Finding the Right Social Network for You

Finding the Right Social Network
for You

Deciding where to focus your social media energy can be a confusing process, as time is short and resources are limited. It's easy to get distracted by the buzz and articles touting the next big thing that brands "must do." As with any marketing channel, though, the more thought and strategy you put into your implementation plans, the greater your chance of success. You can avoid being overwhelmed by stepping back and starting with your own business objectives, product offerings, and target consumers.

What are the different types of social channels?

Not all social media sites and platforms are created equal, and each social channel won't always work the same way in helping users reach their goals. In looking across the online environment, it helps to organize your social options into categories. By looking at groups of channels with common themes, it is easier to frame your decisions about when, where, who, and how best to engage with your community online.

The easiest way to break up the categories is to think of them as owned, rented, and occupied. Here's how each of those categories breaks down:

Owned properties

Owned properties may include blogs, forums, or homegrown social networks, and they can be internal or external. The main difference with this category is that you literally own the channel rather than occupying a page on a platform that is owned by someone else. It may be on your primary site or on another domain, but it is fully under your control.

Rented properties

Much like renting an apartment, a user occupies a portion of a channel with the permission of the owner. Sometimes there is a cost involved, but in the world of social media, that doesn't happen often. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr fall into this category. Facebook owns its site, and you're simply managing a presence on it. You may have official claim to the page, but you have no claim to the platform itself or a say in how it may change.

Occupied properties

This category is the most removed from your control. Your company might have an official representative who interacts and engages in an occupied property, but there is no ownership of any kind, and these channels can be changed at any time. Reddit is probably the most popular example. Employees of a company will frequently participate in forums or community sites in either an official or unofficial capacity, but always on behalf of the company.

Consumer conversations take place across all three of these social channel categories, but before you dive into any of them, it's important to take some time and think through your channel management plans and participation strategies. For example, smaller brands with limited resources might select one site based on the high mileage they can get from their consumer base before needing to branch out into multiple channels. As a representative of your brand, you have the opportunity to add unique perspective and value to whatever channel will work best for your organization.

Which network should I sign up for first?

There is no one answer to this question. For each and every business, this question will be answered differently. A good first step for any organization is to visit KnowEm.com. This site allows you to register your brand name across more than 500 social networks. This will help to ensure that your name will be registered where you need it to be, regardless of which platform you end up deciding is right for your brand. And for those that you may not need to use right away, your brand name remains protected from squatters. Consequently, Knowem also has one of the most comprehensive lists of all of the social networks on the web, so it is also a good place to look for networks beyond the obvious Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.

That said, it's a pretty safe bet to say that nearly everyone should have a Facebook page. With over 1.19 billion active monthly users (as of Sep. 2013), it’s quite likely you will find a healthy number of your customers here. You may find the same thing in Twitter.

Another tool to help you narrow down the "where" of your social strategy is to go on a bit of a listening journey. Use one of the many social listening tools to find out where your customers and greater industry are having relevant conversations. This insight should help uncover where it makes the most sense to set up your presence.

Single vs. multiple accounts

Whether or not to attempt multiple accounts on one social network is a big question. The answer: It depends. Some large companies, like Nordstrom, have a corporate Twitter account, while many of their stores have their own accounts. This allows them to communicate rather specific and relevant information to regional followers, while maintaining their corporate account for overarching news, promotions, and announcements. Other companies have found it helpful to segment their accounts by product, such as Google, GoogleAPIs, Blogger, and so on. In this case, it makes sense based on their offerings to divide the conversations up by audience and product rather than geography. Nike, Comcast, and Delta Airlines are good examples of brands that have successfully implemented multiple accounts for multiple purposes.

The most important thing to consider when deciding if it makes sense to segment your profiles on these networks is whether or not you're better able to add value to the customer and the conversation. Are you better able to address your customer needs on one account, or are there regional considerations that may make that more difficult?

Additionally, you should carefully consider your ability to manage multiple accounts. Tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and SocialEngage make it easier than ever to manage multiple accounts from one dashboard, but remember—there's nothing sadder than an abandoned social account. It doesn't send a good message about your brand and its ability to follow through.

How to get started

First things first.
Ask yourself a few questions:

·         What behavior am I trying to drive, and to what business end?

·         Of the social channels out there, which types lend themselves to the specific products and/or services I offer?

·         Who are my target customers, and what do I know about their online behavior?

