“I love the question ‘What’s your favorite social network for growing an audience and why?’ but I’m going to turn the question on its head and answer ‘What’s your least favorite social network for growing an audience and why?’

My least favorite? Twitter, which I think is a slow growth or no growth platform that has very low engagement. Additionally, every time I’ve tested the advertising portion of their platform the results stink. (I’ve heard other experts complain of the same thing.)

Bottom line: I’m afraid Twitter’s best days are behind them and it’s a mystery to me how to make any ads I run on Twitter work effectively.”

“Despite misgivings held by many, Facebook continues to be my preferred social network. It has all of the tools that a business can and should use for audience growth, including personal connections and conversations, brand awareness and analytics, and incredibly well-targeted paid advertising.

In conjunction with a strong Instagram game, almost any brand can grow an interested and engaged audience on Facebook without having to spend an incredible amount of money.

The fact is, for years we’ve been spoiled with essentially free advertising on social networks. I’m at peace with the idea that I will need to invest $100 a month to help promote my brand and grow my audience because that invest is still less expensive, more targeted, and therefore more effective than any traditional advertising buy.”

“Pinterest is driving most of my social media traffic right now.

It has outpaced Twitter over the last 6 months.

I recommend using Pinterest to all my clients, no matter what their niche.”

“My philosophy is that Twitter is a tool that leads to other forms of social sharing. I consider Twitter a place to lay the groundwork where other people pick up things. Twitter is a seeding medium and a place to build engagement and interaction… it is not a broadcast medium, so it is not about the number of people listening at once, but the ability to lay it out there for those whose attention is drawn to what you have to say at any given moment.

Twitter is a river that continuously flows, and flows. You add content one second, and the next it is gone. Tweet to keep your personal brand on your followers’ radar, increase your following, and provide value that keeps followers listening and you top of mind.”

“The network you choose will depend on the type of customer you have. There is a tactic that works well at building a loyal audience no matter who they are. For me, that’s Live streaming.

Facebook live in particular is a great way to build a loyal audience of followers. Why? I think it’s due to viewers being able to see and hear you and interact with you in real time.

To maximise audience building set a regular day and time for your live broadcasts. Decide what type of show you will have. Will it be an interview show? An ask me anything show? A news show? Will you share your weekly wisdom?

Finally, you need to have a promotion plan for both before and after the broadcast.

To foster that loyal audience ask your viewers questions throughout the show, ask for their input and make sure you set aside time in your broadcast to respond to comments and questions.”

“You might be surprised, but I get more reach, engagement, and business via LinkedIn.
I’m not a celebrity, yet I’ve had organic posts get 2 million reach and 13,000 likes– using a technique called “broetry”.

On the paid side, there is nothing like Facebook ads, provided you can create one-minute videos and boost for $1 a day. Facebook is where friends hang out, so your page has to create content that is friend-like– a recommendation, interesting story, or anything that doesn’t look or sound like an ad.

More important than growing an audience, I want leads and sales– so nothing beats Facebook’s custom audiences for ROI and total revenue. The system is incredible if you know how to use it and can deal with some bugs here and there.

The hottest thing on the hottest network is chatbots on Facebook– so this is where we drive the best results via Mobile Monkey. The secret is setting up Comment Guards on public figure pages– to get leads for under 10 cents and an 80% open rate to messages.”

“I’ve been on Twitter for 10 years, and it is definitely my preferred social network for growing an audience and establishing thought leadership. Twitter functions like a fantastic search engine, where I can find accounts to follow and contribute to specific conversations by searching for hashtags and keywords.

When I speak at and attend conferences, following the conference hashtag introduces me to new people and helps me build my community. I am my own personal brand, and I like participating in political debates on Twitter, following current events, and sharing humorous memes and GIFs.

Twitter is very versatile, and to achieve success on Twitter you have to look at it like exercise: If you are consistent and if you work hard at it every day, you will see results.”

“When I think about this question the starting point for me is, “where does the ideal client for this spend time on social media?” That question drives my direction.

