How To Determine What Social Media Platforms To Utilize?
By Shannan DuShane
9/27/2012Every social media platform has a different function and purpose, I have the question asked continually, “how do I determine what social media platforms I need to use, and which ones will benefit my company?” My answer is….none and you are on the wrong track, the social media platforms should benefit your company yes, but in the larger light you should be utilizing social media platforms in the interest of your customers! Your customers are the ones who use the platforms and therefore should be most important in the eye of the end user. Yes; your company needs sales and inquiries, but if you can't get your customers to engage with you there is no point of you being involved in that specific platform; now is there.
My suggestions to my clients is to
have someone evaluate, analyze and create a strategy for your industry and
business model, look at your website, current and past advertisements, PR
efforts, press releases, newsletters, ect.., and see what would be in your best
interest. Obtain feedback from your clientele and employees and monitor what
activities they are currently doing on their accounts. Check out your
competition and visualize what concepts they are taking on and their past
activity and come up with a plan. Many times your competition might be doing
something beneficial for you by having a mediocre social media presence and you
can jump up and make your presence more viable by using better tactics. You are
now ahead of the games because you can see what works and what doesn’t.
Most importantly you need to build a
base of strong and solid follower’s, you can have 10,000 followers and likes, an
outstanding page with images and content; but if you just go around and like
everyone and everyone likes you back and you don’t know many of them or engage
in professional events, activities or engage in communications with them, all
of your effort has went down the drain. You first need to build up your
community of online followers, and then engross them with great content and
information.
Finally, all social media sites are
NOT created equal. Like I mentioned in the beginning one size doesn’t fit all,
I’ve been in this industry for several years, so I’ve seen all of the different
trends and occurrences that have happened to other companies, you need to
consider all of the ups and downs, and the types of interactions that typically
happen on any given platform and the audience you are trying to target and
reach out to; which isn’t always as easy said than done. There is a lot of work
that needs to happen; and the need to have a complete strategy for each
platform you will or want to utilize set in place…why…because each has a
different purpose, different strategies you can approach and a different
audience that you can attract. You can’t or you shouldn’t use the same strategy
or tactics for every platform you use, it will not work.
My
last piece of advice for today; there are hundreds of social media networking
sites that are out there, all calling your name to sign up for their free accounts…Don’t
Do It! If you cannot commit to utilizing a specific platform daily or weekly or
if you do sign up and leave it for weeks on end and never come up with a
strategy, then just don’t do it at all. It looks bad on you if you can’t keep
up with your own platforms and engage with you clients; it just shows lack of
enthusiasm and laziness that might portray to the client about your work ethic.
Remember Don’t Work
It….Network It!
