Episode 22

The Most Popular Social Media Platforms

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There are new social media platforms popping up all the time, so which platform should you use for your business? In this episode, Joe and Tami break down some of the most popular platforms so you can understand what they are all about and how you can use them to create a better brand presence and connect with your clients and prospects.

Episode 22 Transcript:

Tami: Welcome to High Energy Marketing, a podcast with us, the digital marketing agency Ajax Union, where we interview our CEO Joe Apfelbaum on key marketing topics, and we share everything you need to know to properly grow your business online. 

This is a question-and-answer podcast where I interviewed Joe, about different topics and trends in marketing based on his book, High Energy Marketing. You can get the book at ajaxunion.com/book to follow along with us. 

This is the 22nd official episode of our podcast about High Energy Marketing. And today we’re going to discuss the most popular social media platforms. First, a little housekeeping. Find us on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. Where else do you listen to podcasts, Spotify? Just give us a five-star rating leave a review, and let us know if you’re listening and enjoying the podcast that really helps get the word out there. 

Joe, do you want to hit us with a quick inspiration minute before we get started?

Joe: Of course, thank you so much, Tami. For my inspiration minute, I want to talk about creating a vision that changes. Because often we hear that you need to create a vision for your life a vision for your marketing, a vision for your role, and a vision for your business. Do you have a crystal vision for your life? Do you know where you want to go? Do you know what you want to do? Do you want to know who you want to become? The reason why most people don’t have a clear vision is that maybe they’re afraid that if they create a vision, their life is not gonna go exactly that way. Or maybe you created a vision in the past and you were let down. 

You figure out why to create a vision that might one day change. I feel like a failure. Better than having a vision to beat not having a vision to begin with our minds will just fail. The anticipation in our life is what brings us excitement. You want to feel excited about something that you look forward to. You also don’t want to feel the dread the pain of expectation, and not getting what you expect it to get. 

What you feel that you’re entitled to. Your ego might scream, not fair, I earned this, this is mine, I was expecting this and you end up taking it personally. And it makes you anxious. So what I want you to do is maybe change your perspective, maybe instead of creating a vision that’s going to be the vision for your life. Great a vision that you know, might change one day, create a vision for what you want right now for your life. And maybe in a year or two years or five years from now that might change but be flexible when you’re creating your vision. But create your vision. Because if you want to get somewhere you got to know where you’re going.

Tami: That’s amazing. Thank you so much, Joe. Let’s jump right into it. We have a couple of questions about social media platforms. First, what is the best social media platform for B2B businesses?

Joe: The most influential social media platforms, in general, are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, and Tiktok. Now, there are many other social media platforms, and there are new ones coming out all the time. But for B2B, LinkedIn is number one, for sure. It’s the world’s largest professional social network. As we’re recording this, there are now 900 million people there. And I have a whole chapter dedicated to LinkedIn. 

But what I want you to know is that new social media platforms will keep popping up. If you want to be where the people are, which platform should you use for your business? Well, there are lots of different options for you to select from. The key is for you to understand them so that you can make the right decision.

Tami: So you say new social media platforms will pop up and you want to be where the people are. Does that mean that every time a new social media platform pops up and it becomes popular, people should jump on the bandwagon of that new social media platform, since that’s where the people are? 

Joe: I think it’s worth spending some time looking at a social media platform, analyzing it, and getting familiar with it in case it becomes the next big thing and you want to be a person that has it. So for example, when the Clubhouse came out, we jumped on it, and million people jumped on it as well. 

But it didn’t really take off because all the different social media platforms decided to do the same thing as Clubhouse. And LinkedIn created spaces and like, you know, places for people to be able to use a Clubhouse-like feature and so kind of died down very quickly. It’s worth spending some of your time on it, but 80 to 90% of your time you should spend on the social media platforms that already are successful.

Tami: Tell me about Facebook, what type of people are on Facebook? How do people use Facebook? Should people be using Facebook? I mean, there’s also an ethical question there. And can they use it for their B2B business?

