YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Within seven hours of launch, more than 10 million people across the world had signed up for the new social media platform Threads. And within five days, owner Mark Zuckerberg reported on the platform that the number of accounts exceeded 100 million.
Prior to Threads’ introduction just over a month ago, a bevy of Twitter-like platforms – since rebranded by owner Elon Musk as X – have joined the social media marketplace, including Mastodon, Post, Bluesky Social and Truth Social. However, the only platform with numbers to rival X and Musk’s reported 540 million monthly users was Threads, which was released July 5 by Meta Platforms Inc., parent company to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
But since launch, usage has dropped sharply, according to market research firm Sensor Tower, which estimates just 8 million users access the app each day.
For a company’s social media coordinator, the addition of a new platform – albeit one that is not yet offering ad sales – and uncertainty in the marketplace may mean it’s back to the drawing board with the business’ online promotions strategy.
Businesses need a plan
No matter where a business chooses to post on social media, it’s important to be mindful about it, according to the professionals at Hiveminded Marketing LLC.
“Instead of spreading yourself really thin, it’s better to focus your resources on what you can do well, rather than not doing anything well,” said Sheri Walsh, marketing strategist and the company’s founder.
Bethany Dean, the firm’s marketing and communications strategist, agreed.
“Whether you’re the business owner or you hire an intern or someone else to do it, it still takes money and resources to create it,” she said. “If you’re not working with a strategy or goal, it can all be a waste of time.
“We always tell all of our clients to look at where their target market is.”
Some clues to that are provided by Sprout Social (Nasdaq: SPT), a publicly traded software company and manufacturer of a social media management tool.
An April report by the company – published before the emergence of Threads – offers a breakdown of the demographics of popular platforms ranked by active monthly users:
Walsh noted each platform serves a different audience and function. Some are better suited for business-to-consumer messaging and some for business-to-business.
“LinkedIn is great for B2B, but it’s also one of those places where you get overwhelmed from people wanting to sell you on something,” she said.
Because of its newness, Threads is, so far, a puzzle, according to Walsh, in part because advertising is not yet part of the picture.
“The goal is to keep people talking and engaging,” she said. “For a small business in particular, Threads is going to be where you say, ‘I have this awesome product – you should buy from me.’”
Different users, different goals
As director of public information and civic engagement for the city of Springfield, Cora Scott sets the city’s social media strategy. She launched the city’s Threads account a little over a week after the platform’s launch.
Scott said she likes how Threads imports a user’s existing Instagram followers to offer a head start on making connections.
“Collectively, all of the communicators that work for the city took a look at it,” she said. “We felt it might be a good additional way to communicate with folks.”
The city also will stick with X, she said, as it’s a viable communication source.
“It’s a challenging landscape – it always has been. There’s always a trendy new social media outlet to consider,” she said.
The goal of Scott’s team is to get accurate information out to as many of the city’s residents and visitors as possible, she said.
“It’s also important to keep focused on combatting misinformation and disinformation,” she said, noting either has to be countered with facts to eliminate confusion.
A business has a different objective for its social media use. For many, the ultimate goal of social media advertising and promotion is to make a sale.
By 2025, U.S. advertisers are expected to spend over $82 billion promoting products on social networks, according to research firm Statista. Facebook accounts for more than 80% of that spend, followed by LinkedIn and Pinterest with 4% and 2%, respectively.
Social posting platform Hootsuite found 71% of small to midsize businesses use social media to market themselves and of those, 52% post at least daily.
For Darragh Co., which sells construction supplies, rebar fabrication and concrete forms from 17 locations in six states, LinkedIn is the platform of choice for a current paid advertisement with a straightforward message. It says, “Call 417-771-5493 now to order top-quality Construction Materials, Rebar, Tools and more. Open Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
Dan Hendrickson, inside sales manager of Darragh’s Springfield office, said his company’s social media efforts are coordinated nationally.
“Our company does some Facebook and Google investment,” he said. “We haven’t gotten a lot back from them, but it wasn’t something we set up.”
He said social media advertising overall has yielded only a handful of phone calls, but the investment seems to be worthwhile.
“It might only take a few sales to get that money back,” he said.
The importance of strategy
Kyle Drenon, director of digital engagement for Supper Co., said the choice of a social media platform comes down to a company’s primary objectives.
“You have to have a strategy and know what your overall goals are, then choose the platforms that are best for those goals,” he said.
Supper Co. does a lot of work in the food and hospitality space, he said, often promoting online orders and bookings.
“That’s typically not going to lend itself to a microblogging platform,” he said. “Click rates are much lower there.”
Instead, food and hospitality industries do much better on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, he said.
A microblogging platform, which combines instant messaging and content production, is great for certain industries, like journalism, he said – at least for now.
“Social is in a constant state of change,” he said. “When one new platform emerges, the others follow suit. It’s always a copycat game.”
Drenon said from a strategic standpoint, that’s a positive.
“It allows us to be nimble,” he said. “We can be students of what’s successful and what gives clients the most bang for their buck.”
For now, he said the Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram are affordable places to put marketing dollars. That’s likely to change with future iPhone operating system updates, which aim to improve data privacy in a way that could stymie digital marketing.
Drenon noted most user counts on social media are self-reported.
“Those are all we have to gauge where the masses are flooding,” he said.
Since Musk acquired X, many users have wanted to leave, according to media reports, meaning those platforms are especially in flux.
“He sort of steps in it a lot. It seems like bad PR follows him around,” Drenon said. “Users have been looking for solutions ever since.”
Moseley’s Discount Office Products was purchased; Side Chick opened in Branson; and the Springfield franchise store of NoBaked Cookie Dough changed ownership.
