Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for Your Business: A Guide for Owners

Most business owners agree that social media is an important marketing channel for making sales and building relationships with customers, but there isn’t a solid consensus about the best social media platform to use. This is positive, because ‘the right social media platform’ is very much a subjective choice. Each platform has its own strengths and caters to distinct audiences, making it important to allocate your time and resources wisely. This article introduces the key platforms used by UK businesses to help you determine the one that aligns best with your business goals.

Does It Matter Which Platform You Choose?

Yes and no. All social media platforms have the potential to deliver revenues and a good ROI. However, investing your time and budget in the wrong platform can mean wasting time on customers who are less to convert, and missing valuable opportunities. The right social media channel is the one that connects you the best with your target audience, amplifies your messages, and drives measurable results, whether you are looking for lead generation, greater brand awareness, or customer engagement. In our experience, it’s best to do one or two social platforms really well, than to stretch your resources too thinly across multiple platforms. A focused approach always produces better results.

How To Evaluate Your Options

Who Is My Target Audience?

Define your ideal buyers by demographics, including age, location, interests, purchasing behaviour, job position, and so on.

What Are My Objectives From Social Media Marketing?

For example, is your main focus brand awareness, lead generation, or developing business authority in your sector?

What Resources Can I Dedicate a Social Media?

Consider whether you have the in-house capacity to devote to a consistent social media campaign or need external support for content creation and advertising.

Platform Overview And Strategies

1. LinkedIn – The B2B Leader

UK Users: Around 42 million

Primary Demographic: Professionals and decision-makers aged 25-64

LinkedIn is a powerhouse for professional networking and B2B marketing, and is ideal for industries like consulting, recruitment, and software services. LinkedIn makes it easy to connect with decision-makers and showcasing your expertise in order to drive leads and sales.

Opportunities: Video content, particularly live-streams such as webinars, are growing in popularity. Additionally, LinkedIn’s AI capabilities have improved content targeting, ensuring that posts reach relevant audiences. Thought leadership articles, industry news and trends updates, and product/service insights are also popular on LinkedIn.

Best practice: Use LinkedIn for sharing valuable resources, such as whitepapers or ebooks, to establish your business as an industry expert.

2. Instagram – Visual Storytelling And E-Commerce

UK Users: Approximately 35 million

Primary Demographic: Consumers aged 18+

Instagram thrives on visual storytelling, making it a top choice for businesses with products or services that can be showcased visually. The platform is particularly effective for lifestyle, fashion, food, and creative industries.

Opportunities: Augmented reality (AR) filters and Instagram Reels present innovative ways to engage your audience. Instagram’s social commerce functionality continues to grow, allowing businesses to tag products and link directly to purchase pages. In terms of content, photos, reels, carousels, and bite-sized visual stories allow you to maximise touchpoints with your customers without the risk of overloading them.

Best practice: Use high-quality visuals and focus on User-Generated Content (UGC). Engaged customers’ posts act as testimonials and strengthen trust in your business.

3. Facebook – Versatility And Local Targeting

UK Active Users: 37 million

Primary Demographic: Adults aged 35-44 (core user base)

Facebook offers the most detailed customer targeting options of any platform, making it invaluable for SMEs. With exceptional tools available for creating hyper- tailored advertising campaigns, Facebook is a great platform for building customer loyalty and general brand awareness.

Opportunities: Facebook is a robust platform for promoting events, retargeting website visitors, and, for B2C businesses, for remarketing abandoned baskets using its Facebook Pixel integration.

Best Practice: For local businesses, use Facebook’s location targeting feature to draw in customers within your region.

4. Pinterest – Creativity Meets Intent

UK Users: 17.1 million

Primary Demographic: Predominantly women aged 25-34

Pinterest is a niche platform, ideal for B2C SMEs in creative industries like home décor and improvement, graphic design, jewellery, and fashion. Users come to the platform for inspiration, giving your products an opportunity to capture attention when customers are already in the mindset to purchase.

Opportunities: Pinterest’s ability to link visuals to blog articles, e-commerce sites, or landing pages creates direct pathways to boost traffic to your website. As a visual-first platform, pins displaying attractive and relevant imagery tend to perform best

Best Practice: Create “how-to” pinboards or themed collections showcasing your product range to attract potential customers.

What Next?

Whether your goal involves professional networking, visual storytelling, or increasing your share of a niche market, there is a social media platform that’s right for your business. For more information about social media marketing, please claim your free copy of our guide, Social Media For Business, today.