How to Know Which Social Media Platforms Are Right For You as a writer
Plus, the 2022 demographics you need to know to maximize your time and energy in building your author brand on social media
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There are many social media platforms, but only so much time in a day.
You may feel like you need to promote your writing and advertising your books on every single platform, but you don’t.
Every social platform has varying demographics, which means you may be wasting your time on a platform that doesn’t have the people you’re trying to reach.
Here are three steps to narrowing down and choosing the best social media platforms for your goals.
Step 1: Define your audience
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What do you write about? Who wants to read your work and why? Who are you trying to reach?
Think through these questions and decide on the general age range, occupation, hobbies, and even location of the audience you want to target.
This doesn’t mean you’ll only attract followers who fit in that description, but it will give you an idea of where to start.
For example, I write poetry. The majority of my following on Instagram and Twitter are girls/women between the ages of 18 and 34.
I also write about social media marketing. This brings in a more balanced following of men and women, as well as a broader age range.
Thinking about my audiences helps me decide which social media platforms to invest my time. I started posting poetry on Twitter and Instagram because research showed me that’s where I needed to be.
Then I started writing on Medium because I knew I had social media information to share, but that it wasn’t quite right for most of my Instagram and Twitter followers.
Step 2: Define your goals and needs
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Do you want to:
Sell more books? (All platforms)
grow your email list? (All platforms)
Promote new blog posts? (Facebook/Pinterest/twitter)
Share quotes and poems? (Instagram/tiktok/Twitter)
Get personal and talk about who you are? (Instagram/tiktok/Youtube)
When thinking about your social media needs, do you want a platform that’s more:
Text-based (like Twitter) or photo/video-based (like Instagram, tiktok and Youtube)?
Short-form (like Twitter/Instagram) or long-form (like Facebook/LinkedIn)?
Business-focused (like LinkedIn/twitter) or creative (Instagram/tiktok/Pinterest)?
Now that you have your audience, goals, and needs, use step 3 to bring it all together and decide which platforms are best for you.
Step 3: Research the platforms’ demographics (I did some of it for you!)
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Below you’ll find key demographics for each of the big social media platforms: Instagram, tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Note: I didn’t include other platforms like Snapchat or Tumblr because I wanted to keep this post to the ones most commonly used for business. However, that doesn’t mean those platforms aren’t valuable for many people. This information can be found with a little research!
Age
Facebook: Most popular age group is 25-34 year olds, followed by 35-44 year olds, and 18-24 year olds.
Instagram: Nearly two-thirds of Instagram users are ages 12-29, with 18-34 year olds being the most active age group.
tiktok: 60% of us users are between the ages of 16-24. 26% are between the ages 25-44. 80% are between the ages 16-34.
Twitter: the highest level of engagement on this platform comes from 25-34 year olds, and The other ages are more evenly distributed on this platform.
Pinterest: the age group with the highest number of users is 50-64 year olds, making up 38% of pinterest users, followed by 30-49 year olds at 34%.
LinkedIn: nearly 60% of users are between 25-34 years old.
Youtube: 95% of 18-29 year-olds in the Us use YouTube, followed closely by 30-49 year olds at 91%.
Content
Facebook: Videos are shared an average of 89.5 times more than other content on Facebook. 85% of Facebook users consume video content with the sound off. (Hint: consider adding captions to your videos!)
Instagram: Carousels receive more organic interactions than both videos and images, but the most common type of post on instagram is photos. you can also create short-form video content like Stories (which disappear after 24 hours) and reels which live on your feed.
tiktok: tiktok is a popular platform for short-form video content. you can create videos up to 3 minutes, but the most popular videos are between 5 to 30 seconds.
Twitter: Video content is 6x more likely to be retweeted than content with photos, and 3x more than Tweets with gifs.
Pinterest: 50% of Pinterest users have purchased a product after seeing branded content.
LinkedIn: articles with visuals including images, videos, slides, and podcasts get 94% more total views.
Youtube: the 3 top categories of videos include commentary/expressing opinions, product reviews, and how-to videos.
After reviewing the three steps, select 2 or 3 platforms to focus on.
Of course, if you love social media and want to put in the time to post on every single platform, don’t let me stop you!
But if you know your goals and who you want to target, this is a great way to narrow your choices and maximize your time so you can get back to doing what you love: writing.
are you a writer looking to build your online presence? i would love to work with you! learn more about me and my services here.