As you’re probably aware, many business owners and managers are hesitant to integrate social media into their business strategies. If you are one that does look for ways to use it, however, you may want to consider how you are using individual social networks.
In other words, are you reaching the right customers through the right channels? Are the same messages you are sending your Facebook friends appropriate for your Twitter followers? Do those people care about your latest YouTube video or what you’ve been Digging?
Audience
Consider your audience. Tweeting, Facebook updating, YouTube videos, etc. are not really any different that simply writing an article in terms of keeping your audience in mind. In many instances, your audience may not be the same (or even like-minded) across multiple networks.
Look at your individual friends/followers. Who are they? Why are they following you? How do they use the network they’re on? These are the things you should consider.
Updates and posts should suit the audience that is viewing them. That’s how they get shares, likes, retweets, etc. That’s what makes people engage. That’s how your content and your messages are spread. Then, you can hope that readers are spreading it to similarly compatible audiences, and your own following (and potentially traffic) can grow from there.
Pay attention to the studies that are out there. Research firms share their findings about things like social network and web usage all the time. Read the information. Granted, individual studies should almost always be taken with a grain of salt, because no study is truly representative of the public as a whole, but the more you read, the more of an idea you can get about the trends with regards to demographics.
Reach
All of that said, you do want to be in as many places as potential customers are (much like we talked about with Ford). That means you’ll probably want to branch out beyond Facebook and Twitter. That can mean forums or any other niche communities.
Steve Rubel of Edelman and the popular blog Micro Persuasion, says to be “ubiquitous.” He says to be in all the places where your stakeholders are spending time.
Rubel also mentions the importance of adopting different messages for different places. He says to “be discoverable through search.”
The more places you are present, the more people see your message, and potentially share it. You are also increasing your potential search presence, which is still a very important part of the mix.
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