Which social media channel is the right one for my business? | ncorde
Often we’ll get asked by business owners about social media. In particular, business owners want to know, should get involved in social media, and if so, which ones are the right ones to invest their time and money in? Social media is a powerful tool, in particular, for small businesses. It’s powerful because it gives you an enormous return on investment (ROI). You can be much targeted in how you reach people, and you can get a big bang for the buck.
Social networks are considered to be a powerful arena for online marketing. They provide a direct and targeted way to communicate with the relevant audience, and they require less spending than more traditional marketing techniques.
Social media actually levels the playing field between small businesses and big businesses because they don’t have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get the kinds of results they’re getting.
Deciding on your channels
So, how do we know which ones to be involved in as small business owners? The first thing I would say is to pick just a few best, two maybe three. So how do I know which ones to choose? First of all, do some research? In particular, about demographics. What kinds of people are using each kind of social site? Different sites tend to attract different genders, different age groups, and different geographies.
Ask your existing customer, and people who are doing business with you. Simply ask them, which social media sites are they spending time on? That’s a good clue of where you should be investing your time and money.
A basic profile of your ideal client should include their age, gender, income bracket, and buying habits. You can then market directly to them through the appropriate social media sites, they will buy your products and services, and hopefully, come back in the future and buy more.
What is your business?
Ask yourself what is my business? It sounds like a silly question, but what I mean is that you should think of the kinds of characteristics that define what you do. The answers you get will direct you towards a certain social media channel (or channels) and will also help you to answer the next question:
In fact, different social media channels nowadays often make this decision harder rather than easier. Which one do you choose? How many should you choose? It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to do too many things at once and spreading yourself too thinly. Marketing, needless to say, is no different. You may have heard people talking about Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, etc. And felt a certain professional peer-pressure. “Should I be doing these things too?” The answer, almost certainly, is “Well, yes. But pick one or two to which you can dedicate enough time to do well, and stick with them”.
So, which ones should you choose?
You as a business owner need to answer this question. As advised above start with a few 2 – 3. Before you start spreading yourself too thin, consider the advantages and disadvantages of each social network, and choose the most relevant ones for you.
it will give you time to prepare what kinds of campaigns you might involve yourself in, rather than just jumping in like crazy. And then, conduct a test to see how responsive your potential customers are. That means getting involved in running a few campaigns for online advertising on social media sites. Marketing is more about science than art. And by testing it, we’ll get a good idea of what ones really work for your business, and which ones you should just leave alone. If you remain focused and choose carefully your social media sites, social media can be a powerful marketing tool for small businesses.
Conclusion
It seems like every single week some new site is popping up. For example, at the time of writing this post, a few popular sites are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. But, I can imagine that very soon, those sites will change in terms of which are most popular.
You should also take advantage of some automation tools available, which we’ll discuss in a later blog post.
What do you think?
So does this help you with your first steps to choosing which social media channel you should be using? Let me know below or feel free to forward your questions.