What social network should you be using to grow your business? It depends on who your customers are.
Compare your target audience with the users of the big three social networks for businesses: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Note: Charts created from Quantcast reports, representing users as zeroed to the Internet average (at an index of 100). The users of all three social networks are split relatively evenly by gender.
Facebook Users:
· 116 million unique U.S. visitors in December 2009
· follow the Internet average pretty closely in terms of affluence, education, and household size
· are slightly more female
· are mostly younger, aged 13-34
LinkedIn Users:
· 24 million unique U.S. visitors in December 2009
· are slightly more male
· mostly have at least a college education
· ... and an astounding 33% have a graduate degree, as compared to the Internet average of 21%
· are generally older, more educated, and more affluent
Twitter Users:
· 23 million unique U.S. visitors in December 2009
· reflect an even male/female ratio
· peak at the 18-34 age group (16% of its total users, compared to 8% of the total Internet audience), with an even number of older and younger users.
· are generally less wealthy than those on Facebook and LinkedIn
By tailoring marketing strategies to account for statistics such as these, small businesses can maximize the effectiveness of their social media efforts and focus on reaching their desired audiences. In addition, small businesses who want to reach a wide variety of users of all ages, incomes, and education levels can do so conveniently by using all three.