For example if the demographic is 16-25 year old males who like sports, my answer is going to be to focus on Twitter and Instagram, because those are key places where that age bracket spends time online.

However, if my target is 40-55 year old males and females with college degrees who I want to buy my product for their home, then Facebook and Facebook Ad targeting are going to be a central platform.

The key is where your ideal audience spends time online!”

“Twitter of course! It’s easy to connect and make useful introductions without a big long email.

Easy to find your tribe using hashtags and taking part in Twitter chats.

The demographic are mostly aged 35 – 55 and most have a lot of life experience and knowledge to add to your day. Also, the people who are on Twitter are mostly professionals and willing to ‘click to buy now’.

Twitter is a great way to show you are the expert in what you do and engage with your community.”

“I don’t believe there is one best social media platform for any business. What may work best for my business is not going to work well for other businesses. Based purely on website traffic, Facebook sends the most traffic to my website and blog.

However, so much of any company’s social media success is going to come down to where your customers spend time online and the level of genuine effort you put into that social media platform.”

‘”My preferred social network to grow my audience changes with the seasons, and depends on current business projects! For example, this year I am focussed on several community management projects and thus spend a lot of time in Facebook groups where I am meeting and connecting with amazing people.

Last year, I was focussed on speaking and spent a lot of time cultivating connections with event organizers on LinkedIn. Another year I had a few clients who needed Pinterest management and that is where I made a lot of connections that year. You can grow connections on all networks; it makes sense that you’d grow your audience the quickest on the networks you spent the most time being active on.”

“In 2018, Instagram is the place to grow an audience and community for most brands. I wouldn’t have had the same answer in 2016 or earlier; I would have said Twitter then. As Twitter is the same kind of open network that Instagram is, it’s easy to be followed and follow others, and engage even with those that aren’t following you.

However, today Instagram is where brands, both B2C and B2B, should focus their attention and effort. We find that our clients’ Instagram audiences are significantly more engaged than Twitter or Facebook, and the conversations we have on Instagram are more insightful and valuable than those we have elsewhere. We also learn a lot from the user-generated content that people post to Instagram using brand hashtags, and we love highlighting fan content on our clients’ feeds.

“Different social networks work for different businesses. For clients with visual offerings, I recommend Pinterest and, of course, Instagram. An artist, craftsman, or photographer can do wonders with quality images and well-written copy. Use a business account for the ability to add a call to action and a phone number or business address.

For an attorney, banker, accountant, or other corporate worker, LinkedIn might be the primary network. Post authoritative curated content and original articles to demonstrate that you are knowledgeable and current in your field. Recommendations can help build trust as others sell your abilities and professionalism for you — give and ask for them where appropriate.

As difficult as it is to gain organic reach, I still recommend Facebook for most clients as it remains the go-to platform for the general public.

I’m partial to Twitter, as I started using it in June 2007 and the relationships I built in those early days were the catalyst for my career in digital marketing. It’s harder now to get noticed on Twitter, but it’s still possible to build relationships if you are able to find your niche.”

“You can’t be everywhere or you won’t end up doing any of it well, so choose where you spend your time carefully.

Understand where your target audience hangs out and be there.

My preferred social networks are Facebook and LinkedIn.

Facebook is great for getting in front of entrepreneurs who have online businesses while LinkedIn is better for connecting with corporate clients.”

“There’s no question about it. It’s most definitely Instagram. The results I’ve achieved on Instagram are 20 times better than on any other social media platform.

I’ve been using Instagram for almost two years and already got more than 200k engaged & targeted followers and have grown my email list from zero to 15k e-mail subscribers. Just from Instagram. Without spending a single penny on paid advertising. By following the right strategies – you can achieve the same results.

Why should your business have an Instagram account?

