Pick your social media playground and dominate it!
Since the addition of social media to the brand marketing and customer engagement tools, I’ve stuck with my mantra:
Pick one and dominate it!
So what are your choices? And what are the best practices for businesses using them?
Google+ is the social network with the most moving parts AND the biggest SEO boosting potential. Why? Because Google runs the most used search engine that connects to your website, making it and its different connecting sites the #1 traffic driver to your website. One login gains you
- Gmail and Google Calendar
- Google+ profile
- Google+ page(s)
- Google Places (and reviews)
- Google AdWords (pay-per-click)
- YouTube Channel
- Snapshots
- Picaso Web Albums – photo sharing
- Blogger – blog site
It’s important to know what all Google controls because using and connecting all of these can make your efforts more effective. Check out Google+ Business and Google+ for Brands for ways your business can maximize your time and marketing budget.
Facebook is the social network with the most users aged 18 – 60, and these people are looking for quick, newsy information, not sales and specials. They want to be a close, active community with each other, not just with you. So if engagement – Likes and Comments – is your objective, this might be your top pick. Facebook also owns a number of other connected sites you can use to increase and improve engagement:
- Facebook – social networking
- Instagram – photo sharing
- WhatsApp – SMS and messaging app
- Oculus VR – gaming
- Moves – fitness tracking app (imaging helping your staff track their calories burned each day!)
Check out Facebook for Business for ways your business can maximize your time and marketing budget.
Twitter is the social network used by consumers who expect and create frequent, short, single-idea posts; the dominant user on Twitter is the 25-54-year-old woman with an income of $25,000 – $49,000/year. Twitter users are highly social and usually easy to engage, though the time frame for engagement is about 30 minutes; that is, once a post is about 30 minutes old, it’s past history and not likely to be found, favorited, or retweeted.
Check out Twitter for Business for ways your business can maximize your time and marketing budget.
Target Marketing in Targeted Social Networks
These three are and are expected to remain the social network leaders in the foreseable future, but for some serious target marketing campaigns, check into the types of users who prefer other social networks like
- Reddit – “press conference” like bulletin board site used primarily by 25-34-year-old males
- StumbleUpon – discovery engine with paid advertising opportunities, used primarily by 18-34-year-old women
- Tumblr – discovery engine used primarily by 18-34-year-old women
- LinkedIn – great network if you’re looking to barter with local businesses to reduce your costs and to expand your service market, used primarily by 35-54-year-old professionals
Derek Christian is the owner of My Maid Service with locations in Cincinnati, OH and Dallas, TX, as well as a business coach through Cleaning Business Builders and publisher of CleaningBusinessToday.com. Derek is now an investor in several cleaning companies including My Maid Service Dayton and Real World Services Columbus. Derek is also a consultant for industry leaders Blue Skies Services and Castle Keepers.
