How to Choose the Right Social Media Platform for Your Solo Business

You don't have to be everywhere at once.

Jun 05, 2024

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Love it or loathe it, social media is usually still a core component of the modern day business strategy.

It’s been around since the burgeoning days of MySpace and Bebo (remember those?), and it’ll likely still be here in some form for years to come. For younger generations, it’s just something that’s always existed, as much as many of us fully-fledged adults sometimes wish it could just go away.

Email remains the most effective way to reach and engage with potential customers and clients, but social media often plays a part in creating that essential initial connection. It can be a huge time-suck and stressor, but if managed correctly, it can also form the backbone of your solopreneurial endeavours.

Platform Breakdowns

You might be tempted to think you need to be on all social platforms if your business is to succeed in 2024 and beyond, but that’s not the case. An effective presence on just one platform can be all you need to build trust with your audience, grow an engaged email subscriber list, and generate income.

But how do you know which one is right (or maybe even perfect) for you and your solo business?

Let’s break down some demographics of the main social media platforms, starting with the one that feels like it’s been around forever: Facebook.

Credit: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/#social

As you can see1, the biggest percentage of Facebook’s current user base are in the 25-34 age range, with significantly more men using the platform than women.

Facebook’s overall user base tends to be on the older side compared to other social media platforms, so if the service or product you offer suits a more mature demographic less accustomed to video content, Meta’s flagship website could be a good fit.

Next up, Instagram:

Here, you’ll notice the user base is significantly younger with a largely even split between men and women. Time spent on the platform each day is only marginally greater than Facebook, too.

Instagram’s been doing its best to become TikTok for the last few years, so video content tends to perform much better on it than on its older Meta sibling. Still, there’s a good balance here between photo and video, so if you’re ok mixing it up a little, Instagram is a good option.

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But what about the platform Instagram aspires to be? Let’s look at TikTok:

TikTok is dominated by Gen Z users, who’ve been driving its growth in recent years. Over 36% of TikTok’s user base is in the 18-24 age range, so overall, this is a platform that definitely skews towards a younger audience. That being said, I’ve heard rumblings that more and more millennials are drifting across to TikTok from older platforms. It’s also very evenly split between male and female users, and has the highest daily usage of all social media platforms at over 53-95 minutes2 on average per day.

The obvious downside for business owners hoping to tap into those high usage rates and broad demographics is the requirement to make video content, and a lot of it. The average TikTok user watches each video they come across for 6-8 seconds, so if your content isn’t immediately engaging, it just won’t get seen.

However, if you enjoy making videos and own a business that gels naturally with that form of content (for instance, a coffee shop or cafe where videos of drinks or meals being prepared would go down a treat), then TikTok should certainly be part of your strategy. It’s also very easy to cross-promote TikTok videos onto Instagram and repurpose them as YouTube Shorts.

Speaking of which…

YouTube continues to dominate the online video industry with almost 2.5 billion users tuning in on a monthly basis.

It’s increasingly popular among the Gen Z generation, who far prefer watching content made by their favourite YouTubers over traditional television shows, though the largest percentage of users on the platform are in the 25-34 bracket.

If you run any sort of service or advice-based business, having a presence on YouTube could be a great way to generate leads. It’s technically a search engine, so if you can create evergreen, discoverable content, potential customers can find you organically for years to come. That’s a much more sustainable approach than having to churn out fresh content for social media in a never-ending cycle.

Again, though, you’ll need to either get comfortable in front of the camera or establish a faceless channel if you want to do YouTube for the long-haul.

Another platform with a similar age demographic to both YouTube and Facebook is X, formerly known as Twitter.

X/Twitter is (or, at least, was) an excellent platform for those who enjoy sharing text-based content. It’s gearing itself more towards video now (isn’t everything?) but the vast majority of its users still focus on creating short-form text content.

If you don’t like being on camera and can afford to commit a substantial chunk of time each day to writing posts and engaging with other users, X/Twitter could be a viable option. In all honesty, it’s not very effective right now at converting leads or email subscribers, but that could change in future (once a certain billionaire owner gets bored and moves on).

Finally, we have LinkedIn:

Again, this one skews towards the 25-34 age range, and is better suited to solopreneurs and business owners who prefer text-based content. Although more and more of its users are creating video content, so there’s a bit of a mix going on there, much like Instagram.

LinkedIn is traditionally seen as “the place to go when you want to find a job”, and that’s still fairly accurate. But it’s also a great platform for networking with other professionals in your industry and, unlike most other social media sites, it’s relatively easy to grow your following there.

If your offer is best-suited to other business owners, LinkedIn is a solid option worth considering.

There are, of course, other social media platforms out there that you could explore as a solopreneur, but I don’t think any of them offer enough to make them viable focal points for your business. Pinterest and Snapchat are useful in their own ways, but probably aren’t suitable long-term options.

Two Key Questions

No matter which social media platform you choose, however, there are two key questions you have to consider:

Can I see myself building a presence on this platform for the next 10 years?
Does it direct people straight to my email list?

If you can’t answer yes to both those questions, the platform in question isn’t worth pursuing. You’ll burn out fast and most likely won’t come away with an asset that’ll sustain your solopreneurial efforts for years to come (your email list).

However, if you can see yourself using a particularly social media platform on a regular basis, enjoying your time there, and growing your mailing list through it, then don’t be afraid to dive right in.

As someone who dipped his toe in far too many platform puddles at the same time, I’d advise you to pick one social site - maybe two - and focus your efforts on growing your base there.

Get really good at Facebooking, or Instagramming, or TikToking, or YouTubing, or X… ing? Learn everything there is to know about how the platform works and juice it. Make it a game. Make it fun. When your audience senses you’re enjoying yourself there, they’ll willingly follow everything you do.

You don’t have to be everywhere on social media. You don’t have to be on social media at all, in fact. But if you want to use it as a tool to positively impact your solo business development, start in one place and grow from there.

Choose the place that best fits your personality and meets your needs. Ignore the noise around the platforms you know you won’t enjoy. Stick to where you know you’ll thrive.

If you need any help creating a sustainable social media setup, check out my online course. Paid members get it for free.