• Instagram is currently the fastest-growing social network
• Engagement on Instagram is 58x higher than on Twitter and 32x higher than on Facebook
• It’s much easier to grow your following on Instagram than on any other social media platform
• More than 900 million people use Instagram
• The average post is seen by 20-30% of your audience. On Facebook, It’s 2-3% and on Twitter, it’s not even 1%
• It exists a lot of tools you can use to automate day-to-day activities

And so much more…”

“My preferred social network for growing an audience is definitely Twitter. Growing my follower count to over 15,400 (at the time of this writing) was easy. I found an influencer in my niche and followed his followers. The culture of Twitter is to follow back, so most followed me back.

I wanted to keep the number of people I followed under the number of people who followed me. The Bandwagon Effect of marketing says people like to follow someone who seems popular.

I used tools like Crowdfire and Commun.iT to ensure my ratio stayed in check.

Another reason I like Twitter is that I was able to monetize my audience. People wrote and said they found me on Twitter. They knew I’d promote to my Twitter followers and I was booked for sponsored posts for this reason.”

“Instagram and Facebook Groups are the best because they are centered around people with common interests and similar goals that have the desire to interact with one another. If you want to grow an audience, you need great content that enhances people’s lives and you need your audience to interact with people other than yourself to continue the conversation.

If your post stirs up conversation, it’s a good post! People follow other people on Instagram because of their beautiful storytelling images that transport them to different lifestyles and destinations so they can be inspired and stay motivated, people join Facebook Groups to be around people with the same interests.”

“Algorithms from platform to platform change quarterly, if not quicker. You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.

And what works on one platform may not work on another platform for another year or two. Because of that, you need to be proactive in syndicating your content across platforms instead of sticking to just one specific outlet.”

“LinkedIn because that’s where my target demographic is.

It’s important to grow your followers on the social networks your target audience is on.

Otherwise, your social media won’t be impactful.”

“Facebook is apparently the very first choice of any entrepreneur to protrude the base of the business’ digital reach. It is now the home of 2.3 billion active users hailing from different countries of the world. To me, there’s no better channel than Facebook to establish your business’ watermark on the timelines of people, and engaging their intent with your product.

I also find Facebook features like stories, auto video play and messenger marketing to be immensely helpful in boosting the brand presence of any business. It is these features that make this social media platform versatile enough to befriend the customers and also amplify the brand name through maximum reach.”

“In the past, I would have said Twitter – right now I find Instagram and LinkedIn are where I spend the most time.

IG is a nice balance between life + work (it’s also the only social app I have on my phone), LinkedIn is obviously more business focused – but both can be powerful to build an engaged audience.”

“Right now, there are two particular social networks I prefer:

1) Instagram – While this is a great social network to build a following on, it’s trickier from a traffic generation perspective due to not being able to include links in posts. That said, the main reason I prefer Instagram to other networks is because I vibe with the minimal UI and heavy focus on visuals. So from a user perspective, it’s my go-to social network right now.

2) Pinterest – Another visual focused network, and while it’s limited to images, it has the potential to be a traffic powerhouse. Ultimately, one of my main goals is to use social to drive traffic to my blog, and Pinterest is one of the best networks for this. Another thing I particularly like is that when it comes to seeing results from your efforts, Pinterest delivers more than most other social networks.”

“LinkedIn, for sure. Not that there isn’t value to be found in other social platforms, but LinkedIn, in particular, has done so much lately to create opportunities for content distribution on their site. I’ve been testing the platform, and it’s been driving a lot of growth for me. It’s underutilized right now. I almost hate to share how effective it’s been for me because I don’t want the competition!

Especially if you’re a business that has stories to tell that translate well to content, or if you have content creation talent in-house, it’s an option for growing an audience you won’t want to miss.”

“Twitter has been good to me. By providing strong content geared towards my predetermined demographic  I have been able to create a following that replicates my client base. I like the immediacy of Twitter, the requirement to get my content in under 280 characters allows people and myself the opportunity to be impactful quickly.

It makes for a fast read and coupled with a video is unbeatable. Twitter analytics is also a very valuable and comprehensive marketing tool as it identifies best tweets, best times to Tweet etc.”

