Social Media is a great place to promote your TpT Business for many reasons.
It’s Free
One of the most appealing features of social media is the fact that it has no cost. So you can start today without spending a dime and immediately start to see results.
It’s Easy to Use
Social media platforms are very intuitive and super easy to use and they’re only getting easier.
You and Your Ideal Customers are Already There!
You (likely), like more than half of the planet, are already interacting on social media in some capacity or another.
According to TechJury, people spend an average of 2.5 hours on social media a day, and 59% of the people on the planet have an account on at least one platform. Which means your customers are likely on the same social media platform you are, and they’re there a lot!
It’s Effective
Social media is great at getting people to your blog, course, TpT store, etc.
A whopping 82% of people who made a purchase on the internet did so after seeing the product on social media (BusinessofApps).
Social media not only can build your brand awareness, but it can also help sell your products and grow your email list.
But you likely already knew all of that. The real question is this:
Which Social Media Platform should You Use?
There are two answers to this question.
An Obvious Place to Start
The first answer is that you should use the social media platform you are already using. If you are already on TikToc, use that. If you have an Instagram profile or Twitter account and are already active, then you should start there.
The reason is that you already understand the platform. You know what kind of content is effective (because you see it all the time) and you know where your niche is – groups, subreddits, hashtags, etc.
Before you spend time and energy learning a new platform, start being active on the platform you already know and use.
Social Media Platform Options for TpT Sellers
Before deciding which is the best social media platform, let’s look at a few.
Pinterest is the 15th most used social media platform with 450 million active users.
However, it has the highest satisfaction rating according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
The average person spends 14 minutes on Pinterest a day, but 85% of users make a purchase from the Platform.
Pinterest is a highly profitable platform, generating $2.5 Billion in revenue in 2021 and $2.6 Billion in 2022. Meaning it’s stable, and will be here for a while.
However, Pinterest is not your typical social media platform. It’s Pins last forever (social media posts usually last a day) and is highly dependent on SEO – which means when you Pin something, it takes a while to generate traffic.
Pinterest has also gone through many iterations, more than most social media platforms, changing their algorithms and best practices many times over (remember group boards?).
With all of that said, Pinterest is a MUST HAVE for every TpT Seller. It will generate traffic, and the right kind for a long time. Your Pins will rank high on Search Engines and your Pins will show up to your ideal customers for a long time.
Even if you don’t have a blog, you can simply Pin your products and you will get growth. If you want to go even deeper with Pinterest, you can make multiple pins for each product, and start blogging. If you want help starting a blog for your TpT store, click here.
YouTube
YouTube is the second largest social media platform with over 2.6 Billion users spending an average of 20 minutes per day on it.
YouTube is also highly profitable, and it’s owned by Google, which means it’s also very stable and it’s algorithms are going to be very good.
Like Pinterest, YouTube relies heavily on SEO and posts (videos) lasts a long time. However, your YouTube videos do not take as long to rank as Pins do.
Creating YouTube content is much more involved than on other platforms. It takes time and sometimes money (depending on what you’re creating). Which means generating lots of content can be a challenge.
Starting a YouTube channel is a great idea for a TpT’er and would be a huge differentiator (as there are likely not a lot of competitors in your niche). However, it will take a lot of time and energy that could be used elsewhere. It is not where I would recommend beginning, but once you have become established I think you could really benefit from making YouTube content.
TikTok
Of the larger social media platforms, TikTok is one of the fastest growing in 2022 and 2023 (trailing only LinkedIn and Twitch). And, its content form of short videos is quickly changing the social media landscape as you have seen Facebook and Instagram rush to have Reels on their platforms.
TikTok has over 1 Billion users spending over an hour and a half on the platform daily – though I suspect part of this large number for time on platform is because their demographics skew towards the younger users, and teenagers spend over 8 hours a day on social media (that’s an actual statistic, I didn’t make that number up).
TikTok is a great place to be. As the platform continues to grow, I assume it will get better on helping its users monetize their accounts. Currently, advertising and product linking are not the best – but I assume these will get better in the months and years to follow.
