to customers within WhatsApp. You can create catalogs of your products, making it easier for customers to know your products and order them on WhatsApp without opening your website.
Key features
- Voice and text messenger
- Create business profiles
- Send files and documents
- AI chatbots
- Can be used from desktop (app and browser) and mobile (app)
- You can Create product catalogs using WhatsApp Business
Tips for small businesses to grow on WhatsApp
- Use WhatsApp Statuses to share flash sales and promotions
- Create and leverage Broadcast lists
- Use Group chat
8. Reddit
Monthly active users: 4330 million
Reddit is one of the top news aggregators on the Internet. It is an excellent place for users to look out for information on any topic. As a small business owner, Reddit can be a great place to share information on your brand and interact with potential customers.
Key features
- News forum
- Comment hider
- Social news
- Floating top posts
- Upvoting
Tips for small businesses to grow on Reddit
- Promote offers in the right subreddits
- Ask honest questions
9. Pinterest
Monthly active users: 444 million
Pinterest is perfect for businesses operating in fashion, decor, food, or DIY niches. You can drive immense traffic and sales to your website by creating and sharing attractive images through this social platform.
Key features
- Promote pins
- Pinboards
- Pinterest browser extension
- Visual search
- Pinterest analytics
Tips for small businesses to grow on Pinterest
- Write keyword-rich descriptions for pins and boards
- Upload your product catalog
10. Snapchat
Monthly active users: 557 million
As 15 to 25-year-olds are the most active users of this social platform, Snapchat is a platform you should definitely consider, along with TikTok if your target demographic is young.
Snapchat is a social platform that allows users to send pictures and videos that disappear once they are viewed. You can create short-form videos and share them with your potential customers, which will appear on Snapchat's 'discover' section.
Key features
- Snap clicking and social sharing
- Voice and video calls
- Story and memories
- Snapchat ads
- Text messaging
- Emoji-powered poll stickers
- Snap map
- Built-in analytics
Tips for small businesses to grow on Snapchat
- Create a custom Snapcode and add it to your marketing materials
- Make the most of sponsored Snapchat artificial reality (AR) lenses
Final thoughts
And that concludes our list of the top 10 social media platforms for small business owners. With a large variety of social platforms available today, all offering something different and a unique user base, there's a huge potential to thrive on any one of these platforms to transform your brand in 2022 completely. You only need to make the most of your social presence.
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