“LinkedIn is easily my favorite network, it offers the opportunity to share my expertise in a meaningful way and to connect, engage and communicate with people I know are getting value from my time spent there.

As a community people on LinkedIn tend to be intolerant of spam content or abusive behavior, the majority of conversations I have, tend to be very valuable interactions with people I enjoy spending my social media time with and who get some value from the content I share.”

“Recently, in addition to LinkedIn for networking, I’ve been using Alignable, which is a social network for
small businesses.

It’s similar to LinkedIn but is more targeted towards small business owners who are
looking to connect and network with other businesses.”

“Twitter still continues to be the best place for me to engage but I am getting some traction on Linkedin.

I looooove the 2 minute Twitter video feature but the stats are much more useful on Linkedin.

I am constantly experimenting with these two platforms.”

“My preference is the place where my potential customers are most likely to be hanging out.

That’s definitely the social media platform that you’ll find me on.”

“Right now I am focused on growing my audience on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not a job search and resumes site anymore. It has become a professional storytelling platform. They made a lot of improvements last year e.g.
1 – You can upload native video (on mobile and desktop)
2 – When you receive a message in the LinkedIn messaging app, you’ll be given suggestions on how to reply. These are called smart replies.
3 – You can see whether your connections are logged into LinkedIn

With changes like these, LinkedIn has become a great platform for content creators and business owners. You can build engaging relationships and grow your business on LinkedIn.”

“Facebook, for easy social sharing to a wide audience.”

“Facebook and Twitter.

It makes the most sense for our product – it’s software and these just so happen to be the two online channels that work best for engaging with our customers and communicating with our target audience.”

“My preferred social network is Twitter. Actually, I’ve read numerous studies that show Twitter is the preferred social platform for most members of the media.

I like Twitter best for numerous reasons. It enables me to arrange it the way I want to see it (chronologically) and not how the platform itself wants to present it. Also, using Twitter lists and 3rd-party tools, such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck, it’s easy to create subject lists, such as one for clients, potential clients, industry experts, media, etc.

The 3rd-party apps, the ones I mentioned above, and others like Buffer, allow you to schedule posts far in advance (you can use this to schedule other social platforms as well), making it easy to load branding messages, leaving you time to actually engage live on the platform.

Since you don’t need their permission, Twitter makes it easy to follow people (like your competition) and socially listen, even without engaging. If what you post is interesting and engaging, your followers will Retweet it, exposing it to their followers, enabling you to reach more people with your messages.

All that said, using any social network effectively doesn’t mean hanging out on the platforms you like best. It’s most important for you to build a social media presence first where your customers (current and potential) hang out. Social media, like any other marketing tool, is about reaching customers and clients.”

“This year I am focusing on Youtube, and it seems to be working. It’s a great way to use video, the up and coming medium, to make more intimate contact with your audience. And, sometimes I also find it far easier to create video content than spending hours tweaking and tuning my blog.

It’s also a place that is not quite flooded yet, or cut off at the knees, like Facebook. So, if you are inclined to get on video, at all, give Youtube a shot. It’s still untapped, I swear!”

“Twitter. While many companies use digital marketing tactics to generate new qualified leads, very few turn to Twitter as a direct lead generating source.

If you’re ready to use Twitter as a lead generating machine, here’s the key. You must incorporate data-driven marketing strategy.

Focus on more long-term strategies for building brand awareness. There are infinite opportunities to do this — and most don’t involve an inflated budget, Twitter is one of them.”

“I guess I would have to say Twitter because I have my clients use Twitter to – in addition to providing great original content – drive traffic to other platforms more than any other. Also, I work with police so we’re talking about a profession, more than other, who often has to go to real-time communication.

Twitter is the best real-time comms we have at the moment. It stands to reason that law enforcement should rely on it to be the best resource for real-time comms as well as driving traffic to other platforms and therefore the best choice for audience-growth overall.”