Identifying your own goals will help you decide which type of social media channel makes the most sense for your efforts, and clarifying the desired behavior of your community members will help define how you go about engaging with them. For example, are you trying to increase brand awareness? If so, consider marketing activities that include the collection and sharing of customer testimonials, highly-shareable content, and buzz-worthy interactions. Are you shooting for increased traffic and conversions? Look for opportunities to engage with relevant, interested customers who are ready to pull the "buy" trigger. The point is to match your engagement efforts with the outcomes you want to see.

Let's look at an example. Imagine you're running a growing beauty products company with large national and global aspirations. Here's a step-by-step roadmap to choosing the right social platform for that business:

Don’t limit your thinking to vertical. Go horizontal too.

Sure, your customers are interested in your products' niche, but what about their other interests and topics—the ones indirectly aligned to your niche? For example, say you’re a retailer of sailing boats and gear. There are surely some amazing sailing-related communities that make perfect sense for you to approach, but there’s a high likelihood that your customers also have a strong degree of interest in travel, other outdoor activities, and perhaps even food and wine. Think about how can you participate in those horizontal communities, and say hello to a vastly expanded audience!

Focus on what is most important to your community rather than what is most popular

Once you get going in social, it's easy to get distracted. There are new apps, tools, and networks that pop up on an almost-daily basis, and you could easily spend your entire day just checking them all out. The idea, though, is to strike a balance between tools-obsessed marketing and being an ostrich with its head in the sand. It's better to do fewer things effectively than many things ineffectively. But you should also keep your eyes and ears open for the up-and-coming social trends; there will be a time when it makes sense for you to jump in. Here are some things to consider:

·         Look for platform functionalities that work with your product offering or market space. For example, clothing retailers are well positioned for the image sharing social networks that have become popular, like Instagram and Pinterest.

·         Emerging technologies and/or functionality that allow you to communicate and share with your community in new ways.

·         Additionally, keep an eye out for technologies and sites that have the potential to reach new demographics that fall within your target audience or their influencers.

When all else fails, keep your eye on your goals, but don’t be afraid to dip your toes in the water and test, test, test. Invest enough energy so you can get a meaningful response, and use this as your guiding light on whether or not you should go deeper.

As new networks emerge, how do you launch a new presence?

In social media, there are certain truths and norms. Once you've applied those to your business in launching a presence on one network, you will quickly see that they are portable across nearly all other networks. The rules of engagement may differ slightly from site to site, as will the semantics, perhaps, but the fundamentals will remain unchanged regardless of the platform and are always the best place to start when branching out.

Goals and measurement: Determining your new channel's goals should be something you think about from the very beginning. Why are you engaging on this new channel? What are you trying to get out of it? After you have identified your goals, you have to decide how to measure your success. For emerging platforms, this may take a while, depending on what analytics tools are available in the marketplace and how the platform’s API is set up. (You could always build your own if it’s open enough and you have the resources.)

Branding: Your social authority is vital, and effective branding can go a long way to establishing your authority as a brand. Social channels also provide you with exciting possibilities to express your brand and increase brand impressions. Make sure your avatars are on point and your bios are dialed in, and make your first impression count!

Content seeding: There is nothing quite as sad as visiting the page of a social profile you’re interested in and finding absolutely nothing there. Before you start following people or actively directing traffic to your new profile, make sure you post some content over the course of several days. This helps reassure visitors that there is something there worth following.

Influencer connection: After you get your branding t's crossed and your content i’s dotted, it’s time to start looking for people with whom you can engage. Start by seeking out those individuals you’ve identified as influencers from other platforms. You have likely already established a relationship with them, and relationships are portable across platforms. Leverage that. As you interact with them, seek out more individuals who are relevant to your space in their followers. Before long, you should have the basis for a nice little network.

Discovery: Once you have established that this new network is a place where you plan on investing time and energy, add links from relevant places to help your customers discover your new presence. Write up content about what you’re doing that is interesting, and highlight it on your blog. Cross-post from your other social channels to drive awareness.

Content calendar/publishing: As with all of the other channels you have established, it’s important to keep a content or publishing calendar. You can do some content scheduling through available tools like HootSuite, Spout Social, and SocialEngage. When planning a content calendar, you can be as sophisticated as having a plug-in baked right into your content management system or as simple as using an Excel spreadsheet. It's really about whatever works for you, and planning ahead helps to ensure you’re fully optimizing events, promotions, and interests relevant to your audience.

When you're ready to get started, there can be so much to do that it seems overwhelming. The great thing about social, though, is that once you get the basics settled, most of them are transferable to whatever new site comes along that you want to try. These best practices will help you set yourself up for success in social regardless of your size or what the platform is.