Let’s say you’re a new business owner. You’re all set to crush the competition in your given industry but something’s missing. You don’t have a marketing plan. You’ve heard about Social Media Marketing, but you have no idea where to begin. Never fear, in this article, we will show you how to identify your social media needs and then begin developing a strategy.
How Will You Utilize Social Media Marketing?
There are many social media platforms out there. Determining which one will best suit your needs requires an introspective look at the type of business you’re running. Are you looking to sell to consumers or other businesses?
If you’re targeting other businesses to sell to, you will want to develop a Business to Business (B2B) marketing strategy. You will want to advertise where the businesses are most likely to be online. In this case, we recommend Linked In. According to Linked In there are 630 Million business professionals on the site, and 80% of them drive business decisions. This provides a fantastic opportunity to reach decision makers in the businesses you’re targeting.
What if you’re targeting consumers? In that case, you’ll want to develop a Business to Consumer (B2C) strategy. B2C get’s a little more complicated than B2B in terms of Social Media Marketing. There are many options available that can get you in touch with consumers quickly and effectively. Determining which option will work best requires narrowing down your target audience.
Where to Start with B2C?
For example, let’s say you’re a business that caters to teens and young adults. At this point, you’d be targeting mostly individuals from Generation Z. According to mediakix.com, 85% Generation Z members will be exposed to new products on social media. Further, 45% use Instagram to get new product recommendations and 40% use Facebook. Further, they have an 8 second average attention span making Snapchat and YouTube a good place for snappy advertisements.
Facebook and Instagram both allow for free business pages, allowing you to reach this target demographic cheaply and efficiently.
What if you’re looking to reach a slightly older population such as Millennials or Generation X? These would be individuals around 25 to 55 years old. Facebook still dominates these age groups according to Business Insider with Instagram coming a close second.
At this point, you’ll want to determine further characteristics of your audience. Where are they located? What do they do? Are they parents? These characteristics won’t change which platform you target, only how you target. After that, you’re ready to start building your advertising campaigns.
For more information on digital marketing, like building a digital marketing presence or developing a brand identity, check out our blog.