How To Choose The Right Social Media Platform to Start On

GETTING STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BUSINESS:
How To Choose The Right Social Media Platform to Start On
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Many business owners come to me and say “I know I should be using social media to market my business, but…” the list of “buts” vary from
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I already do not have enough time in the day, without taking on anything additional
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I just don’t get social media. Who cares where you are having coffee?
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I have no clue how to even begin using social media
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there are so many different choices. What is the best way to start?
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I have no idea which platform is the best to start with… is it Facebook? Twitter?...
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I use Facebook™ with my friends, but for business??
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I just don’t want to. I am not comfortable
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then competitors will see who my customers are and steal them
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​I usually respond saying something like “are you kidding? Of course you need to have a business presence on social media and use social media to market your business. Not using social media to market your business is equivalent to someone offering you a free Super Bowl Commercial, and you turning it down.”

Then the person talking to me usually gets this look of panic on their face. Oh, well, I certainly would never turn down a free super bowl commercial, but I have no clue how to use social media to grow my business and it all seems so daunting to me. And, I cannot afford to spend tons of money to pay some marketing company to do this for me. Then the panic look is replaced by a look of hopelessness.
So, I am here today to make getting started simpler.
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FIRST RULE:
CHOOSE ONE PLATFORM TO GET STARTED WITH.
When you have the first platform managed, rolling along smoothly, and the process is easy for you, then go on to the next one. One of the comments I hate to hear is, “Oh yes. I use social media. I have a Facebook business page, a LinkedIn business page, I am on Pinterest, I am on Twitter”... My response is usually, -- Great what are you doing with them.. “Oh. Not much…
In my opinion, this is worse than not having a presence at all. It’s like putting a sign out that says Coming Soon, Great New Store. People get excited… they wait, and they wait…… and they wait….. and when nothing happens, they just move on. After a while, they do not even notice the sign is there.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT STARTING PLATFORM:
SECOND RULE:
IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU: WHERE DO YOUR CUSTOMERS HANG OUT?
Using social media for business is not about you. The purpose of using social media for business is to increase your business online visibility by attracting the attention of your potential customers. So in picking the right social media platform it is very important that you get into the head or your customers.
You must know who your customers are. And do not tell me it is everyone, because it isn’t. You have several unique customers and each have a distinct set of characteristics. Your unique customers might be a mom, a student, a businessman or business-owner, a hobbyist, etc. And each of these distinct customers have a unique fit for your product/service, and they also have a unique best fit for social media platform based upon their lifestyles.
So in choosing the first social media platform for promoting your business, target one of your customers, and which social media platform that particular customer uses most frequently.
Additional factors to consider when choosing your first platform are:
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What kind of communication do you prefer?
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What are your resources?
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Who’s going to do the work?
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What is your goal?
THIRD RULE:
ANALYZE AND TRACK EVERYTHING.
It is important to track what people react to and what post topics are the most popular. And then, do more of what is working, of course!

FOURTH RULE: TAKE ACTION
Take action. Stop making excuses and go for it. Do not wait for your website to be perfect, your products next release, or until your mother-in-law leaves. Just get started right now. You will get better with time. Just get started and watch results, and adjust. Confidence comes with practice. This is the first in a series of articles on Getting Started with Social Media. Stay tuned for following articles on characteristics of each platform, how to get started using each platform, and what exactly should you do to drive traffic to you and your website and business.
Click Here to Read Getting Started with Social Media Part 2: 7 Steps To Drive Leads
Click Here to Read Getting Started with Social Media Part 3: Sales Campaigns
Click Here to Read Social Media For Business : Golden Rules
If you have questions, let me know.
Tags: social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Filed under: Social media, online visibility
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