Social networks: which one is for what, and how our market differs from the American one
Better one network done properly than five profiles whose last post is a year old. A dead profile is not neutral, it looks like a closed business.
Eduard Hirjak
MeaOvis founder
Article contents
“Should we be on TikTok?” We get this question regularly and the answer does not depend on TikTok. It depends on two things: whether your customers are there, and whether you can keep it up every week six months from now. When one of those is missing, a new profile does not only harm you by staying empty. It harms you when somebody finds it.
The rule that saves the most money. Better one network done properly than five profiles whose last post is a year old. A dead profile is not neutral, it looks like a closed business.
First, three differences between markets
Most social media advice is written for the American market and gets translated here without adjustment. Yet those markets differ in three things that change what is even possible.
Regulation: in Europe, advertising is targeted differently
European data protection rules limit what may be used for targeting and require consent where elsewhere none is needed. In practice that means less detailed audiences than on the American market.
The clearest example is political advertising. Meta and Google stopped selling it in the European Union altogether in October 2025 and both cited the regulation on the transparency of political advertising. In the United States it is sold without restriction. It is not about who is right: it is that the same campaign is an ordinary thing on one market and cannot be bought on the other.
Price: the American market is considerably more expensive
The price per thousand impressions has long been highest in the United States, with Western European markets below it, by tens of percent depending on the source. The Slovak market tends to be lower still.
That sounds like an advantage and in part it is. But it has another side: cheap impressions tempt you into buying reach that brings nothing. When a thousand impressions cost a few euros, a budget is easily spent on an audience that would never have bought from you. The numbers in the report will look magnificent all the same.
We deliberately do not put exact amounts here. Sources differ on them by half, and they shift by sector, by season and by the quality of the advertising. The only usable number is in your own ad account.
Habits: a different network for the same thing
In Europe and Latin America people routinely write over WhatsApp, in the United States far more often through phone messages. On a market where almost everyone uses WhatsApp, a “message us” button on the website is a genuine sales channel. American guides mention it only in passing, because there it does not mean as much.
The same goes for buying inside the app: what is completely ordinary on Asian markets is slower to take hold in Europe and different again elsewhere. When a guide tells you that “people buy straight in the app”, check whether that holds here.
Which network is for what
The numbers below are given where the companies publish them themselves. Watch what exactly they measure: a monthly active user, a registered account and advertising reach are three different things and they are very easy to confuse.
| Network | Who it suits | What to watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Anything that looks good: food, interiors, fashion, services with a visible result. | It lives on video. If you cannot film, it will be a struggle. | |
| Local services, trades, events, an older audience. Still the widest coverage here. | Organic reach for Pages is low. Groups work better than a Page. | |
| TikTok | When you can explain or demonstrate. Reach does not depend on follower count. | It demands pace. One successful month with no follow-up is wasted. |
| YouTube | More complex products, how-tos, reviews. Videos keep bringing traffic years later. | The most expensive to produce. In return it is the only network where content behaves like an archive. |
| Interiors, weddings, crafts, recipes, online stores with good-looking products. The company reports 640 million monthly active users. | It is not a network, it is an image search engine. Treat it accordingly. | |
| Communication with existing customers, confirmations, orders. | It is not a channel for acquiring people. An unsolicited message here is worse than an unsolicited e-mail. | |
| Technical and specialist topics. The company reports 130 million daily and 515 million weekly visitors. | The toughest audience there is. A marketing tone will not pass and the community will say so. | |
| X | Technology, media, fast reactions to the news. | Figures on its size are uncertain and advertising reach is often confused with user numbers. |
| Snapchat | A young audience, American above all. The company reports 493 million daily and 971 million monthly. | A marginal network here. Before deciding, check whether your people are there at all. |
| Bluesky | For now one to watch rather than to budget for. It reports over 43 million registered accounts. | A registered account is not an active person. The gap between those two numbers tends to be large. |
Seven things that work on every network
Algorithms change, these do not.
Do not open a profile you cannot feed
Before setting it up, answer one question: who exactly will be putting content there in four months, once the novelty wears off. If there is no answer, do not open it.
Do not move a post from one network to another unchanged
It is not about laziness, it is that people can see it. A watermark from another network, a vertical video in a horizontal space, a link where links do not work. The networks spot it and so do people.
The first two seconds decide the rest
With video, the fate of a post is decided before you finish saying hello. Start with the most interesting thing, not with introducing yourself. An opening along the lines of “hi everyone, today we would like to show you” is the most reliable way to lose half your viewers.
Replying to comments is not politeness, it is distribution
A comment is a stronger signal to the algorithm than a like, and a reply to it triggers another. When you have to choose between an hour of making content and an hour of answering people under a post that already exists, the second is often better.
Watch saves and shares, not likes
A like is the cheapest reaction there is. A save means somebody wants to come back to it, a share means they are willing to put it in front of the people they know. Those are numbers that say something.
Write like a person, not like a company
Profiles that work almost always have a face and a name. It need not be the owner. It has to be somebody specific who is allowed to hold an opinion.
Let every post know what the reader should do next
Not necessarily a purchase. It can be “message us”, “have a look on the website” or just “save this for later”. A post with no next step is a nice photograph and nothing more.
In closing
Social networks are not the channel you sell through. They are the channel through which people remember you, so that they buy from you later somewhere else: on the website, in the shop, over the phone.
That is why the worst possible strategy is hopping from network to network according to whichever one is being written about just now. Three patient years on one network beat three months on five. And as for follower counts themselves, they are more treacherous than they look. There is a separate article on that below.
Related reading
What the acronyms in advertising proposals mean: Marketing acronyms in plain language.
Prečo väčšie číslo sledujúcich znamená menší dosah, nie väčší.
SEO alebo platená reklama a čo z toho naozaj predáva.
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FAQ
Questions on this topic
Which network should a small business be on?
The one where its customers are and which it can feed every week six months from now. When one of those conditions does not hold, a new profile will do more harm than good.
A simple rule applies: better one network done properly than five profiles whose last post is a year old. A dead profile looks like a closed business.
How does the European market differ from the American one?
In three things. Regulation: European rules limit targeting and require consent where elsewhere none is needed. Meta and Google stopped selling political advertising in the Union altogether in October 2025.
Price: the American market has long been the most expensive, with European markets below it. And habits: here people routinely write over WhatsApp, in the United States far more often through phone messages.
Is it worth putting the same post on every network?
Not unchanged, and it is not about laziness, it is that people can see it. A watermark from another network, a vertical video in a horizontal space, a link where links do not work.
The networks spot it and so do people. Adapting the format is a matter of minutes, not of making something new.
Which number should you watch on social networks?
Saves and shares, not likes. A like is the cheapest reaction there is. A save means somebody wants to come back to it, a share means they are willing to put it in front of the people they know.
And above all of that, messages and enquiries. Ten people who write to you are worth more than ten thousand followers.
What do the user numbers the networks quote actually mean?
Something different every time, which is exactly why they are so easy to confuse. A monthly active user, a registered account and advertising reach are three different things.
Registered accounts tend to outnumber active people many times over, and advertising reach is an estimate, not a measurement. When comparing networks, always check which of those figures you have in front of you.
You will find more answers in the section FAQ.
About the author
Eduard Hirjak
Founder of MeaOvis, senior full-stack developer
He has been building websites and apps for more than 20 years and has 100+ projects behind him: from presentation websites through online stores to booking systems and iOS apps. On the blog he explains technical things so that every business owner understands them.