Joe: Well, Facebook is a monster of a platform. It’s a very powerful social network that can be used for any type of business. Whether it’s personal or business. Facebook has something called profiles, pages and groups. A Facebook profile is meant to represent to human a person, a Facebook page represents a brand and organization, or personality. If you have friends on Facebook, that means you’re using your profile, you get friends, you get followers on your Facebook pages, and you could also get followers on your profile. But a page is what represents your business of using it. from a B2B standpoint, you want to make sure that you have a Facebook page, and the page gets managed by a profile. 

A page will not represent a person necessarily, it can represent a person’s brand. But most of the time, a page will represent a company. And Facebook is mostly used for people to interact with their friends and family socially. Some people use it for business to try to win over clients. It can work, but Facebook is really designed for social interactions. And most people don’t have a business mindset when they’re using Facebook. 

So to your question, can Facebook use be used for B2B? Absolutely, if you want your company to sponsor a barbecue, you can sponsor a barbecue. And that’s a really good idea. You can sponsor a social event, or you could sponsor a concert as a B2B company, it makes sense to do those things the same thing, it makes sense for you to be on Facebook, and actually use it properly. But you’re not using it there to sell people on Facebook, you’re using it there to create awareness to create branding. And so now Facebook has almost 3 billion monthly active users, that’s an increase. 

It’s constantly increasing. 36% of the world’s population uses Facebook monthly. 70% of Internet users are active on at least one of their Meta platforms. You know, we’re talking about WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook. Facebook is the seventh most valuable brand in the world. It’s the third most visited website in the world. It’s the second most used global app based on total usage and has over a billion stories that are posted every day on the Facebook app. So if you think about the power of Facebook, it’s extremely powerful. 

72% of Facebook users also use YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram 70% of American adults use Facebook. So if you’re wondering if your business should be on Facebook, and should absolutely be leveraging it shouldn’t be the only thing you leverage. But you know, 18% of American Facebook users think the platform protects its privacy. And the truth is it doesn’t really. And so, really thinking about it from an ethical standpoint, you may want to question yourself how much you should spend over there, you should limit how much you spend there. But not having a presence there is like putting your head in the sand, you need to have a presence there. Because so many people are using it. And you need to be smart. If you’re a B2B company, about the way that you’re using it just like you need to be smart if you’re sponsoring a barbecue, do it the right way.

Tami: And the same goes for Instagram, which is a Facebook brand, a Meta brand. Same statements, I assume apply to Instagram.

Joe: Well, Facebook also owns Instagram, which is mostly a mobile app that allows people to share photos and videos as well as stories. Facebook also has those features. But Instagram has been used it by a different generation than Facebook, it’s a bit younger, and people that are using Instagram behave differently than people that are using Facebook. Personally, I use Instagram on my phone, but I use Facebook on my computer. Most people are using all the platforms on their phones these days. And the number of people that are only using their phones and social media is on the rise. Instagram has only profiles, they don’t have pages, you can have a business profile. Or you can have a personal profile, you can have a professional profile. 

My profile on Instagram is a personal brand. I use it personally with my family and friends. And each company that I owned has its own Instagram profile, for example, Ajax Union, it’s instagram.com/ajaxunion. I even made a profile for my book. And you can see my personal profile. If you go to add Joe Apfelbaum, my company profile, you can go to add Ajax Union, and hopefully, you follow me. And hopefully, if you’re listening to this podcast, you send me a message letting me know “Hey, Joe, I heard this podcast and I really loved it.” You can have followers on Instagram. And those followers are usually very valuable if they’re real. And if they’re the type that engage there are websites that tell you who’s in how what percentage of your followers are engaging. And I can see that I can take your handle, throw it on our website, and I can see exactly what percentage of your followers are engaging. 

