Paid, earned and owned media are the three distribution routes for any marketing message — and most teams over-weight paid because it's the easiest to scale. Each has its pros, cons and right place in the mix. Here's how each one works, where it pays off, where it falls down, and the combinations that produce the best long-term results.
Most published social media statistics are US- or global-centric, which is unhelpful when you're trying to decide which two or three platforms a small Australian business should invest in. This regularly updated post collects Australian social media statistics from a wide range of sources, with the analysis and platform-by-platform recommendations to translate the data into a decision.
LinkedIn is the obvious B2B network and Facebook is obviously not — except that business people are also people, and the Facebook numbers (80% of Australians, vs LinkedIn's 27%) start telling a different story. Here's the LinkedIn-vs-Facebook comparison across B2B marketing use cases, with the demographics, targeting capabilities, and which platform wins for prospecting, retargeting, brand-building and data enrichment.
Social media isn't a B2C-only game — even though that's the default assumption in most boardrooms. LinkedIn dominates B2B for obvious reasons, Facebook earns its place for less obvious ones. Here's a working comparison of the main social media platforms for B2B marketing, with the profile types, posting specs, ad capabilities and use cases that decide which deserves your time.
B2B teams default to assuming social media is for B2C — cute cats, brunches, viral B2C campaigns. The money's in business though, and every major platform has a business mode. Here's the definitive guide to B2B social media: which platforms suit which industries (LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram), how to set objectives, and why posting regularly without valuable content does worse than not posting at all.