By now, most businesses know that although most of social media marketing may be free, there is still a cost associated with it. That cost being the valuable time of the employees in your company or even a pricier resource: your time.
When the social media craze for businesses first took off, the decision about where to spend your time was easy. It was Facebook and Twitter.
The online landscape is different now and even though those two famous social media sites are still very effective, the question now becomes this. With all of the social media sites that are now available, where can I get the most impact for time spent? The answer to that is part of that time should be put into research and strategy.
If you are selling cupcakes out of a retail location, then LinkedIn may not be the most effective solution since it is mainly a B2B networking site. Now if your company is a consulting firm in the field of engineering, this may be a good place for your business to spend time. Each social media site has their own unique appeal and often has crossover which is why a strategy will often include multiple social media outlets.
If you didn’t know that Ravelry.com was an online community dedicated to people who knit, you may spend a lot of time promoting to an audience that joined because they are all interested in yarn. On the other hand, they have a membership of over 4 million and this may be a great place to promote your fabric store. And just because that site is a perfect match for your industry does not mean you shouldn’t utilize other social media sites. It just means you need to spend time doing research before jumping in.