Now, on LinkedIn, you can only have an unlinked and you could have 30,000 connections on Facebook, you can only have 5,000 friends on your personal profile. On Instagram, you can have as many followers as you want. I’ve seen people that have millions and millions and millions of followers. Hashtags are really important on Instagram. Stories are important Instagram reels are really important on Instagram right now. That’s what’s really going crazy: reels, but I would not recommend buying followers because it’s gonna mess up the algorithm and you’re not gonna be able to get good engagement. 

A small amount of followers with high engagement is 10 to 100 times more valuable than large amounts of fake followers with low engagement because the algorithm cares about engagement. 

Tami: And so should your B2B business user be using Instagram? 100%? 

Joe: Absolutely, it’s probably more important than Facebook, because of the level of engagement that people have on it, and your flexibility and your ability to use it in ways for the next generation. If it’s important for you to tap into the next generation, Instagram is really important. But again, it’s the same platform as Facebook from an advertising standpoint. So if you’re doing it on one, I would recommend doing it on both.

Tami: I mean, in terms of tapping into a different generation, I would say that’s the importance of TikTok as well. It’s not just for the kids. It’s not a dancing app for the kids anymore, right? 

Joe: You can. I see B2B stuff on it on TikTok all the time. Because their algorithm is so amazing, that it’s just curated for whatever generation you’re in. I mean, Instagram is the ninth most Google-searched term. The ninth most Google search term is Instagram. Think about that for a second. Like, people are searching Instagram almost more than Instagram is the fourth most used social platform. And Instagram is powerful. It’s the most downloaded app in the world period. So Instagram has more than 2 billion active monthly users. 52% are male 47% are female 47% of American adults use Instagram. Instagram is Gen Z’s favorite platform, I want you to consider that. Instagram is something that you should consider using also, because of its usage stats, users spend more than 11 hours a month on Instagram, and Americans spend more than 30 minutes per day on Instagram, I personally get sucked into those Instagram videos, and I get sucked in there. So I highly recommend learning how to leverage it and learning how to use Reels, most companies are not using Reels, you got to learn how to use Reels use it properly because real estate up 30% of the time that people spend on Instagram. So learning how to leverage it, you can get a really high organic reach, and it can work really well for B2B.

Tami: All right, so what about TikTok? I mean, what about Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and then also LinkedIn? What about the others?

Joe: I think they’re all-powerful. I mean, Twitter is a powerful platform. Most people don’t understand it, celebrities and politicians use Twitter heavily. And journalists love it has been on the news because Elon Musk got involved with it and spent a ginormous amount of money investing in it, it’s important to have a presence on Twitter, but realize that you’re not gonna get a lot of interactions, you’re not gonna get a lot of engagement. 

But when someone Googles your brand name, you want to make sure that your Twitter is up to speed. And if someone tweets at you, that you’re monitoring it and that you’re looking at it. Twitter is still a powerful platform. A lot of people don’t realize how powerful Twitter is. But Twitter is used by politicians, by celebrities, by journalists. And, you know, 2022 was a year of massive change for Twitter, including an ownership change. And so thinking about using it, you definitely want to consider using it the most popular account on Twitter is still Barack Obama, believe it or not, with over 133 million followers. 

Twitter is the sixth most popular social platform in the world, you don’t want to ignore it. If you’re a business, the CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, only has a 34% approval rating. But that doesn’t mean that Twitter’s not growing. Twitter’s usage is growing at 30% faster than Instagram among Gen Z. People are using Twitter, Twitter followers, on average, have only you know, Twitter accounts only have let’s say 400 followers or whatever, on average. And so if your company is not leveraging Twitter, you’re missing out on an opportunity to get organic reach. I don’t know that I would spend advertising dollars on Twitter. But it’s mostly used for news and current events. 

So if you are going to be using Twitter, I recommend you talk about news in your industry and current events. And you can automate it. I mean, Twitter is so easy to automate. And so if you’re not using Twitter on a regular basis and automating it and getting involved in the conversations that are already happening, you’re missing out on an opportunity and you can set it and forget it. When it comes to Twitter. It’s acceptable to do that. 

