By Rachel Clark, Niki Clark Marketing
Keywords: Social media platforms, algorithm, niche audience
Approximate read time: 15 min

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, TikTok… With so many potential marketing platforms out there, it can be hard to narrow down which ones are worth your time and energy, because let’s face it, they aren’t all created equally. Try to make use of 1-3 platforms that best serve you and your audience instead of trying to tackle every single one.

Your Audience

Knowing who is using which social platform is a good jumping-off point, but it won’t do you any good unless you know where your target audience is.

To get started, ask yourself a few questions about who your business serves:

What age group do your clients fall into? Not only do different age groups prefer different platforms, but they also use them differently.
Are you focused on anything gender specific? Some advisors actively seek to work with a niche audience, e.g., busy female CEOs or single moms.
Would you prefer to work with first-gen entrepreneurs, established professionals, or heirs? At the risk of sounding glib, old money or new money?
What problems do your services solve? For example, are you helping widowers, divorcé(e)s, or beneficiaries?
What social media platforms do your current clients use? People like to share things on social media - they keep it… ya know… social. A current client could see something you post as beneficial to a friend or family member and share it as a way of recommending your firm. Word of mouth will always be a great marketing tool!

It’s also important to monitor your analytics. Track your likes, comments, views, and shares. Deduce the time that your audience is likely on social media and try to post consistently at those times - before work, lunch breaks, evening couch potato time, holidays, etc. While it may seem like a lot to keep up with, it’s important if you want the algorithm to work for you, not against you.

As much as we might not like it - don’t ignore the algorithm. By definition, the algorithm is a set of rules that social media platforms use to rank, filter, and organize content for users. The algorithm's goal is to create a good user experience by showing users content that's interesting and engaging based on their preferences and previous activity. This means that everyone’s experience on social media is different, even if they follow the same accounts because they at some point have shown different preferences. It also means that you need to make the algorithm work for you by capitalizing on your audience’s preferences.

Your Options

It can be difficult to determine which social media platform(s) will be the most effective for your marketing strategy, so we’ve done some research on the most popular platforms to help you narrow it down.

Facebook

Facebook is currently the most used social app in the world. It has over 3 billion users from a broad range of demographics, backgrounds, and interests.

Basics:

A majority (24.2%) of U.S. users are between 25 and 34
18.6% of users are 18-24
19.1% are 35-44
11.4% are 45-54
12.4% are 65+
Gender distribution is skewed male with 46.1% of users being female and 53.9% being male*

Facebook is also the most-used platform by marketers worldwide at a staggering 89%. Facebook marketing does perform better for brick-and-mortar businesses with options to “check-in,” however, Facebook’s ad platform can help businesses of all shapes and sizes reach their target audience.

You may have noticed when you conduct an internet search for a business, let’s just say a new restaurant you want to try, and you click on the link for the website you are taken to a Facebook page. Facebook’s business pages act like a webpage with enough space to delineate exactly what a business is offering, much like the “About” page of a website.

Quick Tips

Consider creating a private Facebook group for clients or prospects where you can share exclusive content, answer questions, and create a sense of community.
Share your involvement in local community events or charitable activities.
Use Facebook Events to host webinars.

YouTube

With 2.49 billion users, YouTube is the second-largest social media platform. What some people don’t realize though is that YouTube has hybrid product characteristics that include both search engine and social networking site features, and it is considered the second-largest search engine in the world, after Google.

Basics:

It has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users
More than 60 billion hours of video views per month
Processes more than 3 billion searches a month
21.3% of users are 25-34
17.5% are 35-44
15.5% are 18-24
9.2% are 55-64
9.2% are 65+
54.4% of users are male, 45.6% are female
YouTube Shorts has 2 billion monthly active users
YouTube Shorts gets an average of 70 billion views each day
YouTube Shorts is the #1 short-form video platform for discovering new products and brands

Quick Tips

Use compelling titles and customized, attention grabbing thumbnails.
Host a YouTube contest or giveaway to encourage people to engage and subscribe to your channel.
Create playlists to organize your YouTube content. Playlists allow you to group your videos into categories to organize your channel, and appeal to a viewers’ desire to “binge.”

