What social media platforms should your business be on?
These days, it's hard to make a name for yourself or your business without a social media presence. But before jumping on every social platform and trend, it's important to figure out which platforms and trends fit into your career or business vision - not the other way around.
Here’s why: Many of my clients say they’re sick of being on Facebook, or they ask where to start with Instagram or Pinterest. Inevitably, they want to know whether TikTok is the place to be for business these days. These are all fair questions. But what you need to worry about more is what serves your business most.
It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with social media efforts and way too tempting to jump on a bandwagon even if you’re not sure it’s right for you. Sometimes, social media feels like such a pain and a time-suck. It doesn’t have to be.
There are two things you need to consider when it comes to using social media in your business.
Who is your audience?
Where are they looking for your message?
When it comes to social media for business, what comes first is figuring out if you need to be on a certain platform by walking through exactly who your target audience is.
Journal out everything you know about your audience. Start with demographics, the census-style stats about your people (age, gender, location, relationship status, etc.) and then the psychographics, the driving factors that propel them towards working with you, specifically. You can learn more about these concepts here.
Let’s say you’re a real estate agent marketing to people who want to buy a new house. That’s way too general if you want to figure out where to reach them!
You’ll want to think about not just who they are, but also what a day in their life looks like. Here’s some questions you can ask yourself:
What time do they wake up? What is the first thing they do after they wake up? Are they someone who rolls out of bed and gets ready right away? Do they hit snooze 10 times? Do they work out first thing in the morning?
Does this person have kids? Are they waking them up first? Making a big breakfast or just grabbing a granola bar?
Do they drink coffee? Are they stopping to get Starbucks? Or do they go to a local coffee shop instead?
Where do they work? What time do they get there? Do they procrastinate or get right on their work? Are they focused?
Do they pack their lunch or buy food? Are they buying with a chain or going local?
What are they having for dinner? What do they do after work? What do they read before bed? What do they watch?
You can go through an entire day focusing on what brands they might be attracted to, much like we did in the coffee example. Questions like these invite you into their life, from sunrise to sunset.
Once you see a day in the life, you can really start to imagine this person. Let’s say we have someone who takes public transit to work. They usually scroll through social media while on the subway. If you have a person who procrastinates a little more, they may be looking to social media as a way to avoid something. Someone who uses social media in their business or stays connected to their neighborhood may also be on certain platforms. So you have to find out which platforms they’re on, how often they’re on it, and what they’re looking for.
Here’s another big question to consider: What is the value they’re looking to get out of that platform? How can YOU harness that?
Keep in mind that not everyone is going to social media platforms because they’re looking for & finding value somewhere else. For example, if your audience is someone who goes to local restaurants, takes walks around their town, and stays connected to their community, you may be better off working with a community event because they’ll see your business that way instead of on a social media profile.
For someone who’s really dialed into their email or even print media, these are potential ways to reach clients through those means and come through with messages that may be a larger part of their everyday life than a social media platform.
If you do have an audience that’s super engaged on social media, that’s where you can think about what feels good to you. You don’t need to be on every platform. Simply discover where your audience is and pick a small number of platforms that feel best for you.
After going through this exercise, if you truly hate being on the platforms, can you contract the work to someone else? Or are you okay with getting rid of a social media profile because it just isn’t serving you?
Some platforms are here to stay while others are just a trend that won’t be around for long. My tip? Only try out trends if you have an audience that loves trying the hottest new thing. If so, get out there and see if this gets your message in front of them. All you can do is try. If it’s not serving your business, let it go to focus your efforts elsewhere.
Just remember: don’t be afraid to try something new, but take care of your business by only creating content for social media platforms that will work for your audience and for you, too.