Social networks are an essential part of a company's digital marketing strategy. Approximately one-third of consumers prefer to connect to a brand on social networks rather than by phone or in person. Therefore, having an attractive and consistent social media presence is crucial for e-commerce stores.

But with so many social networks out there, how do you determine which one is best for your business?

The easiest way to conclude which social networks are worth your investment is to list the pros and cons of each platform.

FACEBOOK

Despite the growth and popularity of Instagram, Facebook remains the main social media powerhouse. Between the ages of 18 to 34, there are 35% active male users, as well as 23% active female users. Facebook is Ideal for targeting millennials.

Pros:

• You can start a dialogue between your brand and your audience
• Sharing discounts, promotions, and general interest publications are incredibly easy
• By surveying your audience, you can get information about the behaviors of your target audience.
• Great channel for driving traffic to your e-commerce store
• Through Facebook marketing, you have several marketing platforms tools

Cons:

• Lack of control
• It takes a lot of time and resources to achieve results
• Ad blockers can limit the reach of your Facebook ads

TWITTER

Twitter is considered to be one of the most influential social networks and is a notorious platform for connecting with others to create unique conversations. For businesses, it's a place for your brand to connect with customers and influential people in your niche.

Pros:

• Makes your business personal
• Ability to create a unique tone of voice for your brand
• Easy to keep up with trends
• The opportunity to provide excellent customer service
• Can interact with followers quickly and easily

Cons:

• 6,000 tweets are made every second, so your tweets can easily go unnoticed
• Requires constant monitoring and maintenance
• Tweet-limited characters allowed

INSTAGRAM

Instagram allows personal and professional business photos to be shared online. Switching to a business profile can offer easy to create analytical information and promotions.

Pros:

• Switching to an Instagram business profile is free
• You get a direct contact button for your followers to use - they can send an email and call you
• You can embed the link to your e-commerce store in your Instagram profile
• Powerful analytics that highlights your 7 most recent publications, days of the week, times of day when your followers are most active, the sex, age, and location breakdown
• Easy to create Instagram ads

Cons:

• Your profile is labeled as a business, making your profile less human
• Less visibility. Instagram will always favor messages from a user's friends than a business they follow

LINKEDIN

Professionals, both young and old, can be found on LinkedIn. If your e-commerce store sells products or services to budding entrepreneurs or long-time professionals, LinkedIn is the platform to capture their attention.

Pros:

• LinkedIn allows 30,000 first-degree connections (600% higher than Facebook's 5,000)
• LinkedIn wall updates show much longer text fragments
• Less staff than networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
• Linkedin is a professional environment, which means that your business is less likely to deal with negative criticism and confrontations

Cons:

• Difficult to reach younger audiences who haven't yet started their careers
• If a publication of yours is removed, no reason is provided, making it much more difficult for your content to be approved. This is due to undisclosed rules
• There is a 600 character limit for status updates

If you are interested in creating a personalized social media strategy that effectively engages with your audience and drives traffic to your brand, reach out to us in the "Contact" tab for a consultation.