Which social media platform should I use for my business? Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter?

To understand which social media platform your business should be using, you must first establish who your target audience is, their needs and demographics. You need to set your planning objectives and success criteria [http://scirum.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-6-essential-steps-to-writing-social.html].

To keep your business competitive in the ever-changing digital world, you should aim to keep on top of the social media trends and statistics relating to the current top ten social media channels [http://scirum.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/what-are-demographics-of-each-of-top.html]. Also, by seeing what other, similar businesses and brands are doing, it will help you to understand what you need to do.

By looking at the top 10 social media channels and their demographic data [http://scirum.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/what-are-demographics-of-each-of-top.html], you need to identify which one(s) include your target audience. There are a lot of social networks in the top ten who claim the majority of their users are female. But which age bracket are you targeting? 

Are you a fashionable new brand? Twitter is the way forward for you, perhaps with a Pinterest account, too, to showcase your new products.

LinkedIn may be ideal for you, especially if you are in the IT, Financial and Telecommunications industry. These users only spend on average 7 minutes a day logged on, so you don’t have long to grab their attention. 

At Scirum, we have a dedicated team who take care of our clients' social media planning and digital presence. If you are thinking about increasing your social media activity, why not give us a call (01264 860060) or email us?

Susanne Hasselmann, Director, Scirum Ltd.


For more useful tips and answers to common questions from SMEs, visit www.scirum.biz or follow us on Twitter and Google+, like us on Facebook or join our LinkedIn group.

What are the demographics of each of the top ten social media channels?

Statistics from 15^th June 2014, therefore showing most recent results unless otherwise specified.

1.   Facebook – Still has a large number of young users, but the amount of older generation users is growing, now used internationally and in more high income households too. The average user is on Facebook for over 20 minutes per day. 57% of users are women.

2.  Twitter – Younger population, equally represented across income brackets. eMarketer suggests that this year, 25.4% of British Twitter users will be 25-34 year olds and 24.5% will be 18-24 year olds. The company also suggest that the fastest growing group is people aged 65 and up. 54% of users are men.

3.       LinkedIn – International audience. Gender distribution is 50%. Mainly used by 25-44 year olds who count for 28% of UK users, closely followed by the 55-64 year olds who made up 13%. The average user is on LinkedIn for 7.3 minutes per day.

4.       Pinterest – Mostly used by tablet users and women, 83%. It has 70 million users worldwide, with 1090 visitors per minute with a growth in international traffic in 2013 by 125%. The average user spends 15.8 minutes on the site. 32% of users are aged 18-34, and 45% are 35-54 and only 23% are aged 55 and over. 50% of all users have children.

5.       Google+ - Good for building relationships with other businesses. The most male orientated social network, although no official figures released yet. Google+'s female audiences are most likely to be 25 to 35 year olds. The majority (42%) of users are young adults, mostly 18 to 24. In the UK a great deal of users are single.

6.       Tumblr – 168.4 million Tumblr blogs. Very popular amongst teenagers looking for ways of self-expression, Tumblr is where the youth hangout. It is popular equally with males and females. It is more popular with 13-25 year olds than Facebook. Average user spends 23 minutes on Tumblr.

7.       Instagram – Used for photos. There is a higher percentage of female users than male, majority of users are aged 18-29 previously associated with Pinterest. Lower income households, less than 30,000.

8.       VK – Popular in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Belarus, and Israel, former Soviet Union area. Used in a similar way to Facebook. The most successful social network in Russia with over 106M users worldwide. 

9.       Flickr – Photo sharing platform, in 2012 studies showed that it was used mainly by women, in the UK aged between 35- 44. There are 92 million registered users. In January of this year, 66% of social network users were aware of Flickr, but only 3% of the 8% with a registered account use it. A study from 2010 suggested that Flickr users are unique individuals embrace and are affected by the culture they are born in.

10.   MySpace – Similar to Facebook, post videos, photos and message people, studies from 2012 show it was used mainly by women in the USA aged 45-54. 36 million registered accounts. In January of this year, 73% of social media users in the UK are aware of MySpace, but only 2% of the 9% of social media users that have an account actually use it. 

At Scirum, we have a dedicated team who take care of our clients' social media planning and digital presence. If you are thinking about increasing your social media activity, why not give us a call (01264 860060) or email us?

Grace O'Brien, Digital and Marketing Executive, Scirum Ltd.


For more useful tips and answers to common questions from SMEs, visit www.scirum.biz or follow us on Twitter and Google+, like us on Facebook or join our LinkedIn group.

The 6 essential steps to writing a social media plan

Once you have decided that you need a social media strategy, you need to write one or get someone else to write it for you. If you decide you want to write your own, here are a few steps you should follow:

Step 1: What social media do you currently use? How frequently and why?

Step 2: Who are you trying to target with your social media contribution? This could be current or prospective customers; you may wish to influence stakeholders in industry or government; or end-consumers. You need to therefore clearly define who your target audience is.

Step 3: What are you trying to achieve?

Depending on your objectives and target audience you will choose the most appropriate social media channels. There are three main objectives for using social media:

·        - To increase your reach into potential markets (brand awareness)

·        - To create closer relationships with your community and increase brand loyalty, e.g. existing and/ or potential customers

·         -To better communicate/ inform your target audience about your product/ service and associated issues.

- Ultimately your social media objectives should contribute to your overall corporate objectives, e.g. increased orders, growing brand loyalty, etc.

Step 4: Write a social media plan based on what your target audience is looking for/ interested in and your objectives.

·          - Define the objectives (corporate and social media)

·          - Clearly identify your target audience

·          - Set success criteria

·          - Clearly outline how you will achieve your objectives through the use of social media channels

Step 5: Use analytics to measure your progress and whether you are meeting your set objectives and schedule a regular review of your plan and the analytics report.

Step 6: Adjust your plan according to the analytics reports.


At Scirum, we have a dedicated team who take care of our clients' social media planning and digital presence. If you are thinking about increasing your social media activity, why not give us a call (01264 860060) or email us?

Susanne Hasselmann, Director, Scirum Ltd.


For more useful tips and answers to common questions from SMEs, visit www.scirum.biz or follow us on Twitter and Google+, like us on Facebook or join our LinkedIn group.