Defining a Social Strategy

Identify Available Social Media Channels

In today's day and age, they are hundreds of directions to market your product. Even when strictly dealing with social media, there are so many choices to make on where to invest time and money, that many business owners give up without trying. The learning curve for these social media channels is not rocket science and can be taught. However, learning the ins and outs of each social media channel requires a large investment of time. Throw in the fact that these social media channels continuously improve their own development and software, you are dealt with an ever changing, dynamic social media learning curve. An important aspect of these social media channel is your business or username.

That brings up the questions, which social media channels are right for you and your business? Start with the largest and most popular social media channels available. You have the option of marketing your products and services on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, MySpace, and 100 others that are fighting and clawing their way to become a social media provider. With so many social media options, which ones are right for you?

Align Social Media Channels

Every social media channel is different, yet have the same goals in mind, which is to create communication with others. These social media channels naturally develop a different user audience from the content it publishes. As example, lets look at Pinterest. Over 80% of the audience using Pinterest are women. Why you ask? There are many theories on why, and while we are politically correct we will not get into all of them. The answer is that it is based on CONTENT! Many social media experts say women are drawn to pictures and recommendations from their peers. Pinterest is proving to be a big asset to spur creativity in all aspects of life. We love Pinterest and highly recommend it to everyone! The point is if your target market includes women between the ages of 20-40, then invest time and money into Pinterest today.

Another example of Facebook. The fastest growing age group in Facebook are women between the ages of 55-65. Why you ask?. Who the heck knows! These "baby boomers" are understanding the pros of using Facebook to connect with their family and personal interests. Also, lets look at YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. The main users of this social media tool are males and females from the ages of 15-35. Do they sound like your customers?

Case in point, identify your target market. Then, do research on which social media channels your target market spends their time and interacts on. Go from there. It is very important, when developing an online brand for your business, that you do the best you can to create the same exact username for every channel you register for. The creates brand synergy and is included in the process of brand loyalty.

I Have Social Media Accounts For My Business, Now What?

This is where 90% of business owners fail and hit the wall. Its a big, huge wall, constructed from a combination of steel, brick, and concrete. It stinks.

I'll just break it to you. To be successful on social media, it requires your page to have a large following or fan base. Developing this fan base is not easy and comes with many road blacks. How can you build a large social media following? Well, that's the next issue of our blog, Social Media Strategy...coming to a webpage near you.

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