Social media is no longer a fad or a phase. It’s mainstream and for most businesses it needs to be part of your marketing mix. It’s not just teenagers or techie-types either; the fastest growing group on Facebook is 55-65 year old women, so if your mother isn’t using it yet, she will be soon!
From business favourite LinkedIn to new kid Pinterest and everything in between, there are now so many networks out there it is difficult to know what you should be using when.
Target market
Like all marketing problems, this one is easy to solve if you take it back to basics. The basic rule of marketing is “understand your customer”.
If you know who your customer or target customer is, then you can start getting to know what their interests are, their demographics, and therefore which social medium they are most likely to use.
However much you adore Facebook for keeping up with distant family or arranging to meet up with friends, if you are targeting senior managers in oil companies, it’s probably not going to be right for you. If, however, your main group of customers is 20 something females, and your products and services are fun, then what on earth are you waiting for. Get yourself a Facebook page and don’t look back.
If you are looking for senior managers in oil companies, then your first port of call will be LinkedIn, and one of its many groups, so that you can have conversations with the right people.
Don’t overlook Twitter though. It covers just about everyone and everything, and its biggest user group is educated, professional males aged 30-49. By following the right people and joining the right conversations you can develop a focused niche on Twitter.
The others include Google+ which is yet to catch on like the others but is a great forum for reaching IT professionals, and Pinterest, ideal for visual products; clothes, food, home furnishings…
Tone
Once you know your target market you can then make sure you are speaking to them in the right tone of voice; chatty, serious, expert, friendly, funny. Keep it consistent so that your audience knows what your brand stands for.
See last week’s post for more information about using the right words for your audience.
Next week’s installment will have some top tips for getting more out of Twitter. Same time, same place – don’t be late!