When it comes to digital marketing, there are tons of different social networks to choose from – each with their own advantages and disadvantages.
To cover just a few, you have:
And this is before you’ve even covered some of the ‘less obvious’ social networks, or the networks that skirt the borders of how we define social media. These include:
- Snapchat
- Periscope
- Forums
- YouTube
- Vine
So yeah, there’s a lot to choose from here… How do you know where to begin?
Of course, you should be on all social media if possible and the expression you will often hear used in this regard is ‘be everywhere’. But if you had to choose just one social network… which would it be?
Defining Your Goals and Understanding Your Audience
If you look at this in terms of pure numbers, then the answer becomes very simple. Facebook is the biggest social network and as such this is the one you should be on if you want the opportunity to potentially reach the biggest number of people.
But as any marketer should know, numbers aren’t really what’s important. What’s important is targeted numbers. In other words, who are you trying to reach?
And then there are those other factors like ‘susceptibility’ – is now the right time to reach that user? And are you reaching them in the correct way?
To answer these questions you need to define who your target audience is and how best to reach them.
For instance, did you know that Pinterest is the social media site with the biggest proportion of female users? What’s more, it lends itself particularly well to creative topics and to aesthetic and visual subjects.
So in other words, if you have a bakery shop, then you might well find that Pinterest is the right place for you. While for a B2B company selling business insurance though, you’re likely not going to have as much luck on Pinterest (how do you make this visual and artistic?). There are ways, but it’s not going to be as easy and there isn’t as much potential here.
So to find your best social network, you need to ask yourself where your audience is going to be and what the best way to communicate what you’re offering is. If you can answer these two questions then you can find your ‘route to market’.
Your Reader ‘Persona’ – commands the content to get shared!
At the same time, always have in mind your ‘reader persona’. This is a fictional profile of the type of person your content is aimed at. If you get this right, then there should be a certain section of your audience for whom the content is perfect.
This makes them far more likely to share as a way to express themselves – because your content reflects their personality – and it means that their friends are more likely to share it with them, knowing that they’re like it.
Remember that at its core, social media is a communication tool. If your content facilitates communication and expression, then it will succeed!