“Facebook – because they offer a ton of audience insights, and provide comprehensive tools for paid promotion of your brand

(your page, Facebook posts, Website and its landing pages).”

“With the decrease in Facebook engagement, we’ll be focusing a lot more on Instagram and Instagram stories.

When we took a close look at our engagement, it was close to 15:1 compare to Facebook.

So it’s a channel we’ll be working on.”

“It depends! A B2C company will likely do better on Facebook. A B2C may do better on LinkedIn. The content type matters as well and will impact if you should be using a text-based or image-based platform.

The most important step here is to understand your audience and tailor your networks and approach accordingly.”

“Facebook and Twitter are my most preferred networks for the simple reason because these two are more aligned with my business goals. Majority of my target audience can be found on these.

Plus, Facebook and Twitter have also helped me improve my networking reach by connecting me with other influencers in my niche industry. By using these two social networks, I have been able to build a substantial database for my business.

Also, since one can easily communicate and collaborate with other influencers, these social networks have helped me build a strong brand presence for my business in the online world.”

“Facebook!

Not because I like facebook more than other social media, but because it would be very hard for me to find my potential clients on other social media such as Linkedin for example.”

“Pinterest is a great social network to grow your audience because it is so visual, which is great for our free design resources and infographics.

Facebook also allows us to reach a majority of our audience with its inexpensive advertising and the ability to target lookalike audiences and retarget.”

“For an NGO I work for called Hope Spring Water, Facebook has been the best social network platform for growing our audience. When we post quality engaging and topical content, we find that many people share the post. When people share our posts or other contents, we get more likes and more followers.

Because we tend to share information about water, sanitation and hygiene and other sustainable development goals related stuff, we noticed that we get more engagement on our Facebook page than other social networks. I have a strong feeling that post and contents that sell stuff are unlikely to get as much engagement as we get on Facebook, as an NGO.

This is one of the reasons I prefer FB network for growing our audience to the other platforms we have a presence on.”

“Currently, my favorite social network is Youtube. Youtube is a great space to grow an audience because it is fairly easy to create a viral video where many people are watching your message for 5 or 10 minutes.

Unlike other social platforms, where you might get people’s attention for only a few seconds with a text post, Youtube being a video platform it is all about holding attention for a longer duration. With more time, you can really create trust and establish authority.

As well, the comments section offers an opportunity to get feedback, address areas where you can improve or learn potential issues faced by your customers. It is for these reasons Youtube is really the best platform for engaging your potential customers and building a relationship with them.”

“Pinterest!

If you are not on Pinterest yet, it is time to be on it!

Use vertical pins, strong fonts, and bold colors to stand out on the Pinterest newsfeed.

Unlike other social networks, Pinterest will bring even a new website a great amount of traffic if you put in the effort to pin regularly and optimize your pins and boards for keywords.”

“I love growing audiences through Instagram because it has the most power and reach nowadays.

I think Instagram is one of the top most used platforms right now and it’s great for growing an audience.

There are numerous ways to stay engaged with your audience and provide value for them.

You can create stories, posts or Instagram Live Recordings and there is a lot of ways to captivate your audience.”

“There is no denying that Facebook is the largest social network currently with staggering 2-billion-plus monthly active users, but I would prefer Instagram for growing your audience. This doesn’t mean that Facebook or Twitter is inferior in any way. Both these major social networks offer multiple content formats to engage with your target audience. But Instagram’s visual content power gives it a great edge. It is also much simpler and straightforward in its approach.

Instagram has the highest engagement rates in the social media space. For a simple comparison, the B2B engagement rates per post per 1000 followers in 2015 for professional services was 0.37 for Facebook and 10.61 for Instagram. For software it was 0.63 for Facebook and 13.38 for Instagram. The overall B2B engagement rates for Facebook were 5.99 and for Instagram it was 22.53. For Twitter it was 0.86, LinkedIn 1.09 and Pinterest 15.88.

