We recently came across some really interesting research by Einstein Marketing. They surveyed small business owners on various questions around marketing and social media. From this they found out the social networks for brands that are most important. These are as follows;

  • 51.2% of business owners state that facebook is the most important social network for them.
  • 20.7% of business owners said that the most important social network for them and their business was LinkedIn.
  • 18.4% of business owners chose Instagram as the most important social network for their business.
  • Twitter is classed as the most important social network by 6.9% of small business owners that were surveyed.
  • 0.6% of small business owners said that the most important social network for business was Pinterest.
  • No small business owners chose Snapchat as the most important social network for their business.
  • Meanwhile 2.3% of business owners said that another social network, not Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or Snapchat was the most important social network for their business.

While Facebook and Instagram are great social networks for B2C clients, LinkedIn is brilliant for B2B clients. We work with clients on various platforms. While, similarly to the findings in this research, Facebook is the most popular platform for many of our clients, we will always encourage the use of LinkedIn too. This is because LinkedIn can have so much to offer business owners, not just in the form of new clients.

We would expect to see a rise in the use of Instagram for businesses because it is owned by Facebook. It can be a really useful social network for brands selling direct to consumers. It isn’t too tricky to use Instagram either because the news-feed algorithms, advertising platforms and marketing tactics are very similar to Facebook. Facebook is a social network for brands that many small business owners are used to.

Which is the most important social network for your business?