Just because Social Media is HOT right now, doesn’t mean that you need to do anything and everything. It doesn’t mean you need to jump into the deep end without your floaties.
Where is my audience?
The first thing you should probably do, is find your audience. Your audience is your target market, the people you want to reach, or simply stated new business opportunities. Where do they spend time online, what sort of content would they find valuable, what keywords are THEY searching for? The answer to these questions will vary by industry. The legal profession will see far less activity on Foursquare than a restaurant would. A musician will likely get a better shot at reaching their audience on MySpace or Facebook than on LinkedIn. As in real estate the key is location, location, location; it’s important to know where to focus your efforts.
Understand the community
The next thing you should do, once you’ve established where you are going to participate, is understand the community you are joining. This will help you plan accordingly and set your expectations for results.
Look at some statistics about the site to give you a general idea of how people use it. Only about 8% of America is on Twitter, and of that group 90% of the activity is from 22.5% of the users. On an average day, only 2% of Americans use Twitter. This is not to discourage you from using Twitter. I love Twitter and think everyone should join and use it in whatever way that works for them, however, understanding its actual usage should help to set your expectations.
Twitter is a network based around interests and a public dialogue. This is unique from Facebook which grew as a network based on personal connection; old college friends, co-workers and others pre-existing relationships.
Here’s some more info on Twitter:
Compare those stats with Facebook and you’ll see why it’s important to understand the site you are joining. Nearly half of all Americans (42.3%) are on Facebook and that number is likely to keep growing. Globally, Facebook has over 500 million users. That means that if it were a country it’d officially be the 3rd largest in the world. Additionally, Facebook recently surpassed Google as the #1 destination on that web, as determined by time-on-site. As of January 2010 Americans were spending more than 7 hours per month on Facebook.
So what’s the point?
The point is, not all Social Media is created equally and “that’s what makes the world go ’round.” Before you let your boss tell you we need a _____ account. Do your homework and determine if your audience is actually there, or if you have the resources to handle the newest addition to the marketing family. It might boggle your mind to know that Facebook users and Twitter users have different thresholds for volume of content because it’s baked into the format of the technology.
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogs are the BIG five of Social Media and its a great place to start, but those sites are not the beginning and end of Social Media. In some cases it may be smarter for you to join a niche social network. Maybe you are a CEO looking to get started in social networking and you want to converse with your peers. Twitter might be a good start but think about finding a private Ning network or you could even join CEO Intronet.
My point is that you should do your homework or get a tutor. Social Media participation does not equate social media success, especially if you are playing in the wrong network.