Social Media Marketing- broad appeal or focused advertising?

When you're advertising your product via social networking sites (as many do) a good question to ask yourself is where is my time, effort, energy, and perhaps money best spent? For most, you'll be looking to the mainstay sites of Facebook, Twitter, and the like. But, is this where your product will find it's customers the fastest? Is this the place your customers will gain the most from interacting with your product? Moreover, how does one go about finding alternative social media avenues?

For me, when I'm working on a project, I spend very little time working on Facebook and Twitter. Both platforms have vast audiences of people, but finding individuals that are going to really be interested in your product takes time, and usually some effort; getting into groups, linking with other products or pages, and so on to boost your "likes" to gain more visibility. Instead, I've found that focusing on smaller, more "niche" sites based on my products' unique offerings has a vast improvement on returns when it comes to customer engagement.

Now, what this site might look like varies wildly- some common social media sites that are often overlooked are smaller forum sites, blog centers, and sometimes even YouTube channels. Taking a moment to seek out your unique audience for your unique product could make all the difference in jump-starting your product's launch and early growth. That's not to say that Facebook can be ignored, but it certainly isn't the "one stop shop" some have made it out to be over the years.

 

I think it is best to do a mix on social media sites. You don't want to only focus on your brand if you are the face behind it. You want to appeal to people and get them interested in you as well. I like to do a mix of 70/30. The 70 being business and the 30 being personal or more "casual" use.

 

I keep things separate. I get what Katie is saying but I would rather not be THAT personal on a business account. It is one thing if I am handling customer service or answering questions but everything about my home life stays off of those accounts.

 

I like to keep all my pages separate. I will have a page/tag for myself and then I will have one for my sites. I will state that I own the sites and what not but I like to keep things separate.