Social Media For Business [FAQ Series]
We are picking up where we left off last week on the topic “Choosing the Right Social Media Marketing Tools.” That is the first part; now this, as its concluding part.
The right digital marketing tools are the best tools for you. How do you figure out the right social media digital tools for you?
A successful social media presence is not free. It will cost you resources – time and man power. Besides, it is pay to play in social media now. Ads cost.
To figure out the right social media tools for your business, ask your self these questions.
Social Marketing Tools: Selection Process
Question 1: Who is your Target audience?
Not everyone is a potential customer.
Knowing your target audience is a strategic element in finding the right social media marketing tools for your business.
Choosing the tools first without knowing your target audience is like bringing your boat to a ski resort. Well, snow could float your boat if you see unicorns there.
Create a profile of your audience
- What is your market’s age?
- What is their income?
- What do they do?
- Where are they located? City, state, country, urban, rural?
- Do they work? Retired?
- Mothers? With children? No kids? Working?
- Asian? African-American? Hispanic?
- What country or part of the world? (Note: Not everyone in the world uses Facebook)
- Married? Single?
You can go on and on with the questions as you try to narrow down your market.
How do you figure out the social media tools used by the audience for marketing? You can find the answer to that by leveraging information that is already out there. Yes, do not have to reinvent the wheels! You can use either of the following sources:
- Surveys
- Research – some are free, some aren’t (free)
- The best source – your customers: ask them!
Looking at a recent survey by Pew Internet Report. Here is what the Social Media Landscape is Like
Profile of Popular Social Media Marketing Platforms
Facebook:
- 72% of users are women
- # of users go down as age ranges go up
- Young adults between the ages of 18-29 are the majority users
- Most of those users have some college followed by those with college education
- Most users have household income of $75K+
- Urban dwellers tend to use this platform more than the rural dwellers.
Pinterest:
- Appeals more to women
- Utilized by those between ages 18-49
- Users have college education
- More than half of its users have $50K++ household income
- Appeals more to rural dwellers
Tumblr:
- Predominantly used by young adults between the ages of 18-29
- Users have college education
- Household income of users is $75K
- Urban dwellers like to use this platform
Instagram:
- Appeals to Young Adults between the ages of 18-29
- Have more women users than men
- Users have some college
- Household income of users are under $30K
- Used more by urban dwellers
Twitter:
- African-Americans (27%) and Hispanics (28%) dominate this platform
- Large number of Twitter users are young adults between the ages of 18-29
- 22% of Twitter users have average household income of $75,000+
- Used more by urban dwellers (21%) while only 11% of rural peeps use it.
LinkedIn: [Source: Quantcast.com]
- Predominantly male than female users
- Many its users are middle-aged (45-64)
- Most of the users do not have kids
- Household income of users is over $150K
- Most of the users are have college and post grad degrees
- Asians are likely to use this platform more
Question 2: What are your social media marketing goals?
This is also our preferred approach when determining the social media marketing tools for clients. It is very strategic because when you have established goals, you will be able to identify key performance metrics and develop tactics/strategies.
When the key performance indicators are in place will be able to decide what works for your company and iterate the process. If something is not performing well, tweak the tactics/strategy as you track progress.
Define your Social Media Marketing Goals
Goals vary depending on what your team has defined for your company. It is not set in stone. It could change. The important point is that you all agreed on it and it should reflect your business objectives.
Here are some examples of marketing goals:
- Improving brand awareness
- Correcting negative sentiment about your product or brand
- Reduce customer service cost
- Increase leads by x%
- Improve customer service
- Improve customer engagement
- Improve company’s influence in the market you are serving
If developing brand awareness is your goal, what are you going to measure it? What are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)? A few examples of KPIs (key performance indicators) are:
- Re-tweets
- URL tracking
- Blog – blog comments and blog visits
- Social bookmarks
- Social sharing
- Likes, Follow, Circles…
Check out this article on measuring your social media efforts for additional information.
Question 3: Where do your competitors hang out?
When choosing social media marketing tools, checking out where your competitors are at is one best way to figure out what tool to use.
If you do not have the bandwidth engage in social media platforms and to track it, we sure can help you either by managing it for you, providing you guidance and training. Let’s chat!
