How Best to Allocate Time on Social

By Emma Fitzpatrick

Year after year, social media seems to absorb more and more of our time. In the span of two years, from 2012 to 2014, we increased the daily amount of time we spend on social media by 6 minutes, data shows.

Businesses and banks have followed suit. The more time our consumers spend on social, the more we have increased our marketing investments. From 2014 to 2016, social media advertising budgets are estimated to have almost doubled worldwide (as measured in U.S. dollars), from $16 billion to $31 billion. And 39% of marketers spend 11 or more hours a week on social while 19% spend more than 20 hours per week on social, according to a 2016 Social Media Examiner study.

When it comes to social media marketing, every minute counts. Below, see if your business is spending enough time on the right platforms. Plus, learn a few time-saving tips to make your social marketing even smoother in 2017.

Which social networks best align with your bank’s key demographics?

As the list of available social platforms continues to grow, it may not make sense for your bank to be on every network. And that’s okay. Though, it’s likely in your best interest to create a page on each new platform that pops up, so you can secure your bank’s name and URL.

Instead of creating consistent content on every platform and spreading yourself too thin, think about realigning how you allocate your time. Try zeroing in on the networks that best match your key demographics. That way you’ll be investing time connecting, engaging, and converting the people who are most relevant to your bank.

See the demographics and statistics of the top four social networks to discover which are a fit for your bank.

Note: The Pew Research data is among online adults, not all adults.

Facebook

Monthly active users: 1.65 billion (Facebook Q1 2016)
Daily active users: 1.09 billion, or 66% of all Facebook members (Facebook Q1 2016)
Mobile-only users: 52% of users access Facebook exclusively on mobile (Facebook Q1 2016)
Daily active session: 40 minutes (Facebook Q2 2014)
Gender: 76% of women; 66% of men (Pew Research 2014)
Age: 87% of 18 to 29-year-olds; 73% of 30 to 49-year-olds; 63% of 50 to 64-year-olds; 65% of those older than 65 (Pew Research 2014)
Race/Ethnicity: 71% of white Internet users; 67% of black Internet users; 73% of Hispanic Internet users (Pew Research 2014)
Income: 77% of those earning less than $30,000 annually; 69% of those earning between $30,000 and $49,999 annually; 74% of those earning between $50,000 and $74,999 annually; 72% of those earning more than $75,000 annually (Pew Research 2014)
Education: 74% of those with a college education; 71% of those with some college education; 70% of those with a high school degree or less (Pew Research 2014)
Locale: 71% of those who live in an urban environment; 72% of those who live in a suburban environment; 69% of those who live in a rural environment (Pew Research 2014)

Twitter

Monthly active users: 313 million (Twitter Q2 2016)
Daily active users: Not disclosed; about 44% of monthly users are active each day in the service’s top 20 markets (Twitter Q3 2015)
Mobile users: 82% of users access Twitter on mobile (Twitter Q2 2016)
Daily active session: 18 minutes a day (Quettra Q4 2015)
Gender: 21% of women; 24% of men (Pew Research 2014)
Age: 37% of 18 to 29-year-olds; 25% of 30 to 49-year-olds; 12% percent of 50 to 64-year-olds; 10% of those older than 65 (Pew Research 2014)
Race/Ethnicity: 21% of white Internet users; 27% of black Internet users; 25% of Hispanic Internet users (Pew Research 2014)
Income: 20% of those earning less than $30,000 annually; 21% of those earning between $30,000 and $49,999 annually; 27% of those earning between $50,000 and $74,999 annually; 27% of those earning more than $75,000 annually (Pew Research 2014)
Education: 30% of those with a college education; 24% of those with some college education; 16% of those with a high school degree or less (Pew Research 2014) Locale: 25% of those who live in an urban environment; 23% of those who live in a suburban environment; 17% of those who live in a rural environment (Pew Research 2014)

Instagram

Monthly active users: 500 million (Instagram Q2 2016)
Daily active users: 300 million (Instagram Q2 2016)
Mobile users: N/A. Since you can only upload on the mobile app, this number seems most likely over 50%—perhaps as high as 75%.
Daily active session: 21 minutes a day (Instagram Q3 2014)
Gender: 29% of women; 22% of men (Pew Research 2014)
Age: 53% of 18 to 29-year-olds; 25% of 30 to 49-year-olds; 11% of 50 to 64-year-olds; 6% of those older than 65 (Pew Research 2014)
Race/Ethnicity: 21% of white Internet users; 38% of black Internet users; 34% of Hispanic Internet users (Pew Research 2014)
Income: 28% of those earning less than $30,000 annually; 23% of those earning between $30,000 and $49,999 annually; 26% of those earning between $50,000 and $74,999 annually; 26% of those earning more than $75,000 annually (Pew Research 2014)
Education: 24% of those with a college education; 31% of those with some college education; 23% of those with a high school degree or less (Pew Research 2014)
Locale: 28% of those who live in an urban environment; 26% of those who live in a suburban environment; 19% of those who live in a rural environment (Pew Research 2014)

Pinterest

Monthly active users: 100 million (Instagram Q2 2016)
Daily active users; Daily active session: N/A
Mobile users: 80% of Pinterest traffic comes from mobile (Pinterest 2015)
Gender: 42% of women; 13% of men (Pew Research 2014)
Age: 34% of 18 to 29-year-olds; 28% of 30 to 49-year-olds; 27% of 50 to 64-year-olds; 17% of those older than 65 (Pew Research 2014)
Race/Ethnicity: 32% of white Internet users; 12% of black Internet users; 21% of Hispanic Internet users (Pew Research 2014)
Income: 22% of those earning less than $30,000 annually; 28% of those earning between $30,000 and $49,999 annually; 30% of those earning between $50,000 and $74,999 annually; 34% of those earning more than $75,000 annually (Pew Research 2014)
Education: 32% of those with a college education; 30% of those with some college education; 22% of those with a high school degree or less (Pew Research 2014)
Locale: 25% of those who live in an urban environment; 29% of those who live in a suburban environment; 30% of those who live in a rural environment (Pew Research 2014)

After you consider demographics, weigh the analytics.

Once you have an idea of the platforms most relevant to your key demographic, overlay it with your analytics.

Your goal is to make sure your data supports these general market findings. It’s also a good idea to double-check that those social platforms are driving traffic to your site. While reach and engagement are critical analytics, referral traffic and clicks are the best metrics to measure conversion.

5 tips to save time on social.

Already by investing your time on the right platforms, you can create a bigger impact where it matters most. Now, try these five tips to save even more time on social.

Create an editorial calendar. A little planning makes the content creation process much smoother. You won’t have to rack your brain to think of something new and fresh to post.
Schedule your posts ahead of time. At the start of the week, schedule all your content for all platforms.
Share more content from others. Diversify your feed. Share customer pictures and relevant articles and info from other sources. Doing so creates a richer stream of content that is more likely to get (and keep) your audience’s attention.
Consider how much time you spend answering customer comments. Don’t forget to account for this when planning! See how much time you spend answering social questions each week and account for that in your future allocations.
Set aside time to engage. Liking each comment as it’s posted can be a time suck. Instead, try engaging in bulk once a day. Then, the rest of the day, you can focus on other priorities.

Emma Fitzpatrick is a Philly-based freelance writer and marketer, whose specialties include content marketing, social marketing and short, snappy writing. Pick her brain at [email protected].

Online training in digital, mobile and social media from ABA.