That gives a picture of how effective Instagram is in building engagement levels – which further helps build a great following on this photo sharing site/app.”

“Pinterest is where I focus my time and attention to grow an audience. I love Pinterest because, in addition to being a social network, it’s also a powerful search engine. This means your content lives forever and it’s searchable. I have Pins (content) I uploaded over a year ago that are still driving consistent traffic to my website every single day.

Pinterest generates approximately 60% of my website traffic every month and those users convert into email subscribers and paying customers. This is because Pinterest users are on the platform actively looking for new ideas, new content, and new products.

I use three main strategies on Pinterest to drive traffic to every new piece of content I publish. These strategies work so well I call them the “traffic trifecta.” To learn about how to explode your website traffic using the trifecta you can sign up for my free masterclass.”

“As of this moment, my favourite social network for growing an audience is Instagram. To be successful, you need to be creative and share some interesting pieces of content that catch people’s attention.
I’ve found building a community on this platform is much easier and more engaged than others like Twitter and Facebook. Whilst some may struggle with gaining attraction to their content, including call-to-actions in your captions and posts will encourage your audience to engage and when they do so, their followers will also see that. This may then result in their followers having a glance at your content and potentially follow you, growing a larger engaged audience.

Instagram has various features that allow you to interact with your audience, Instagram Stories and Instagram Live are just two of them. This is what makes the platform a powerful network to utilize for growing your social media audience, whether you’re using the platform for business or personal.”

“My preferred social network for growing my tribe is Twitter. I’ve used Twitter for many years now because I work with bloggers, experts and influencers so that’s where my target market is. That’s where they spend most of their time.

It’s easy to interact with people over Twitter either by @replying to them or following them and sending a DM (direct message). And most people are really reading these nowadays.

Best twitter marketing tip: engage with people within your target market, follow them, retweet, share their content, ask them questions, get them to participate in your expert roundups, etc.

People like doing business with other people that they like, know and trust. Always.”

“Even though lately I’ve been focusing more on Twitter, I have a sweet spot for Pinterest. Although Pinterest is considered a social media channel, it functions like a search engine. Think about it: you don’t go on Pinterest to find out what your friends are doing or to chat with them. You use Facebook and Instagram for that. On Pinterest, there is very little interaction.

Pinners use keywords to search for things that they are interested. To get the best results you need to apply some Pinterest SEO tips.

1. Include keywords in your boards and pins description.

2. Enable rich pins.

3. Pin only vertical images that include the name of the blog post and the site’s URL.

4. Join relevant group boards.

5. Use a tool like BoardBooster or Tailwind to schedule your pins in advance.”

“I’ve always been a facebook girl!

Since the day I first learned about Facebook pages, they have been my preferred way of building an audience. This year, however, I’m exploring facebook groups from within pages.

So from your Facebook brand page, you create a group and invite people to become a part of your community. The best part is every member of your group gets a notification every time you post (unless they turn the feature off, but it’s your job to encourage them not too!).

Meaning if you spend time growing your group rather than your page, you’re not relying on the newsfeed algorithms, your members instantly know you’ve posted! Yippeeee!

This pretty much achieves what you could once do with a Facebook page which was to organically reach the audience who had indicated interest in what you had to offer, except this goes one better.

With a group, you can quickly build a community based on trust, conversation, engagement, and rapport. Your members feel a part of something bigger than themselves and you have the opportunity to speak with your audience first hand.

21st-century list building in a far more conversational setting. Can’t get much better than that!

Come & join my group by clicking on my name!”

“I love Instagram. While it might not be the best for driving direct traffic to your website (at least until you hit 10K followers and can use that handy “swipe up” feature in your Stories), it’s amazing for building real-time, genuine connections with your audience.

Instagram Stories, in particular, are a fantastic way to showcase your personality, strut your stuff (your knowledge, expertise, etc.), and share value with your community in ways that have them dying to hire you, work with you, and join all your courses and programs.”

