The Right Social Media Channel For Your Business

Facebook now has over 800 million active network members, but does this mean you must be on it?

Watch TV adverts closely and it's hard not to notice big names asking us to find them on Facebook.  If they're doing this it must work...right?

Smaller businesses have limited marketing budgets and even more limited marketing resources.  It's therefore important to think carefully before taking resource sapping steps into the world of the social networks.  Where should you put your effort?  Make no mistake, you have to do something because social networks are simply getting bigger.  There's a generation of your prospective customers who will expect to find you on at least one social network!

We, like you, have limited time.  We can't be spending it socialising, unless we're doing it for client's.  We therefore have to decide where we should be seen.  You'll see evidence of our focus on our site.

Fortunately it's pretty easy to narrow down the networks you should be considering.  It wasn't so easy when it wasn't so obvious who was winning the social networking battle.  Remember Friends Reunited?  It's still going but its market share has plummeted, largely thanks to Facebook.

What we now have are 6 major social networking services and 1 business network, Linkedin.

Of the 6 social networks the clear leader in volume is Facebook, then comes Youtube, then Twitter, followed by Google+, Tumblr and Digg.  Unless you find it hard to sleep you would struggle to play any meaningful part in all these, and we shouldn't forget Linkedin.  It follows that you will need to decide where best to invest time.

I recently tweeted a link to a really useful summary of the top 6 social networks.  If you didn't follow my tweet then I recommend you take a look at Flowtown's Social Media Cheat Sheet   It doesn't cover Linkedin so I'll cover it off here in a similar style to Flowton.

Linkedin is very squarely a business networking site.  A very high percentage of senior executives use Linkedin, actively.  It follows that if you want to get introductions then Linkedin is a pretty good place to hang out.  In Linkedin you Connect with people you know or meet and in turn these connections allow you to see the connections of those who agree to connect with you, or when you agree to connect with them.

Don't be initimidated by Linkedin asking you for your qualifications or where you went to school or university.  You are who you are and if you have something of value to someone else shout about it.

Be bold and start getting involved.