It is estimated that about 2.72 million people will be using social media by 2019. That is almost three times more than in 2010! In April alone there were more than 1,590 million people using Facebook and up to 1 million of those users are Australians. This represents as many opportunities for you to increase your client base.
There are a lot of social networks to choose from and it can be hard to decide which one to use and which will be of benefit to your business. Should you go for LinkedIn? How about Pinterest? What's Google+? Is Tumblr a good idea for your business? The list can go on and on and in many cases you will have multiple accounts.
Companies usually tend to choose the most popular networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. This would work for you too if you don't target a particular niche. However, keep in mind that the social network you are choosing should be consistent with your audience's habits. So if everyone is using Pinterest, but your target market is on Tumblr, then you should use Tumblr. In other words, you should go where your audience is!
Most people think that creating an account is enough. The bad news is that it's NOT! Social media marketing requires a lot of time and maintenance and it does not necessarily come easily to all of us. The social network you will choose will need to be relevant and should be consistent with your business – a restaurant, for instance, would get more traction with an Instagram account than a LinkedIn account.
Here are three simple tips to help you figure out which social network would work best for YOU:
TIP #1: CHOOSE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCORDING TO THE TIME AND AVAILABLE RESOURCES YOU HAVE.
Social media is interactive, live, and simple to use and comes in handy when you need to share exciting news or information with your audience. However and as mentioned before, they require maintenance and forethought, which can represent a great deal of time out of your working day.
Spending too much time on social media will hurt your business as it might lead to a loss in productivity particularly if you don't have someone hired especially for that job. On another hand, spending too little time would result in a failure to keep up with your audience. Tricky! The truth is if you decide to adopt social media, it will then represent a real aspect of your marketing strategy.
To make it work, you can't post too much, too little or irrelevant content: it is all about balance. A post a day at about the same time should be the minimum to keep your audience interested.
TIP #3: DON'T GIVE UP!
Social media at times can fail and stagnate for a while, but the one beautiful thing about it is that overnight you can create instant buzz! Why? Trends. So stick with the networks you have chosen and make them work for you! Businesses usually struggle with social media because they don't know how to adapt and don't know how they work. However, when used properly, they are a great tool to measure how your business is doing and also figure out who your clients are as much as what they are after!
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