Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Foursquare, YouTube, Google+, Reddit, LinkedIn, just to name a few. With so many social media networks out there and many more still being launched, it is hard to keep up with them – let’s face it, there isn’t enough time to create, post and publish content to all of them. So your challenge is to choose just a few of them and stick to them.
But how to choose the best social media network for your business is what might be making your decision quite difficult. Digital marketing involves time, money and plenty of creativity and you don’t want to waste resources barking at the wrong tree. Luckily, there are several things that you can take into consideration, and that will help you to pick the best networks wisely.
It is all about your target audience
If you really want to know which social media network is the best fit for your business, you need to understand your target audience very well, from their basic profile to which social media network they have joined.
You might be thinking here that this is pointless. That everybody is on Facebook, so you have no choice but to be there anyway. But the thing is that the fact that your target audience has a profile on Facebook doesn’t mean that they want to be commercially reached there.
People have different approaches when it comes to social media, and not all of them like to see their profiles and timelines as marketplaces. They also might, for example, be more keen to click on a call-to-action published on Twitter but not on Facebook. Others might think that business should only happen on LinkedIn, the professional network.
It is all about your message and the nature of your business
So you know where your target audience is socializing and where would be more convenient to reach them. This is a great start. But now you need to evaluate your own business and the message that you want to deliver.
The kind of conversation that you have at work isn’t the same that you have when you are in a bar with your friends or at home with your family. And the same applies to social media networks. It is not everything that you can discuss in one of them that will work well in another one, so be careful here.
Regarding your business, you should always figure out what you can actually put into practice. To become a businessman, you will need to be realistic about the number of resources and time that you have at your disposal, so you don’t get overwhelmed and end up forced to abandon your account – worse than a poorly written account is one that hasn’t been updated in ages.
Final thoughts: it is also all about the social media network itself
Each social media network has its own particularities, such as these listed below, and you should take them into consideration as well:
- Facebook has been losing its young users, but still is the best place if you want to target a broad adult audience. They are investing hard in improving their solutions for businesses as well.
- Twitter is great for those willing to engage in conversations with new people. It is also the place to discuss news and trends.
- Pinterest should be on top of your list if your product or service has visual appeal in any possible way. It should also be the favorite of those dealing with a female audience.
- LinkedIn is the place for business networking and to promote your brand among influencers and a highly skilled audience.
Plus, of course, NEVER just copy and paste the same post everywhere – you can see it turning into a disaster when you try it between the long-text-format Facebook post and the 140-characters-only Twitter post, just as an example.
Having said that, it should be much easier for you to know how to choose the best social media network for your business. Just keep in mind your target audience, your message, the nature of your business, and the particularities of the network in question so to make the most of it.
