Which social media platform would you choose before all others?

[Russ in Vancouver]

Hi,

I have never really given a 100% true effort to market my websites with any of the social media platforms out there.

Based on your experience and the all important time vs results ratios, which one would you suggest to try 1st.

Please choose a platform in the poll and then reply with the reasons why you chose it.

Thanks for your input and help in advance

[Patrysha]

depends, depends, depends...it's not a straight time vs. results ratio...there's also whether the target market is engaged and at what level for the geographic reason or psycho-graphic (or both if that happens to apply)...and then there's whether you engage at the right levels with the right message at the right times for what you intend to accomplish...

[greenoak]

faCEBOOK, FOR ME....BUT IM LOCAL AND my 1400 fans have mostly actually spent money with me...or are friends of folks who have been to the store...
im in a small town in the midwest and i dont know of any person that twitters.....
it really depends on so much...if you are trying for national i think you are in an ocean of other web service people....i know of 20 or 30 from just being on here and a couple of other places....
my idea for a really useful web person is to get deeply educated into some field you are interested in...truckers, hairdressers, ranchers, dance halls. and get up to date on their issues . words, colors, target audience, calendars.....then you would have something special to offer..you could present something that really appealed to the buyer..... .otherwise you might think your ideas work for everybody....and they might , but to a really middle of the road extent....
for instance i would love to hire the folks who built a couple of fabulous websites...peacock park and magnolia pearl..... they GOT IT GOING... in their fields...they picked everything right for their audience...a generic web person just couldnt come up with all that understanding overnight...they probably couldnt even see what was special...like i couldnt see if a dance music website was using the right songs and images.......
just saying, why not be kind of a specialist?
i think small businesses are a big field ...and many of them/us arent very computer savvy and need someone...

[KristineS]

I'm torn between Facebook and Twitter. I went with Facebook in the poll because it does allow for longer messages, but I use Twitter quite often as well and have found it to be very useful for our company.

I think the big thing on any social media site is being aware that it's about community and not about constantly promoting yourself. It also pays to be strategic about who you friend or follow. If you put some thought into that, you can build a targeted list of people who are interested in what you have to say and motivated to act.

[vangogh]

I voted for Twitter since I use it most often of the choices, but it really depends. I don't think there's one social site that you have to choose above others. It's more that each is its own channel for communication. Each is a way to potentially reach lots of people. Where business is concerned it depends on where the potential customers for that site are more likely to spend their time.

[SEO In Leeds]

Totally depends on what you are selling, where you are selling it to and what you are wanting to achieve with this strategy. Tell me more about what you do and where you are doing it.

[Russ in Vancouver]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the replies.
It seems that this social marketing is a very dynamic beast. Many different platforms just like tools in the toolbox and a good social marketer will know what tool to use for each specific task. The learning curve for me seems big and wide.

I have a handful of products and services to market at this moment.


Marketing services via 247 Lead Pros
Tradeshow signs and displays
Pvc and Pwc outdoor furniture and decks
LED lighting for interior and exterior. Residential and Commercial
Real Estate to locals in Vancouver and to overseas buyers


I am thinking I would have to have several different accounts or have the client create and give me access.

[tylerhutchinson]

Depends on your marketing. If you market to kids I would say Myspace as they have a young base (under 15). General public I would say Facebook or Twitter. Business to business I would say Linkden. I would also say that you would want to watch your site trends. For example Myspace is losing membership where Facebook and Twitter are still growing in membership.

[vangogh]

I had thought MySpace was picking up again after their last redesign. I just did a couple of quick searches. Their traffic graph on Alexa is trending downward, but not a lot and they still show as #79. Granted it's Alexa data so take it for what it's worth.

I also searched MySpace on Google Trends. Somewhere in 2007 MySpace peaked as a search term and it's been going down ever since. Searches are close to nonexistent now, though perhaps some of that is due to people knowing the site and not needing to search for it anymore.

If your industry is music I think I might still target MySpace.

[KristineS]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the replies.
It seems that this social marketing is a very dynamic beast. Many different platforms just like tools in the toolbox and a good social marketer will know what tool to use for each specific task. The learning curve for me seems big and wide.

I have a handful of products and services to market at this moment.


Marketing services via 247 Lead Pros
Tradeshow signs and displays
Pvc and Pwc outdoor furniture and decks
LED lighting for interior and exterior. Residential and Commercial
Real Estate to locals in Vancouver and to overseas buyers


I am thinking I would have to have several different accounts or have the client create and give me access.

Different accounts would probably be the way to go here. You'd need to target different customers for most of the items you listed. One account would be too scattered and I think your message would suffer. I would think having the client create the account would be the better idea because they could then add pertinent details about life at the company that you might not know.