Fed up of playing Hide and Seek on Social Media - Where are your customers?

Finding Your Customers On Social Media

In last year's The Apprentice the two teams were sent to Paris, and were asked to sell the Best Of British.  Both teams were offered products to sell, and had to pick the products that would sell the most and make the most profit. One of the items was a backpack which turned into a child’s booster car seat. Both team-captains wanted this item, and sent members of their team out to do research on whether there was a market for the backpack.  One team set up base in a train station, and were met with ambivalence from the public on the backpack car seat, so didn’t choose it. The team that chose the backpack went on to storm the task, winning by an amazing 20.9:1 margin. The big mistake - the losing team weren’t hanging out where their prospective customers did. If they had been at a motorway service station, or an airport, or a large toy store, people would have been biting their hands off to get at this product.  Train travellers don’t need car seats – any person who has grappled a plastic booster seat through airports or rental car book-ins while juggling kids, cases and bags would immediately see the benefits of a booster seat that a child could carry themselves on their back.

Find Your Customers on Social Media

The same principle applies to Social Media.  You could be putting out fantastic content on Twitter, but if your customers are hanging out on Facebook or Linked In then they won’t see it.  Spread your content out across all the platforms, and see where you get the most engagement. Cross promote your Linked In account on Facebook, Your Google + account on Twitter, Your Linked In account on Tumblr.

Your Social Media Message

Make sure that each platform has fresh content that isn’t seen on your other Social Media platforms and you are increasing the visibility of your message.  Every account has a different feel (try posting 12 times a day on Facebook and see how many people unlike your account; post the same amount of times on Twitter and no-one will blink an eye) and you can tailor your content to fit in with that. Put the Social into Social Media, and make sure that you know where your customers and potential customers are!