If you’ve spent much time on social media in the past few years, you’ve definitely noticed an influx of advertising taking up space on your screen, in the form of boosted posts, promoted content, or pre-roll videos, among others.
Advertising on social media networks topped $15 billion in 2016, and is expected to reach almost $20 billion in 2017. $15.3 billion in 2016 represented a 41 percent increase over 2015, which is astounding growth, but probably not sustainable.
Of all the money spent on social media advertising, spending on Facebook accounted for 75 percent of the total, dwarfing the total spend on Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Chinese social networks, which rival Facebook in size.
So what does this mean for folks who are looking to advertise on social media? Should you ditch all of the others and focus on Facebook? Are the other social media networks untapped resources where your content will stand out more?
Choosing the Right Network for Your Social Media Advertising
Each social network should be regarded as one tool in the toolbox, with each existing for varying purposes. A mixture of messages and content, designed to solve specific problems or enhance certain causes, work better on different platforms. Furthermore, each of today’s top social networks has different functions to help you narrow in and reach different audiences.
Facebook’s hegemony can be attributed to size, but that’s not the whole story. What sets Facebook apart from other social networks is the sheer amount of information that users offer up in just a few clicks. Instead of data just based on name, gender, education level and location, Facebook can sort users by favorite food, music, books and TV shows, among a myriad of other interests. Until other networks can start collating highly personal information on a similar scale, Facebook will continue to grab the lion’s share of social advertising dollars.
