Defining a marketing strategy for your new or up and coming business is a very important task. Most new business owners and Entrepreneurs struggle with deciding on how to start connecting with their audiences through marketing and branding. Between branding, websites, email, social media, print, search, there are so many different marketing channels to choose from in and of itself. Let’s suppose you decided on Social Media. You might now be asking yourself, what’s next? How do I know what is going to really work for me? If you are saying to yourself, yes, I have thought about that, let me offer you some thoughts to consider.
Who is your target audience? Often, Entrepreneurs start with what they believe is the most efficient social channel to connect with their audiences. Here’s a little secret: You can use some high-level deduction to start your social media analysis process. As an example, in general, Millennials are leaning toward spending more time in interactive, video based newer social channels. You might see a lot of this demographic on TikTok or Snap Chat. Some people in this demographic are also toying with Twitter as one of their social channels of choice. Thinking about the age of your target audience and what might be most appealing to them is one way to start planning your social media strategy.
Start thinking about where your competitors are living. It is likely that your competitors have already done the research to determine what channels work best for them and subsequently, your ideal target audience. As you research your competitors, take it a step further. By that I mean, analyze what type of engagement they are getting in their social channel of choice. Ask yourself, are people responding to their content. Are their fans sharing that content with their networks? Are they growing in fans? There are so many avenues that you want to explore before you just decide to replicate what your competitors are doing. The data will give you insight as to how the audience is responding to what your competitors are doing which is largely what you want to get intel on before deciding if that is the right strategy for you too to participate in.
What is your product? Really understanding your product, how it functions and what will sell it best is a great way to market yourself socially. If your product is something that is visually engaging, you might want to consider a social platform that is highly photo or video based like Tik Tok, Instagram or even Pinterest. If your product does fall into that subset, you can also probably assume that this product is not as well suited for Twitter. With Twitter, you not only have a limited number of characters to be able describe your visual product, but you won’t have the same effect if people cannot see it, touch it and experience it through their own eyes. If your product is a service, perhaps you can use Twitter or Yelp to market as they are not highly visual platforms and people utilize social channels like these to get information on services.
As a small business or Entrepreneur who is connecting with other small businesses or entrepreneurs, you might want to be more specific about where you post content and how you engage audiences. LinkedIn is a great social media channel for this audience. LinkedIn is a professional connection and social site. You will find many small business owners and Entrepreneurs on LinkedIn and connecting with like minded professionals through their page as well. As a result, people who typically use LinkedIn are usually looking to connect with other professionals or are looking for other professionals to connect with them.
Did you find this blog helpful? Are you looking to start your social strategy and just do not know where to begin? We can help. Email us at [email protected]. We cannot wait to hear from you. Let’s create something amazing together!
