Which social network is best for my business?

Which social network is best for me and my business? This is a question that many people ask. And there are now heaps of channels and social media platforms a business can get set up on for free, some are more popular than others. Each social network has it's advantages and of course some have disadvantages. It has to be said that you don't necessarily have to be active on all of the networks otherwise you may find you will be spreading yourself too thin. However it is a good idea to create your profile or username on as many as possible so to secure it. However it is important that with the social networks you do choose, that you are consistent and you are updating them regularly with quality information and with the intention of being sociable and engaging with your audience.

Let's look at some of the more popular networks. Lets cover just a few: • Facebook • Twitter • Google+ • Tumblr • LinkedIn • Instagram • Pinterest And this is before you’ve even covered some of the ‘less obvious’ social networks, or the networks that skirt the borders of how we define social media. These include: Reddit Snapchat Periscope Forums YouTube Vine

Yes! There are heaps to choose from. So where should you as a coach or business begin? As I mentioned, you should at least secure your handle or username on each network. To be consistently engaged on all networks would be a hard slog and each network is more suited to different age groups and audiences. Therefore the best course of action is to define your social media goals and try to understand who your audience is and what they want - where they hang out, is it a numbers game? Are you looking for quick results? If this is the case then Facebook and Twitter are huge social networks where you have the ability to gain traction fast, especially through the Facebook ads application. Sadly! It's not all about numbers! It's about targeted numbers, in short it's about getting to as many of the people who are more likely to buy from you as possible. You'll also want to think about the right time to reach your target audience and what langauge and content you'll use to reel them in. That's why defining your target audience is so important. Let's take Pinterest for example: Pinterest has the largest female population of all social networks, it also lends itself to creative and visual topics. If you have a food blog or a fashion shop then Pinterest could work really well for you. If you target businesses or are B2B Pinterest may not be the very best platform for your brands time. However Linkedin and Twitter could be perfect for this.

In a nutshell to decide which social networks are right for you to focus on you'll need to ask yourself these 3 questions and work it out from there.

• Who is my target customer?
• Where does my target customer hang out?
• What content does my target customer enjoy?

Remember when it come to marketing there is no silver bullet. - Sometimes you'll need a little trial and error before you work out which is best for you and trial and error is not a waste of time.... it's a learning curve

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