So you’ve heard the buzz about Social Media Marketing, but which social media platforms do equestrians use the most? Where can you reach out to them effectively? Using targeted social media to reach out to the wider equestrian community can be a huge step in business growth and visibility!
Top Social Media Platforms
Facebook and Instagram are the most used platforms by equestrians. About 86% of people use social media once a day and 72% use it multiple times per day. 82% use Facebook, 75% YouTube and 53% use Instagram at least once a week. To reach equestrians effectively, sticking to one or all of these three platforms is a good place to start!
Almost half of the population (especially equestrians who are on the go most of the time) prefer to view social media on mobile apps.
Who are You Reaching?
Do you have a stud that you want to promote to serious mare owners who have money? Maybe you teach kid’s riding lessons. Do you sell discipline-specific equipment to young adults competing at high levels? Once you answer the question of who you want to reach, strategizing your social media plan becomes much easier.
According to the Manifest survey, women are more likely to use mobile devices, while men are more likely to use desktop. 75% of women use social media multiple times a day, compared to 64% of men.
This is important to keep in mind when you think about who you’re trying to reach. Are they older, younger, men or women? Maybe you want to reach out to all of those demographics. Before you try to reach everyone, stop and think: “Who would my services/ business ideals appeal to most?”
The Three Kings of Social Media
Facebook is by far, still the King of Social media. Although the younger Gen Z’s don’t spend much time on it, most adults use it regularly. If you take a look around Facebook you can see lots of equestrians spending time there. It’s extremely versatile, so you can post text, pictures, videos, and links.
Instagram is popular and is mostly where you’ll find the younger crowd (16-24 yrs old) being active. You tend to find people posting more about their lives and the things that they love and less about politics and divisive issues. Instagram is a platform for posting photos, graphics, and short videos. The downside is that you can’t write a post without a picture or video attached. Regardless of the platform though, you’ll probably be posting mostly graphics, photos and videos.
YouTube
YouTube is one of the most popular, useful, and often overlooked social media platforms among equestrians. Professional videos can go a long way in your content marketing strategy. There are so many ways you can recycle a video to get the most out of it! You could post a detailed video on YouTube about your training ideals, post it again as a Facebook video, then shorten it and post it on Instagram as well!
Business Accounts
Business accounts are great because they’re free and will give you insights as to what people are viewing and engaging with the most. Once you have a collection of data from posting tons of content, you can decide what’s working and what’s not. This helps you tailor your social media plan to what equestrians want to see and what they’re interacting with.
Social media can be a great way to market your equine business, especially if you take the time to research where the equestrians you want to reach are online. If you need help researching, creating, managing or planning your social media content, feel free to contact Catherine for a free 30-minute consultation where we’ll talk about your business needs and what you can implement to reach out to more equestrians via social media.
