Every successful business and entrepreneur these days knows that their social media marketing efforts are crucial to both their near term and long term success. The challenges are the usual suspects; limited resources, limited time and budget considerations. You know you need to be out there but what is the most effective, and profitable, way to distribute your resources?
- It is quite likely you have heard this a gazillion times but it will forever hold true: you need to know who your potential clients and customers really are. There are many social media platforms out there and you can’t be out on all of them. It would be a waste of time and resources to try and do so. Besides, there are social media platforms that simply are not visited by your potential customers. Know who you want and find out where they are and then crank up your social media marketing strategies.
- The demographics are everywhere so use them. Also, what is your competition up to? What sites and platforms are they using? Is there something that they are not doing? Add value and solve problems for your target audience. Bring something to the table that your rivals aren’t and watch the traffic begin to flow to your site.
- Data, of course, is essential as well as its constant analysis. You must see what the data is bringing in. If you are trying to reach Millennial men but get a constant stream of Baby Boomer women, something, somewhere, is seriously out of whack. Refine your data and your social media marketing strategies. Know them and know what appeals to them. Know what will drive your target audience to take action. If you don’t know that yet, what have you been doing?
- In that vein, work with businesses that are not direct competitors. Often times a demographic will have interest in complimentary subjects. For instance, people interested in staying fit are also likely to be interested in companies that can help them eat healthier and to live a healthier lifestyle.
- Be on top of your intelligence on a daily basis. Many social media platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram are not real big on providing data on demographics or much of anything else. You need to develop your own intelligence gathering base and be constantly honing it until all of your social media marketing efforts are little more than a lean, mean, traffic driving machine.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