P.S. While reading up on current YouTube stats and trends, I found that the most-watched YouTube video of all time is “Baby Shark Dance.” This of course is not relevant at all, however, since it’s now stuck in my head, I’m getting it stuck in yours too.

Instagram

Coming in at number 3, with over 2 billion active users - Instagram.

Basics:

Instagram sits in second place for platforms used by marketers at 80% (second to Facebook’s 89%)
Instagram’s engagement rates are four times higher than Facebook (0.60% to 0.15%)
Gen Z and millennials (ages 18-34) make up roughly two-thirds (over 60%) of Instagram users
51.8% of users are male, 48.2% are female
Reels see an average reach rate of 30.81%, double the reach rate of other content formats

On April 30, Instagram announced an algorithm update which is designed to help ensure original content posters get more traction, giving smaller accounts more opportunity for organic reach.

Something else to keep in mind about Instagram is that almost all of its users use the app alongside at least one other social platform. What this means for you is that Instagram is a good tool to use in a solid cross-platform marketing strategy.

Quick Tips

Use industry specific, non-generic hashtags. If a hashtag has been used millions of times, yours will likely get lost in the noise.
Highlight your personality with inspirational and entertaining content. Behind-the-scenes looks at your life and company, storytelling, and posts that raise awareness are great ways to build customer engagement.
Keep a consistent posting schedule - post daily, if possible, or at least 3-5x a week at optimal times →

For a more detailed look at using Instagram, check out our blog Instagram Essentials: A guide to building your online presence.

X (Twitter)

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has experienced some… changes. Despite some recent turmoil, X is still a happening hub for trending conversations. While it might not have as many users as Facebook or YouTube, what X does have is actively engaged members.

Basics:

415 million users
User growth rate is at a 5% decline (possibly due to rebranding or new fees for verification)
63% of users are male, 47% are female
53% of users are using X as a news source

**Let’s look at that last one for a second. News? On X? I’m not talking just celebrity gossip or first-round draft picks. Current events, market fluctuations, inflation, interest rates… that’s all news that potential clients could be interested in, and news that could also affect how they want their money handled.**

While X isn’t the powerhouse that FaceBook or YouTube are (at the moment), the ownership change has spurred renewed interest and has increased user activity.

Quick Tips

Use emojis. No, seriously. Tweets… do we still call them that? Xs?... whatever, you get the idea… anyway, Tweets with emojis perform well on X. Nearly ⅓ of all Tweets worldwide contain emojis!
Participate in trending conversations, especially ones your target audience are participating in.
Post informative content.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has found its niche as a professional platform that focuses on industry-specific content. Currently there are over 1 billion users in 200 countries and regions. It would make sense given its more professional vibe, to say that LinkedIn exclusively caters to an older audience, however, Millennials currently dominate the platform.

Basics:

There are over 67 million company profiles on LinkedIn
60% of worldwide users are between ages 25 and 34
Gen Z population is growing as they start to enter the workforce - 53% increase in the platform’s reach within the 18-24 age group, making up 20.4% of users
57.2% of users are male, 42.8% are female
53% of LinkedIn users come from highly monthly income households
⅓ of users have at least a Bachelor’s degree; 23% have a Master’s degree

Something else to keep in mind is that LinkedIn’s daily usage has grown significantly over the past several years with 69% of users accessing the platform daily (up from 22% in 2020).

Quick Tips

Optimize your business page to positively represent your brand, enhance credibility, and boost your SEO.
LinkedIn users appreciate “thought leadership” - personal, firsthand experiences, tips, and anecdotes.
Post long-form content, listicles, and “how-tos.”

Threads

Threads, like X, is a text-based social messaging platform created by Meta and launched in July 2023. Threads integrates with Instagram, so you can think of it as part of a cross-channel approach to your marketing. Threads is still fairly new in the social media world, but brands have found it to be a good platform for nurturing audience engagement and supporting their overall social media presence.

