Is your business on EVERY SINGLE SOCIAL MEDIA SITE? Is it not on any? Stop what you’re doing. Today I’m going to tell you how to choose the RIGHT social media channels for your business.
If you’re on none, that’s great! You’re starting with a clean slate and I bet you’re brimming with new ideas. The middle section of this blog post won’t pertain to you, but you should still read it, so you have the tools ready for the future.
If you’re one of the other types of businesses that reserved your business name handle on every single social networking site you’ve heard of, I get it. I bet you’re exhausted trying to keep up with all of them, but you’re scared to let go because you think you’re supposed to be on every site.
I am here to relieve you. You don’t need to be on them all. In fact you probably shouldn’t be. Let’s talk about how you can narrow your focus when it comes to channel so that you can truly serve your customers.
Your Ideal Customer
Before you can settle on the right social media channels, you need to know, inside and out, who your ideal customers are. If you’ve done your research, and/or are already an established business, you can probably list off a few characteristics of your ideal customer.
For success, you should know them inside and out. You should have a very clear picture of who they are. Without knowing this, moving forward is pointless (psst, check out this free ideal buyer worksheet to help you articulate who your ideal customers are).
Your business can’t serve everyone, and it never will. Trying to target “everyone” will lead to an inconsistent, incohesive, and boring brand. So if you want to be boring, go on and target everyone.
Website Traffic
Assuming you’re not starting from scratch, you probably have a website, and hopefully analytics tracking (if you don’t, please go set up a website and install Google Analytics). You may even already have social media profiles that you’re chugging away at. That’s awesome news, and you’re amazing.
Now, open up your analytics software, and check out which social media network is currently referring the most traffic. Set your dates for the last month, the last three months, and the last year to see if there’s any change in which source referred the most traffic. Or which source led to the lowest bounce rate.
There are obviously a lot of other factors to consider than just the number itself. Like, did you focus mostly on one particular network over those time frames? Did a rather neglected network bring in more traffic than you expected? If you have enough data, you may be able to see a trend, which will give you direction and focus for your social media strategy.
Network Demographics
Finally, the third piece of the puzzle (it’s a small puzzle), is knowing the general demographics of each individual network. While Facebook and Youtube have a pretty WIDE audience (68% and 73% of internet users use each platform respectively. That’s a lot of effing people.
You can learn more about the demographics of the various social networks over on the pew internet site, here. I’d just be regurgitating their facts, and honestly, you should dive a little deeper after reading anything I write here on this blog.
You’ll be nailing your social media marketing once you compare these three pieces of information, and deciding which channels will be a breeze.
