Social Media
Which platform and why?
‘These days’ everyone needs to think about a social
media profile. It’s a cheap and effective way of reaching
a wide audience, but it does require careful thought.
Before developing a social media strategy, it is first
important to consider what that approach aims to do,
just as you would with any other strategy. Consider
which social media platform(s) best suits your target
demographic, as different platforms are used by
different groups, as well as in differing ways:
For example:
• Snapchat and Instagram are growing in popularity
for young people aged 18-24¹. Messages targeted
at that age group would therefore be well-suited to
those social networks.
• Facebook users check their accounts more frequently
than do Twitter users, so more urgent or time
sensitive messages are more likely to be seen by
Facebook users in a shorter amount of time².
• Those aged 25-34 are more likely to use Facebook
than any other age category, meaning that those
messages are more likely to be received and
interacted with by this age group than others,
although this particular platform still dominates
all others in terms of number of users and therefore
continues to be a useful ‘place’ to be³.
• The majority of Twitter users are aged between 25
and 34. Use by those under 24 is expected to decline
further as they increase their use of other platforms
such as Instagram 4 .
• Half of those who have a Twitter account never use
it 5 .This is one of the reasons why we cannot reliably
gauge the ‘success’ of a campaign or activity by using
the number of followers of an account - old followers
may no onger use their social media account - so we
would be wrong in thinking that we had connected
with them.
• Other relevant issues are gender, geographical
location and social status, as these factors also
impact on use of different social media platforms.
For example, slightly more females use Facebook
than males 2 and those using Linked In are more likely
to have higher incomes.
Following analysis of your data (see pages 9-14
for more), you should be able to develop an
understanding of the social network best suited to
you and you aims. And remember, usage changes,
so your target group may move from one social
media platform to another.
¹ Smith, A. and Anderson, M. (2018) ‘Social Media Use in 2018’ Pew Research Centre Information Technology Available from http://www.pewinternet.
org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/
² Carter, R. (nd.) ‘Facebook vs Twitter: Which is Best for Your Brand?’ Available from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-vs-twitter/
³ Statista (2018) ‘Total number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) in January 2018, by age group and gender (in millions)’ Available from https://
www.statista.com/statistics/507417/number-of-facebook-users-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-age-and-gender/
4
Statistical (2018) ‘Distribution of Twitter users in the UK from 2012 to 2018’ Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/271351/twitter-users-in-the-
united-kingdom-uk-by-age/
5
WeAreFlint (2018) ‘New Report Showcases Evolving Social Media Habits and Trends in the UK and US’ Available from https://weareflint.co.uk/press-
release-social-media-demographics-2018
88