LinkedIn, you definitely don’t want to set it and forget it. YouTube, you definitely don’t want to set it and forget it. TikTok. You don’t want to set it and forget it. Those platforms are different than Twitter, but Twitter you can actually create a Twitter bot. Now with chat GBT with open AI, you can actually automate responses. You can have using a tool like make.com or Zapier, you can have twit you can create a Twitter bot and you can make it respond and go back and forth. It’s very, very powerful what you can do with Twitter now together with OpenAI.

Tami: Finally, what’s an easy way that we can decide how to use social media for our business? 

Joe: The easy way to decide how to use social media for your business is to actually have a strategy, the right strategy will save you a decade, knowing where your target demographic is, knowing what your budget is understanding what to do on each platform, which platforms, you can automate more, what elements of the platform? Are you going to be using organic? Or you’re going to be using paid? How are you going to be using it? How are you going to be measuring results? 

That’s why you need a strategy. And that’s why you need a funnel, I recommend being having a presence on all the different platforms, and using the latest technology to help you manage those platforms. And then figuring out where your demographic is, where is your target market, your target markets, probably on many of the platforms, but where are they primarily? And that’s where you should focus most of your effort wherever they are primarily. And then the rest of the effort, you should put on the other platforms more from a branding perspective, you don’t have to be on every single platform, going hard. 

But what I would tell you to do is have a branding presence on all the platform, make sure it’s updated regular using automation technology. And then pick your main platform where you gonna go deep on my main platform is LinkedIn. And we’re going to do a separate episode directly on LinkedIn. Because LinkedIn is a powerhouse in and of itself, especially when it comes to B2B. So we’re going to have a completely separate one. But I recommend having a presence on all the different platforms from a branding perspective, especially YouTube, because YouTube is a social media platform that focuses on videos, and YouTube is owned by Google. But make sure that you know how to use the platform that you’re using it correctly. 

Working with a marketing strategist to help you come up with a plan is going to be key, because otherwise, you’re always going to miss opportunities, have a content calendar, and make sure that you’re putting the right type of content on the right platform. For example, Snapchat and TikTok are apps that are mostly used by teens back in the day, it’s not true anymore. Now people in their 40s and 50s and 60s are the fastest-growing demographic on those tools. TikTok is the largest age group between 18 and 24. And 54% of global TikTok users are female and 49% are male. 

So when you’re deciding which platform you should use to answer your question directly, use the platform primarily that has your demographic in it. And that’s where you should focus most of your energy, but have a strategy. The average user spends 89 minutes per day on the app 89 minutes per day compared to Instagram, which is 30 minutes per day. So I want you to realize that people are using it more people are using that more. So depending on where your demographic is, that’s where you should spend time but don’t ignore platforms that have a presence, at least from a branding perspective, have a presence on all the different popular platforms, and learn them to have a strategy. 

And then test. Marketing is about testing. And the more you test, the more likely you are that you’ll know what works and what doesn’t work. And if you have a funnel, you can nurture people from the top of the funnel to the bottom line. We’re here to help you do that at Ajax Union. We build amazing marketing strategies, amazing branding, and lead-generation campaigns for people’s social media accounts. 

If you need help, just go to Ajaxunion.com. And we’re happy to set up a strategy session with you and review what we’re doing for other B2B companies to help them succeed on social media.

Tami: Awesome. Thank you so much, Joe. That was amazing information. We hope everyone listening got as much out of this as we did. On next episode, we will be talking about how to leverage LinkedIn as Joe promised, make sure to hit that subscribe button to catch that episode. You can follow us on Instagram @AjaxUnion and Joe on all social media platforms at Joe Apfelbaum and follow him on LinkedIn at Joelinkedin.com. If you didn’t catch that, check our description for all of our social media links. Ajaxunion.com/podcast is where you can find more information about this podcast. 

If you have any questions, shoot us an email at amazing@ajaxunion.com. Our music is by Michael Suarez. This podcast is produced by Sarah and Shannon and edited by Sami Mititelu. Thank you so much. We’ll catch you next time.

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