Social Media: Which Site(s) Should You Focus On ?

Let’s face it: Social Media can be a real waste of time. So you’ve got to be smart about using it efficiently in order to get significant results while minimizing time spent…

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, LinkedIn, Weebly, Google+, Tumblr, Youtube, ….etc the list seems endless, and growing each year. You can’t possibly be publishing content to each site, so which one should you focus on ? Which one makes most sense for your business ?

The way to answer this is to think about your target client – the ideal client that is: where do they hang out primarily ? And can you effectively engage your prospective client on this social media site ?

So here is the process I suggest you adopt to prioritize which site to focus on and get started with “social media marketing”. Start by picking a single site. Forget about the others for now, focus on using one site effectively, then review and adjust, and if it makes sense, adopt a second social media platform.

1. Define your target client profile so you understand who they are (demographics), what interests them, and what connections they (might) have (“psychographics”)
2. the previous point will tell you on which social media site they are most active on
3. create and optimize a profile/page on the target social media site and engage your target audience by regularly posting relevant content
4. get visibility on that site by joining 20 to 40 interest groups, specific Facebook pages, and participating in conversations as well as adding relevant content – do this consistently and your taget audience will take notice, check you out, and if you have valuable content / information shared on your page they will start following you – this sets the stage for having a listening audience that will be receptive to an occasional “offer” or promotion.
   Remember: it’s “Social” – so don’t make your communications all about you nor constantly sell or promote yourself blatantly

Targeting consumers ?

If you are targeting consumers in a specific geographical area, Facebook is probably where you’ll have the greatest impact given the massive number of people using that plateform. Create a business page, grow your audience, and publish relevant content (does not necessarily need to always be original articles, you should make it a point to relay relevant information published by others – that could also be if interest to your “ideal client”).

To turbo-charge your reach without having to reinvent the weel or need to create additional content, use a Twitter  account to simply Tweet about your Facebook posts. You can easily tweet your posts from within your Facebook page.

Targeting business owners?

If you’re a law firm mostly targeting business owners, or any other b2b type of business, you might wonder if Facebook is still an appropriate site to use to gain exposure and get leads. LinkedIn might be the first to come to mind as prime “hangout” for your clients, but I would not discard Facebook as a place to reach professionals. Your research to define your “ideal client” will really tell you what the best social media to reach them is.

So in a nutshell, define your ideal client, determine on what social media platforms they hang out and are the most active, and meet them there.