“Twitter. Hands down. I’ve spent a lot of time growing my audience on Twitter because people are ready to instantly connect from all over the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Twitter is a fantastic platform for taking the pulse of your target market, seeing what types of conversations are taking place, where pain points are, and how competitors are addressing (or not) important issues.

This accessibility is invaluable when it comes to competitive analysis and target market research, but it is also critical for developing long-term relationships with your audience. Twitter has active users of all ages and backgrounds, making it a worthwhile time investment for all business types (as long as they have a well designed digital strategy).

I’ve been called an early adopter more than a few times, so my choices don’t always make sense to me, but I trust my instincts especially when it comes to social media. A few years ago, I deleted my business and personal accounts on Facebook. People thoughts I was crazy. Brands I consulted for scratched their heads. At the time, I didn’t find that Facebook activity gave deeper insights or translated into sales.

With Facebook, if you are a business, it is nearly impossible to gain exposure without a significant ad budget, whereas with Twitter, you can hop in and connect directly into a conversation that can build relationships without spending anything but time. There are other platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn that are definitely powerful for certain types of brands and I do advise certain clients to reach audiences there.

Personally, I’m moderately active on LinkedIn and find it is a very important platform for connecting with and researching decision makers and higher level contacts. However, I always come back to Twitter as being the place where you get the most bang for your buck. There is a lot of noise on every platform, but Twitter has chats, hashtags, lists and other tools to zero in on the content that matters and the people who share your interests.”

“There are two great ways to use social media for marketing.

One is to engage people on social media. The other is to drive them to your website, where you can engage them.

Which social media platform you choose might depend on which approach you wish to take.

I prefer driving them to my website. And no social media platform is better for sharing links than Twitter. It’s also the platform where the largest audience can be built.”

“Our Most preferred Social Network for growing an Audience is Instagram. WHY? Because it is the Platform of Moments. Also, It’s Millenials first choice. Statistics says everything about its Fastest Growth Patterns for any genre of business across any industry. Brands or companies with an Instagram account can quickly turn it into a community within itself, or even a money-making machine.

Not to get fooled by the Instagram Algorithm which is evolving dramatically every Quarter, limiting the Reach of brands from their own communities, to push them towards DIY Instagram Ads. But there is always that Organic Power Play that we can apply through our knowledge & experience on how to get the juice out of these systems legitimately.

In fact, for some brands or companies, Instagram might not matter at all if their audience isn’t there. Twitter is our Second Most Preferred Social Network for growing a Quality Global Audience.”

“For my industry of marketing, Twitter is the best platform. This is mainly due to Facebook being a bit too personal, Linkedin being a bit too formal and with Marketing not being very image led, Instagram is not a good fit either.

There are also a bunch of weekly talks on Twitter for SEO, PPC and Social, hosted by a range of companies around the world which allows you to interact and meet new marketing executives.”

“My tried and true platform is Facebook. I’ve been investing more and time and effort into Pinterest and Instagram this year, which are both already showing solid growth. But, I think it’ll be some time before anything surpasses the benefits of Facebook groups for me.
Every business will have their own unique way of connecting with people, but because I’m B2B and primarily work with other female entrepreneurs, Facebook groups are where I network, relationship-build, grow my audience and get new clients.
The best part about Facebook groups is that they are free. You can create a visibility plan, execute it, and build a reputation for yourself within these groups where thousands of your potential customers hang out.”

“I am all about Facebook! This is where I spend 95% of my time. It’s the platform with the most bells and whistles to not just help me build relationships but to do strategic marketing as well. Contrary to popular “stories” Facebook is not out to get the small business owner, you CAN still get amazing organic reach and engagement and it’s got so many different ways for me to connect and grow relationships.

And once you know how to use your Facebook page and Facebook groups to connect with your ideal audience and start growing relationships with them then you can use Facebook ads (which are highly targeted and inexpensive when you know what you are doing) to super charge your results.”

“LinkedIn because it’s where my target audience is and where they want to engage. We work with B2B businesses and this is by far the most responsive social platform to reach and engage with our prospects and our client’s prospects.

