Social media has now become the primary source of advertising for businesses, with no exception in Singapore. There are platforms you may be familiar with, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat, and more, but where to start? Which platform should your business maximize first? In this blog, we will guide you through with the top 5 social media platforms for business, based on the size of the social network advertising audience in Singapore and the most used platforms in Singapore.Singapore is known to have one of the fastest internet connection speed in Asia Pacific countries. Everyone is connected to the internet almost every time throughout the day. In fact, 7 out of 10 Singaporeans are active social media users:

Social media helps businesses increase brand awareness, connect with customers, and boost sales" - hashmeta

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As business owners, you are exposed to different social media platforms of your choices to utilize and invest in. However, different platforms have their own characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. Hence, businesses might have to set different tactics and approaches for each platform.

source: statista.com

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Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Business:

1. Facebook

First and foremost, unsurprisingly, statistics proved that Facebook has the biggest number of adverting audiences in Singapore. Despite the critics and disappointment of some users regarding what Facebook did, the Facebook's fans are still attached to the platform, making it the most used social media.

3 main reasons why you should use Facebook for business:

1. Your customers are on Facebook: With the number of Facebook users, you can tell that the Facebook pond got a lot of fish to catch.
2. Cost-effective solution: Facebook ads are cheap and flexible. In the event where you are short of money, you can adjust your daily Facebook budgets accordingly.
3. Outstanding targeting system: Whether it be by age ranges, behaviors, connections, demographics, interests, languages and locations you can be as precise with who you want to target.

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2. LinkedIn

Depending on your business, if you are looking for a B2B ad network, or targets consumers based on job titles, LinkedIn might be the right channel to help your business attract customers and grow. At a glance, LinkedIn and Facebook have similarities in the setup of its advertising platform and opportunities.

3 reasons why you should use LinkedIn for business:

1. Reach more professional audiences: Probably the most distinct feature of LinkedIn that differentiates in from other platforms is the audience. Users on the platform tend to be older, more educated and have a higher income. So if your target audience is as so, LinkedIn could be your best bet.
2. Allows you to narrow target: You can set your ads target based on industry-specific variables.
3. LinkedIn Lead Accelerator: This feature allows you to track your highest potential customers and offer more targeted ads specifically towards them. This will help you better nurture your leads on their way to becoming customers.

3. Instagram

IG is a photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, Inc. By that definition itself, it makes it so much simpler for businesses to promote on Insta. Not much content writing skills needed, just some insta-worthy pictures, to be uploaded frequently.

3 reasons why you should use Instagram for business:

1. Describes brand identity: Instagram is a visual platform. And a visual feed can reflect your brand's identity and uniqueness that differentiate your business.
2. Stay up-to-date with trends: You can use it to promote causes or simply generate interest by posting holiday-specific content.
3. Collect feedback and data: The platform has a feature for you to make polls and get you to engage with your customers closer. Simply ask a question and make polls and collect data to gain insight from your followers.

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4. Twitter

Advertising your business on Twitter enables you to promote single tweets or entire campaigns for specific objectives. Just like Facebook's Ads Objectives, Twitter offers 8 objectives for you to choose:

It is true that Twitter ads are unique and somehow operates differently than other platforms.

3 reasons why you should use Twitter for business:

1. Only pay for success: If your campaign is for people to install an app, you only pay for the number of successful apps downloaded. If your campaign is to run followers, you only pay for the number of people who start following your account. The same thing goes with everything on Twitter.
2. Keyword targeting: While Facebook only offers topic targeting, Twitter allows you to target people who have used a specific keyword or hashtag in the last seven days.
3. Tweet Engager Targeting: Instead of going for everybody on Twitter, you can target those who actually engaged with your tweet.

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5. Snapchat

If your business is targeting mostly the older groups, advertising on Snapchat won't be recommended. The graph below shows that the average Snapchat users are between the age of 13-35.

3 reasons why you should use Snapchat for business:

1. A massive number of the influential audience: Millennials, people aged 17 to 36 who have $600 billion in annual buying power. Which is a generation of influencers, whom people look up to for the latest in food, fashion, music, and culture
2. Snap Pixel: This feature permits you to track users' interaction with your website. You can learn more about which categories they browse or the purchase they make from Snapchat, you can optimize your campaign accordingly.
3. Feature multiple products: Collection Ads allow you to feature multiple products in a shoppable format. Users can easily tap on the product within the ad if they want to learn more about it.

Before You Go...

Here is a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the 5 social media platforms, including some other alternatives that you might want to consider as well.

Check out other related blogs:

1. Low on Budget? Here are the 20 Low-Cost Marketing Channels

2. The Small Business Owner’s Basic Guide to Digital Marketing

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