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First, you need to determine how wide you can cast your net in practical terms. If you have a team of people whose only job is to monitor social media activity and respond to tweets and Facebook comments, then obviously you can cover a bigger range of social networks than if it’s just you on your own. There is a benefit to being able to do less, however: it forces you to narrow down and prioritize.
As you know, you can often have better success with concentrating your efforts on reaching a lower number of people whom you know to be in your target market, than just marketing to the general public and hoping for the best. You may automatically think that Facebook is the place to be, and there’s certainly an argument for the benefit of Facebook for most businesses, but if there were a fairly well populated niche social network that caters to the same market as your company, then it would make sense for you to at least do some test marketing in that network. It doesn’t matter if “everyone” is on Facebook – if your target customers are elsewhere, then that’s where you need to be.
It’s important not to overlook the power of Twitter – not only as a social network in its own right, but also as a way of getting people to visit your other social media accounts. Done in the right way, Twitter marketing can drive people to your blog, your Facebook page, or any other place you want them to be. However, don’t fall into the trap of using Twitter only as a way to bait your audience into clicking on links. Today’s Twitter user is much smarter than that, so make sure you’re focusing on engagement first. It’s okay to post links in that context.
Whatever social network ends up working best for you, make sure you implement a system of perpetual testing, and keep an eye on the numbers. If there was a time when MySpace was working for you as a marketing tool that probably isn’t the case anymore. In the same way, today’s social networks will evolve, and some will eventually give way to newcomers. Be prepared pick up and move from one social network to another when the appropriate time comes.