If you sell to other businesses, this should be your primary social platform. You will quickly see the return on your investment with LinkedIn.”

“I love Twitter because it’s inherently conversational. It’s easy to connect with just about anyone—whether they’re a fellow industry professional or a seemingly less-accessible industry thought leader. Even the most basic type of engagement is likely to elicit some type of response, even if it’s just a like! The more consistent you are with building relationships, the better your return on this time investment.

Also helpful in growing your audience is the fact that Twitter still has decent organic reach, when compared to the pay-to-play nature of Facebook for brands. With proper formatting (like a relevant hashtag and a nice looking image to accompany your copy), you can reach your target audience with minimal effort—and zero spend!”

“The one platform that changed my entire view (in a good way) of using social media to grow a business was Instagram.

I’ve been building relationships online and getting traffic for years using primarily SEO and Content Marketing. There was one problem though – it’s slow! There’s no surprise, building relationships with anyone without actually seeing them is going to take a long time and that’s one of the biggest benefits of Instagram.

The informal and casual nature of the platform makes connecting with people so much easier when compared to other forms of digital and social media marketing.”

“My preferred social platform is Twitter. The wealth of information being shared on the platform gives us an immense opportunity.

We can find people who are sharing their struggles, likes, passions, and so forth. It’s amazing.

Here’s a quick tip for anyone who wishes to use Twitter for business:

Focus on listening more than on talking, and master Twitter’s search operators. Twitter has always been the place to have conversations so make sure to listen carefully and be helpful. Engage with people who are your potential customers and be strategic about your funnel. It all starts with conversations.”

“An essential, but often neglected, social network to be on is Flipboard. It’s a news aggregation site but can work wonders for growing your site and audience. This detailed Flipboard traffic guide gives step by step instructions on how to get started with “Flipping” and reach your target audience in the lowest amount of time.

Twice, for my blog, it so happened that one flip went viral amounting in so much traffic and eyeballs that my website crashed. That’s huge! I received more than my monthly pageviews in one single day – so don’t neglect the power of Flipboard and get flipping now!”

“Although Facebook’s post reach can vary it still offers the best platform for interacting with followers. Potential customers will more than likely have a Facebook account and are comfortable in using it to make the first contact.

In many cases, even opting to conduct business via Facebook messaging. It’s well-known user interface and popularity means Facebook’s a social network you shouldn’t ignore.”

“I don’t bank on a single platform. I aggressively use FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Usually, for sharing my blog posts. But also for other activities. Like, sharing and liking meaningful posts on Twitter and Facebook, liking excellent pictures on Instagram, reading some important posts on LinkedIn, and so on.

So, based on the activity I have to perform, I use the platform accordingly. But it is almost each of these platforms multiple times a day that I use. Also, I closely keep a watch on the organic growth on these platforms. It helps me to understand what is trending more at the moment.”

“Personally, I prefer Facebook over all other networks. For one, I’m a developer and being in front of my PC most of the time doesn’t make for great pictures – so Instagram is out.

Secondly, I do have a Facebook group for WordPress users, where my followers can post their questions and have them answered by me and the community. Having a group to turn to when searching for answers has been very beneficial for me in the past – so I’m trying to give back to the community.

Lastly, the FB ads engine is super powerful if you know how to handle it. Even with the GDPR coming up in May, it’s not going anywhere.”

“Twitter!

It is easy, user-friendly and getting better in terms of security procedures.

These people are too busy and prefer to get the essence of news, this is why Twitter is the best social platform among all others.”

“My preferred social network is Instagram for my international (English) business because this is where people go to find inspirational quotes about love and sexuality and there is SO much humor on Insta too, and seriously you need that sometimes in my field.

It can easily get so heavy and serious – but with a little humor and laugh, I can get very far connecting deep with my audience. Instagram makes it easy for me to be both. I can put up a funny picture or quote and make them read the more serious content in the comments if they like.”