Basics:

As of July 2024 (one year after its launch) Threads has 190 million users
37% of users fall into the 18-24 age range
500 characters max (nearly twice as much as X)
Threads reached 100 million users less than a week (five days) after its launch and is the most rapidly downloaded app ever.

Quick Tips

Link your Threads account on your website or share links to your blog.
Use tags. Threads limits each post to one “tag” - basically a topic on what your post is about. Using a relevant tag can help your posts find your target audience.
Threads is new. Until you know what works for your brand, share a consistent mix of content types - static images, text, video, etc. - and see what your audience responds to.

Noplace

“remember how fun the internet was before all the algos and ads?

we do too… so we’re bringing it back

welcome to noplace !!!”

That’s what you’ll see when you download the noplace app, considered a “mash-up of Myspace and Twitter” or a “colorful version of Twitter” (color me intrigued… sorry, I had to).

Noplace offers customizable profiles that allow people to share everything from relationship status, to what they’re listening to or watching, what they’re reading or doing, and more.

Instead of algorithms, noplace leverages AI technology to drive suggestions and curation. The app doesn’t edit the feed for you, but rather uses AI to do things like offering summaries of what you’ve missed.

As of right now, the app is geared towards a younger audience as a friend-finding, text-based alternative to X. According to founder Tiffany Zhong, the app is specifically aimed at seizing on the nostalgia for an earlier time in the internet. “I think that part of the magical, fun part of the internet is gone now. Everything is very uniform.”

Noplace is currently not available to Android users.
Noplace does not support photo or video.

For now, we’re waiting to see what happens with noplace. Maybe the gen Zs will make room for older generations to find their place on noplace.

TikTok

TikTok currently has over 1.5 billion users and is expected to reach 2 billion by the end of 2024. It is considered the fastest growing platform in the world. TikTok is geared towards a younger audience.

**The Dilemma with TikTok - If an advisor is on social media, they’re most likely engaging with people. Compliance needs to be able to see all of those conversations so the bad advisors out there aren’t making false promises, doing Ponzi schemes, scamming people out of money, etc. TikTok has very few parameters for confidentiality when it comes to this area. Compliance is not able to monitor it so they won’t even allow advisors to use it. Ultimately, it’s because a handful of really bad advisors out there in the world have ruined it for all the good advisors.**

While it may seem like you’re missing out on an opportunity to capitalize on TikTok’s popularity, keep these stats in mind:

Marketers currently prefer Instagram over TikTok for video-based user acquisition
79% allot 75% of their digital marketing to Instagram and no more than 25% to TikTok
53% used both
Instagram’s new algorithm update aligns with TikTok’s already discovery-focused algorithm, giving original content more space, and allowing users to find content relevant to their interests

What Works

If you’re going to spend time, effort, and money on social media marketing - make it worth it! Keeping up to date with current trends and monitoring your account analytics are vital to capitalizing on potential reach and growth.

Currently, 44% of people prefer to learn about a new product or service via short video content.
Short-form video offers marketers the highest ROI of any social media marketing strategy, with 30-60-second videos seeing the most success. While static posts and carousels are still relevant, video, specifically Reels and Shorts, is where it’s at in 2024.

Don’t forget - people like to see people. It can be intimidating and nerve-wracking to post selfies or record videos of yourself, but it consistently proves to be the kind of content that most resonates with social media users.

Engagement. Engagement. Engagement. … engagement. Ok. You get it. Engagement matters. Initiate dialogue. Ask questions. Include calls-to-action in your videos and captions. In other words, be social.

And don’t skimp on those profiles!! Think of your account bios like a landing page. Most platforms walk you through fully optimizing your profile, take advantage of that! Fill out every prompt, add links to your company website or sites where you’ve been featured, and include relevant keywords whenever possible (but avoid keyword stuffing). It’s also important to make your profile visually appealing - stay on brand with your color scheme and fonts so it doesn’t look cluttered or messy.

Food For Thought

While the ROI is important, you also want to use platforms that you enjoy. Don’t force yourself to spend time on a platform that you don’t like, because if you don’t enjoy your time there, you likely won’t be consistent in your posting and engagement, and consistency is key!

If figuring out how to make the most out of social media has you feeling like this: