Social media is an important part of any marketing campaign. It is equally important that you choose the right social media platform for your messaging and audience engagement. So many marketers think they need to have active presences on all of the networks and they spread themselves too thin and wind up with sub-par presences all over the web.
Do you know where your target audience hangs out?
So which social media platform is most worth your time?
Is one better than another? Common wisdom says that Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media platforms in existence right now. That doesn’t mean, though, that those networks deserve all of your attention.
For one thing, Facebook is actively working against marketers in an effort to turn a profit for the company. If you want your Facebook posts to be seen by more than just a few of your fans, you have to pay a fee.
And Twitter – though still free and not yet mucked up by shareholders – moves so quickly that the chances of all your followers seeing all your messages is very small.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep trying! And, in fact, paying Facebook’s fees might be one of the best things on which you spend your money.
So how do you figure out where to spend your time and effort? It’s all a matter of demographics. While Facebook and Twitter seem to be catchalls, the other social media networks out there (and there are lots of them) cater to some very specific demographics and audiences.
You can pin anything you want on Pinterest. Still, the network is most famous for its crafts, recipes, beauty, and fashion boards. If your business caters to these audiences, you will want to have a presence on Pinterest. An industrial consulting company probably won’t get a lot of mileage out of the place. People whose businesses cater to the wedding industry, however, can do very well here.
LinkedIn is the place where people gather to talk about professional matters. It’s fantastic for making professional connections, finding jobs, and filling positions. It’s also great for “shop talk” among corporate populations. An independent crafter might not get much use out of LinkedIn, but a company that specializes in consulting and helping with IT, like Syncsort (a company that specializes in data integration), can do incredibly well on this network.
YouTube
You’ve undoubtedly been told that video marketing is a fantastic way to grow your web presence and attract attention to your business. YouTube is where most of those marketing videos live. It’s also a fantastic place for people who simply like creating and sharing media. Over the last few years, this channel has proven incredibly important in the music industry. It’s true! More people listen to music on YouTube than they do anywhere else. Independent musicians can build a great audience for their work by creating videos to go with their songs and posting them on YouTube.
So many choices! So many audiences to reach!
These aren’t all of the social media portals. There is also Tumblr, Instagram, and all the social bookmarking sites like Digg (which is starting to make a comeback).
Finally – it’s easy to look at basic demographic information broken down by network (like you can find in this survey done by NonProfit Quarterly) and assume that you have to cater to those numbers. Don’t forget, though, that basic demographic information isn’t as important as personality demographic information. Go where the people who love your products are – regardless of their gender or age.
Erin Steiner is a writer from Portland. She covers social media, geek/pop culture, and small business topics for a variety of different websites.