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With so many different social platforms, and often not enough time in a day to have a strong presence on every one of them, how do you identify which venues are the most appropriate for your audience and branding needs?
The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Look at Your Competition
Which platforms have competitors established themselves on? What are they doing on each platform? Can you compete? Can you do something better? And most importantly, which platforms are your competitors not on? By doing a thorough analysis of the companies you’re competing with, you’ll get inspiration to improve your social presence and get insight as to where to establish yourself. – Brett Farmiloe, Markitors – Digital Marketing Company
2. Talk to Your Customers
The golden rule of social media is to meet your customers where they are. Talk to past, current and potential customers to see how they use social media, and then build a customer persona. We have found our customer persona uses Twitter to make purchasing decisions, while our employee persona uses Facebook more when accessing potential employers. This allows us to easily adjust content for the audience. – Christopher Swenor, East Coast Product
3. Use Embedded Social Buttons
We ask our customers where they like to visit and get information. Also, we have social buttons embedded on our site, and can track who clicks on which button. Then we compile that information and understand where they are going and why. That becomes our focus. – Andrew O’Connor, American Addiction Centers
4. Understand Your Demographics
Do your research on the demographics of your business. If your business targets more of the mature, older crowd then Facebook would be the best platform, compared to the younger with Twitter or Snapchat. Twitter would be a quick-and-easy platform to keep your consumers up to date quickly, as well as an easier way to answer questions or concerns in real time. – Stanley Meytin, True Film Production
5. Use Social Media Listening Tools
Use social media listening tools like Social Mention to track where people are posting about your brand and your competitors. With that information, you can fairly easily work out which social media networks are worth a significant time investment. – Vik Patel, Future Hosting
6. Outsource a Social Media Manager To Do It All
Instead of worrying about how to divide your time between social media outlets, hire a professional to do it for you. A social media manager will be able to assess your presence on all current platforms, and from there identify which venues are most appropriate. They can also devote their time to focus specifically on building your brand via social, instead of you having to do it yourself. – Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com
7. Use Site Ads to Test Engagement
There is quite a bit of information and research about what social platforms work well with different business verticals floating around the internet. However, if you are still not sure, most major social platforms offer advertising, which is a great way to get your content out in front of lots of people quickly to test the engagement or conversions, to see if it is worth investing more time and money. – Justin Faerman, Conscious Lifestyle Magazine
8. Find Out Where the Top Influencers in Your Industry Are
Different social media platforms serve different purposes and attract different audiences. If you really cannot figure out where to most effectively invest your time, consider where the people you and your desired audience respect most are highly active. You want to contribute meaningfully to the online conversation in your industry, so go where the most vibrant one is taking place. – Ryan Wilson, FiveFifty
9. Use the Platform You Enjoy the Most
You’re always going to be better at networking on the platform you enjoy using the most, so you should figure out a business strategy to capitalize on utilizing that platform. Set aside 20 minutes a day to utilize that platform strictly for business needs. When you dedicate time to do this, you often come up with creative ideas to use that platform to grow your business. – Cassie Petrey, Crowd Surf
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