Online marketing is a crucial part of growing your business, but how do you choose the right social media platforms for your brand? You don’t need to be on every platform, and deciding which ones make the most sense for your brand requires research. We’ve put together the steps to help you choose social media platforms for your brand!
Determine Your Target Audience
The first step to choosing the right social media platforms for your brand is to determine your target audience. Create a customer profile to help you determine where the ideal individual hangs out on online and the type of content they respond best to.
To start, ask yourself these 6 questions about your ideal customer by analyzing data from your current shoppers:
- What is their age range?
- Gender?
- What is their income?
- Education level?
- What are their interests and hobbies
- What other brands do they support?
Define Your Social Media Goals
Now that you’ve defined your target audience, it’s time to establish your social media goals. While the end goal may be to drive sales, there are other social media goals you should consider as well – such as brand awareness, reputation management, engagement, etc.
We suggest conducting an audit of your business to identify marketing goals you need to hit – similar to our Brand Strategy & Roadmap. Are you looking to grow your brand’s followers online? Increase traffic to your website? Create brand advocates? By defining your social media goals, you will be able to narrow down which platforms are best for you.
Locate Where Your Audience Hangs Out
Once you’ve determined your target audience and social media goals, it’s time to locate where your audience lives. Looking to serve other businesses? LinkedIn is the place to be. Is your product or service meant for homeowners? Your competitors are most likely on Houzz and Pinterest. Are you an author or thought leader? There’s a big following for your industry on Twitter. Do you sell a visually appealing product or service? Don’t pass up the chance to show off your photos on Instagram. Do you cater to an older demographic? The main platform they frequent is Facebook. These are the questions you want to ask yourself, and then select your platforms based on where your audience already is.
By determining who your target audience is, what your social media goals are and where your audience visits, you’re saving yourself time and money in the long run. This preliminary research allows you to focus your efforts on the platforms that are relevant to your brand and allow for the best return on your investment. We hope you found this blog informative and now have clarity on where to start.
Ready to execute an official brand and platform audit? We’d love to chat.