Everyday online you will see articles, whitepapers, and blog posts on how all the social media channels are taking over one another and why you should use certain channels in your campaign to get the most out of it. Which social media marketing channels are the best? Does it really matter? Of course it all depends on your strategy and the audience you are trying to reach, but don’t rely 100% on these accusations.
Here’s a couple of examples you might find
- Google+ isn’t very good
- LinkedIn is only used by recruitment agencies
- People are using Facebook more than Twitter
- Social media is way better than email marketing
- SEO is dead (this one has been going around for ages and with every Google algorithm update, you will see new ones claiming that it’s dead)
- Blogging is dead (I doubt it)
I’m 100% sure you could make a similar list, but the point is that every business is different and so the customer characteristics will also be different. Many brands are offering their target audience a range of different discounts each month that they can purchase. They promote their discounts primarly on Twitter. This technique works for them, but I’m sure it won’t work for every industry.
Which channels are working for you?
It’s important that you spend some time and see which platforms are working the best for your company to engage with your target audience. In addition to this, spend some effort on the following:
- Create magnetic content that draws people in.
- Pick a couple of social media channels and test them over a period of 2 months.
- Search for industries focusing on the same audience and look what they are doing. This doesn’t mean you should be a copycat, but it can give you a good indication of where you should spend your time.
- Don’t expect this process to take a few hours. It takes time – sometimes weeks.
- Use multiple channels in your strategy (blog posts, website, newspaper, ebooks, etc).
By making sure you are actively working on all the digital channels that is working for your business, you will be able to better sort out the bad information (explained at the top) from the good information. This will also help you find the right processes and tools to make your business and yourself more productive on the social web.