Instagram has 2.35 Billion users spending 24 minutes a day on the platform. It is the fourth largest social media platform, trailing YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
Instagram is a highly visual platform making it perfect for TpT creators – especially those with very aesthetically appealing products.
Instagram continues to grow every year in size and reach, as does its revenue. This is in large part due to the fact that it is owned by Facebook – which is the king of marketing and advertising. When you create an ad on Facebook, and can automatically post it on Instagram as well.
Instagram is super easy to use, has a large number of people on the platform, and has wonderful ways for people to find your page. It is getting better at product linking and allowing you to have multiple page links in your bio. I suspect it, like TikTok will continue to make improvements in these areas that are more beneficial to creators like you and I who are trying to generate links and sales through the platform.
A little unknown gem of the digital marketing world is Reddit, which has almost half a billion monthly users. With multiple Subreddits (they’re kind of like Facebook groups or old school chat rooms) for different niches, you can likely find a one that will fit well with your brand.
The thing I like about Reddit is that when you post on the Subreddit, you will instantly be seen by everyone who visits that page. No need to hack an algorithm or depend on a large following; everyone who logs in can see it for as long as it remains at the top of the thread (each new post will knock it lower on the list until it’s off the first page).
The thing I don’t like about Reddit is that the users have anonymity, so the comment section can be brutal.
Also, Reddit is going through some interesting drama with its Subreddit managers and third party platforms, so its stability is a bit of a question mark as of lately. However, if you’re looking for a good boost to your products or posts, Reddit is a great place to do so.
As a note, I think Reddit is better for your blog, TpT Freebie, or email optin than for your TpT products. I think a wise strategy is to use Reddit to generate traffic to your free stuff, and then use those free platforms to convert them into purchasers.
Twitter boasts 450 million active users with steady growth every year. It made $4.4 Billion in 2022, which is less than LinkedIn (13.8), Snapchat (4.6), TikTok (9.4) ,YouTube (29.2), Instagram (51.4), and Facebook (116.6), but still a healthy amount.
With the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October of 2022, and the creation of Facebook Threads (July 2023) which boasted the best opening week of any app ever, and over 150 million users in two weeks, Twitter’s future also remains interesting.
Twitter is a great place to get a message out, but I would not recommend starting there for your TpT business.
Facebook is King
Okay, hopefully by reading those snippets above about the different social media platforms, something glaring began to appear. That is Facebook’s dominance.
Of the social media platforms, Facebook is the largest, the most profitable, and the best performing. Its ads have the best Return on Investment (ROI), its data is the best, it makes more money and has more users than any other platform. In short, Facebook is king!
If you were to choose one social media platform for your TpT Business, I would recommend Facebook.
Here are some more statistics I want to share with you
- One third of all people on the planet have a Facebook account
- It’s the third most visited website on the entire internet
- 70% of internet users are active on Facebook
- Two Thirds of all Facebook users are active daily
- 70% of all referral traffic on the internet comes from Facebook
- Over 1 in 3 Facebook users will make a purchase from the platform in 2023
- 1 in 5 US consumers begin their online shopping on Facebook
- Facebook is the most used app on phones that have the app on it
Facebook has more users than any other social media platform and its users are active. Meaning your ideal customers are already there, waiting for you to show up.
Facebook also generates more revenue than the next five largest social media platforms combined (and two of those five social media platforms are owned by Facebook: Instagram and WhatsApp). Meaning Facebook is not in danger of going out of business anytime soon.
Facebook is the largest, the most used, the best performing, and the most profitable.
Facebook is king, and it’s where you need to start your business.
Not only that, but because Facebook has Groups, it is easy to find your niche and become a prominent figure in their lives. You can quickly join a Facebook group full of your ideal customers and become active in it, quickly establishing yourself as an authority, without spending a dime.
If you haven’t started a Facebook business page for your TpT store or digital business, you need to do so today!
If you want help growing that page organically, I have an online course for you.
In this course I will walk you through the steps of optimizing your page, creating amazing content, and getting a large audience. The course includes a content calendar, premade post templates, conversation starters and polls to generate engagement, and a weekly virtual meetup. Click here to check out my course on Organic Facebook Growth.