What's the Best Social Media Platform to Make Money?

Who do I pick?

Before the internet, advertisers had only their wits, words, images, mall surveys, and Neilson reports at their disposal. Throwing out blanket statements to the general populace - spending time, money, and resources to hopefully hit their target audience.

And then, the World Wide Web came into existence. Soon after, social media, which has changed the playing field of marketing so much so, that with the collection of data we’re able to find the perfect audience for any product. As Raja Rajamannar says in his book Quantum Marketing,

“Real time activity (a consumer's immediate past actions or current location) could lead to a customized offer or communication with that person.” 

The ability to see exactly what your audience is doing and how they're behaving can lead to faster sales and greater ROI.

There’s still a lot of hype out there, but the facts don't lie. Ads managers watch the data to help their customers and push ahead of the competition. Here’s some information to help you identify which platforms can serve you best. 

Who has the largest audience?

Most of these platforms are lone wolves. If not, they’ve been absorbed by a larger entity or absorbed another entity. For example, Snapchat acquired Bitstrips (the creator of Bitmoji) in 2017 and Microsoft purchased LinkedIn in 2016. Meta (Facebook) purchased Instagram in 2012.

Either way, the audience size doesn’t lie. The amount of people using the platform has a large impact on how many of your ideal customers see the ad which of course, will directly impact your sales. Here’s a graph to help you see the differences between them by the millions of users on their platforms. 

(Information from graph from statista.com)

As you can see, Pinterest has the smallest audience available with less than 500 million and Facebook has the largest with 3 Billion. 

Now, keep in mind Meta has combined the two giants of Facebook (3 billion) and Instagram (2.4 billion) – which makes over 5 Billion users! Whether you're a small business or a big brand, reaching out to such a vast number of people can work wonders for your visibility and engagement.

However, size isn't everything. There's still more to consider.

Who has the best Audience (for my business)?

You may have heard if you’re an artist, Instagram is still king. LinkedIn is good if you’re dealing with B2B sales. TikTok is for the younger crowd. But if you’re looking to hit every arena, Meta still gets you the most bang for your buck - as it ticks every box. (As to why that is, please visit my first blog post HERE)

However, there's always something more to consider with every layer uncovered. It may be you have a business that needs to hit a specific demographic. So, I found some stats off of pewresearch.org you may find useful:

(Information from graph from pewresearch.org)

What’s the benefit (to my business)?

Let’s talk turkey. At the beginning of this post I explained how things used to be in comparison to now. The slow, grinding process of building an audience has been replaced with a streamlined process giving even small companies excellent ROI. Now is the time to invest in advertising because never has it been so easy to target your ideal audience!

Brand awareness, loyalty, engagement, and high conversion rates are not just for the big names in business anymore! They can be for anyone with the right ad strategy and audience targeting. Social media makes this easy because the audience is already there, spending time on the platforms every day. 

So, which platform will you pick?

There's certainly a lot to consider, but I hope today's post has helped you make the best decision for your business. Who knows? With the right help, taking the leap into ads could make your business a household name.

• Amanda, with Socially Flourish, llc