As part of your marketing strategy, social media marketing is critical to promote your brand. It enables you to reach your customers - even when they're not expecting it - and allows your brand to play a role in their daily lives.
This can feel like an overwhelming burden for many business owners, many of whom are fearful of doing it wrong or missing out. They rush to create Twitter handles, set up Facebook pages, join LinkedIn - all in an effort to say, "look, we're on social media!"
You don't have to be on every social media platform, but you do need to be on the right ones.
Social media is ever-changing and always evolving. There will always be new ones that start, get hot, then fizzle out as the market changes and they fall out of favor. So how do you know where your effort (and money) should go?
Start by defining who your audience is, and then deciding if a particular platform helps you communicate with that group of people.
It's more important to use social media effectively then it is to be on every platform that emerges. Use the ones that are right for you.
Concentrate on the social media platforms where your customer's attention is - and then produce valuable content. It's a much more effective strategy for three reasons: