Social networking offers a continual stream of information that can seem like it is bombarding you. If you are not familiar with the different social media sites, you may be confused on how to get started promoting your company, how much time to spend and where to spend it. Like all marketing, social media marketing is an investment in future sales that takes time and money to build. Therefore, it makes sense to build your audience efficiently. The old adage of "work smarter, not harder" is quite true for social media. If you don't define your goals and strategy, it is easy to get overwhelmed, spinning your wheels without getting successful results.
Which Social Media Network is for You?
Since time and money are always limited, you need to determine what your budget is, and where to focus your attention. To do this, collect your marketing research in order to answer these questions:
- What is the demographic(s) of my target market?
- Where do my best customers and potential customers hang out online?
- What is my primary form of marketing media, written text, images or video?
Each social media site has a general demographic, primary form of marketing media and industry focus. You need to match your prospect needs with the demographic and industry on the network, but you should market to that audience in the format that they use the most.
Pretty much everyone is on Facebook in one form or another. That list of people includes ages from 15 to 65 and older, both genders and B2B and B2C customers. Facebook members network with videos, images and text messages, but the text messages are generally only a few sentences. Facebook is also a great place to contact individuals and chat with them or create a support group or page for your company. If you are not active on Facebook, you should be.
Pinterest is primarily an image-based site. Marketing is promoted through still images although you can post videos. Text is added to each image to help SEO. The demographic is about 75 percent female, although Pinterest is looking for ways to grow their male audience. Industries that do well on Pinterest are highly visual including food, fashion, home decor, DIY and crafts. Members are generally between the ages of 22 to 65. If your company markets to customers in this demographic, you should be on Pinterest.
Twitter is great for information junkies, has a younger audience and dispenses information in short bursts. It is equally used by men and women and works very well for interactive conversations. It is used in the entertainment industry including news media and related news-like comedy shows. Often hosts of talk shows gather responses from viewers through Twitter.
We have been hearing a lot about Instagram lately as the site makes a name for itself. Instagram is a mobile-only site, making it popular with a younger audience who access the Internet primarily from their mobile devices. This site is visual with a mix of images and videos, very casual and social and used by many independent artists, crafters, decorators and food bloggers. There is not much room for text, nor can you directly link to your source except in your profile. Therefore, it is usually combined with Twitter or Facebook for marketing.
LinkedIn is a site for professionals which gives it a definite B2B mindset. It has expanded greatly since its inception and is used for job hunting, networking with other professionals and B2B prospecting. If you are in a B2B industry, then LinkedIn should be one of your top two social networking sites. You can create a profile with a lot of depth for yourself and your company, as well as find prospects regularly if you invest your time wisely. LinkedIn offers networking groups as well as a platform to publish content for members.
