Choosing a Social Network to Market Your Business - Deluxe #SoulcialMe

Facebook. Twitter. Google+. LinkedIn. Pinterest.

With so many social networks to choose from, you may not have the time or budget to take advantage of all of them to market your business. So, which ones deliver the most bang for your online marketing buck? Let's consider each one.

Is Facebook right for you?

If you could market to only one social network, it should be Facebook. With about 850 million monthly users, it includes just about any demographic you want to reach — young and old, male and female, rich and not-so-rich, educated and not. Whether you’re marketing to grandparents or soccer moms, rising young executives or Generations X, Y or Z, chances are they’re on Facebook.

In addition to the all-encompassing audience, Facebook users are quite engaged. They spend more time on Facebook (6 hours, 34 minutes per month) than users on any other social networking site; for example, Twitter users spend 24 minutes per month with that service. So, you’re likelier to get more participation from customers you meet on Facebook, which makes for a more loyal and profitable customer base.

It doesn’t matter what kind of product or service you offer, you’re likely to find current and potential customers on Facebook. About the only type of business that might have second thoughts about making Facebook the centerpiece of a social networking strategy is a B2B company; while some business buyers might be on Facebook, at least on a personal level, it’s not where businesses typically turn when seeking new vendors. For all other companies, it’s hard to go wrong with Facebook.

Is Google+ right for you?

Let’s compare Facebook with Google+. In contrast to Facebook’s 850 million, Google+ only has about 62 million. Google+ users are not nearly as active, spending only about five minutes per month on the site.

Facebook is like a thriving big city, full of people and events. Google+ is like a well-engineered suburb with planned housing and retail developments but no one living there.

That said, certain consumers have embraced Google+ — namely, the tech elite. If your business sells to cutting-edge, early adapters in the tech business, you can reach them via Google+. For reaching other customers, however, Google+ is highly inefficient.

On the plus side, Google+ can improve your company’s ranking in Google’s search results. This is a controversial benefit of using Google+ — many businesses and consumers are railing against Google for “polluting” its previously pure, organic results. While I wouldn’t recommend marketing on Google+ just for the search benefit, it’s something worth considering if you’re on the fence.

Is Twitter right for you?

Twitter certainly gets a lot of publicity; you can’t turn on a late-night TV show without some celebrity blurting his or her Twitter address. That doesn’t make Twitter a great marketing vehicle.

Yet, most companies feel they need a Twitter presence even though Twitter’s audience of 100 million active users pales in comparison to Facebook’s, and users spends just 24 minutes per month on it. (To put that in perspective, Pinterest users spend more than three times as much time on that site.)

Demographically, Twitter skews young, with 62 percent of users under age 35. Not surprisingly, college students account for 48 percent of Twitter’s user base. So, Twitter is great for reaching a younger audience but may be less useful for communicating with older customers.

Is LinkedIn right for you?

LinkedIn targets business professionals, making it a polar opposite of Twitter demographically.

LinkedIn’s user base is comparable to Twitter's at about 150 million, but the makeup is much different. It’s more affluent, with 68 percent earning more than $60,000 a year and 39 percent making more than $100,000. It's also older, with 70 percent at age 35 or above.

Given these numbers, it’s not surprising that LinkedIn is a great resource for B2B marketers. According to an Outsell survey, 45 percent of respondents found LinkedIn effective for B2B marketing. (Fifty-one percent said Facebook was effective for B2B.). The business buyers you want to reach are probably on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is less effective for business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers. Yes, you can find people there, but they’re not there to get product or service pitches; they’re there to network with other businesspeople. B2C companies can get better results elsewhere.

Is Pinterest right for you?

This visual social network, which is relatively new, lets users “pin” photos and other images to virtual pinboards and share those pins with online friends. It’s not huge, at least not yet, with just 7.5 million users at the end of 2011. (But that’s up from a half-million users just six months earlier, so it's growing.) And what Pinterest gives up in audience, it makes up for in engagement; Pinterest users spend 88 minutes per month on the site, more than Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter combined.

What makes Pinterest really interesting, at least for certain types of business, is its audience's demographic makeup. Pinterest users are primarily female (58 percent), between the ages of 24 and 44 (59 percent), and they typically make between $30,000 and $100,000. If you sell to, young to middle-aged women, Pinterest might be an  attractive alternative to other social networks.

The bottom line

Which social networks, then, should your business target? Here are some recommendations:

• If you sell consumer goods, Facebook should probably be your first choice. (In fact, given its size and participation, Facebook is a good choice for all types of business.)
• If you target a more cutting-edge, technical audience, consider Google+.
• If you sell to college students or anyone else under 35, Twitter can be effective.
• If you’re a B2B company, LinkedIn can be especially effective.
• If you sell to educated women with moderate to high incomes, Pinterest has promise.

via deluxeforbusiness.com