The first step in developing a social media marketing process is to determine which networks you want to target. The answer to this question is simple – you want to target the networks that your prospects and customers are using. As is the case with offline networking, it’s best to pick a few networks and “go deep” (be a frequent participant) than to spread yourself thinly over several different networks. It’s also important to define what you want to accomplish with your social media marketing process – whether it be brand promotion, selling more of your products and services, supplementing your customer service function or a combination thereof. With that said, let’s take a look at the demographics of some of the more popular networks.
Facebook is a network that most companies participate in purely because of its tremendous reach – Facebook has over 5 million users logging in on a daily basis who post 2 billion messages per day. Another unique factor about Facebook is its popularity among all demographic groups; over 95% of internet uses of all age groups (including seniors) use Facebook. The average age of a Facebook visitor is 38, according to Google Adwords. Although Facebook is considered to be the best network for B2C marketing, its reach across all demographics make it a good platform for all customers.
LinkedIn is a great network for B2B marketing. Marketing automation software provider HubSpot found that LinkedIn is almost 3 times more effective than either Facebook or Twitter for converting B2B website visitors to leads. The average age of a LinkedIn visitor is 44, according to Google Adwords. LinkedIn has the highest average income per user at over $100,000 with 38% of users earning over $1ook and 31% earning between $60k and $100k. If your company sells to other businesses, you should be on LinkedIn.
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, with messages limited to a maximum of 140 characters. Because of Twitter’s character limitation, it is generally used as the medium by which social media broadcasts are spread through multiple networks by social media software platforms like Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Shoutlet. Twitter is often used to broadcast videos and other content via hyperlinks. The average age of a Twitter user is 39, according to Google Adwords.
There are numerous other social media platforms – YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr and Pinterest, to name a few. Pinterest has been making news because of its meteoric growth in web traffic. Pinterest has a lot of potential as a social media platform for business; however, its demographics currently are overwhelmingly female (80% of users are female.) According to Google Ad Planner, 77% of Pinterest users have a household income of less than $75,000. While an initial analysis of Pinterest usage statistics show that it may not be the best social media network for marketing, it’s hard to ignore the sheer volume of Pinterest’s web traffic. Another new network that holds a lot of promise for marketers is Google+. While relatively new to the scene, Google+ has the potential to rival Facebook in terms of its reach.
In summary, the social media platforms you use should be chosen on the basis of two factors – what you’re trying to accomplish with your social media marketing process and where your customers and prospects participate in social media. In my case, I’ve chosen to “go deep” with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and am researching Google+ and Pinterest. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on how you use social media – please feel free to post comments.
