Social Media Marketing

There are many of factors that should be considered when choosing social media platforms, but the most immediate in my opinion include the number of active users, user demographic, and content type. First, without a high volume of users, the time it takes to post on a website in attempt to engage existing or prospective customers has a great possibility of being a waste. This is why using Facebook for social media advertising is so popular. In a single month, 1.28 billion users are active on Facebook which far surpasses the 540 million people to potentially be reached by the next most popular site, Google+. The next thing to consider is the demographic of said users. While teens and young adults are very active on social media, it appears that the older generation is more likely to actually engage in social media advertising. Because of this, posts might want to be geared more towards appealing to this age group since you want as many people as possible to interact with a post.
When building trying to strengthen your success with social media advertisement, pay attention to what is working for the competition. By having a good idea of what is successful for them, you might have a good idea what customers in your product type want, and this will save you some trial, and error and in turn save you time. In addition to this, you make sure to post at least weekly on whatever media you choose to ensure you have the attention of viewers consistently.  

Social networks, ranked by monthly active users:

1  Facebook: 1.28 billion

2  Google+: 540 million

3  Twitter: 255 million

4  Instagram: 200 million

5  LinkedIn: 187 million

6 Pinterest: 40 million

The kind of ads I would employ for these social media platforms would be short and engaging and most likely include an image. Short ads are more likely to be engaged with and so are ads with a question and/or an image. I think those kind of ads are the most effective and more likely to be clicked on.

Image: http://boalt.com/online-marketing/search-engine-marketingfirm/socialadvertising/

 Sources:

https://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-choose-a-social-network

http://blog.wishpond.com/post/72672192941/social-media-marketing-which-platform-is-right-for

http://madlemmings.com/2014/02/24/social-media-platforms-business/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/218160

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/#339cc20b2a4d

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/essential-elements-social-media-marketing-strategy/