Social Media: Are You Posting to the Right Place?

Maintaining your social media presence can feel like a full-time job. In fact, for some people, it is!

Knowing where to spend your energy posting to social media platforms to promote your business can be a challenge. To spend your social media marketing time wisely, it's important to consider which platforms your market demographic is using.

In March of this year, the American Press Institute published a study that showed Facebook to still be widely used by millenials, with 88 percent reporting they got their news from Facebook. Pinterest (36 percent), Twitter (33 percent), Reddit (23 percent) and Tumblr (21 percent) were also popular news sources amongst this age group. But many millenials report that they are moving away from Facebook, using it mainly because it is well-established, not because they necessarily like the format of the platform. Social Control reports that in the last three years, more than three million teens aged 13 to 17 have left Facebook, while the number of those aged 55 and older who belong to Facebook has grown by 80 percent.

Twitter is currently the second most popular platform, after Facebook, but there are clear age lines in membership. The Pew Research Institute reported in January 2015 that 30 percent of Twitter users are aged 18 to 29, 17 percent are aged 30 to 49, and only 9 percent of those aged 50 to 64 use Twitter. So, if you're looking to connect with tomorrow's travelers, Twitter might be a good place to maintain a presence. But if you're looking to entice retirees with time to travel right now, Facebook is still your top bet.

If millenials are your demographic, Instagram should be a target. The Pew Research Institute reported that more than half of all millenials have an Instagram account, and half of all Instagram users log on daily, loading and sharing about 70 million photos each day.

Pinterest should be on your radar, if destination wedding travel is one of your niche markets. As brides review others' honeymoon pictures and plans, and "pin" ideas for their own honeymoon and (later) babymoon trips, Pinterest could provide a valuable opportunity to make a connection. Likewise, family vacation ideas are likely to be "pinned" by Pinterest users, whose demographic is 80 percent women, with a vast spread in age amongst users.

No matter which social media channels provide the greatest access to your demographic, here are a few tips that cross all divides:

• Check out the lay of the land before you start posting. Many platforms offer tutorials—use them if you're new to the site! And take advantage of the expertise of the millenials on your staff.
• Reflect your personal brand. Take the time to craft posts that are true to the characteristics you wish to project, and who you are as a person or business.
• Be relevant. Share links to articles that could be useful to your clients, in addition to promoting your services.

Written by Jennifer Reynolds, staff writer at Groups Today magazine.