The world of social media can be quite confusing, especially if you don’t know exactly what goes on in the background. The truth is that there are so many things going on underneath it, every time you post something on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or even platforms such as LinkedIn or YouTube, you are essentially triggering a chain reaction of sorts. Understanding the data is necessary to make sure you are actually doing it right. In other words, is all the hard work that you’re putting into your content actually paying off?
Many people continue to work very hard by posting content regularly and trying to engage with people on social media, only to find themselves yelling at an empty room with no audience. Working hard on social media is only one part of the equation. You need to be able to work smart and understand whether your strategy is working or not. You cannot really accomplish that without getting to know the statistics.
There are many different social media platforms out there. Each of them has different inner workings and different things that you need to consider in order to succeed and grow your audience, whether you are an individual or a business. Having said that, they is some data that pretty much every social media platform has in common. Most platforms will let you know how many people like your content. Keep in mind that the goal is not to bump up the numbers. So many businesses or individuals think that they can grow their social media by simply purchasing lots of followers. This is actually counterproductive because algorithms today are smart enough to know when the traffic and the engagement that you get are authentic or manufactured. Especially in the earliest stages of running a social media account, it doesn’t really matter if you have 500,000 or 1 million followers. All that really matters is how engaged those followers are. One thousand real, engaged and active followers that actually interact with you are more valuable than 10,000, but that bring absolutely nothing but a number to the table.
It’s worth knowing that there are over 3.78 billion social media users worldwide. This means that you can definitely find a sizable audience for whatever content, product, or service you want to promote with your social media accounts. However, it is also important to understand the demographics of each platform. For instance, Facebook is a great tool to appeal to baby boomers and an older crowd. On the contrary, you might want to focus on something like TikTok if you want to cater to a much younger audience. Demographic data from various social media platforms can be very important in order for you to understand where to direct your energy. It’s not always feasible for a business or individual to run an account on every social media platform, so you might have to make a choice based on the demographics that best suit your goals.