Which Social Media Channel should you use to engage your target audience

How to target your audience on Social media

How to find people on Twitter

• Search.twitter.com is a favourite. It has a wide criteria range to search on, including location (handy for local businesses).
• Also use this tool to find the key influencers in your industry and browse their follower/following lists. 
• You could find some great people to connect with there.
• Twitterrel lets you find people talking about related topics.
• Also pay attention to hashtags being used for events, you could find some great people there.

How to find people on LinkedIn

• Search for the names of those people you’ve already identified by name using LinkedIn’s search box. Also make the most of the advanced search feature.
• You can also use this search box to search for keywords that will be included in profiles. Make the most of using OR or AND in these searches to include a few keywords (OR allows you to look for any one of those terms in the profile, AND allows you to look for a number of words).
• You can also search for people using their email addresses.
• Join groups that fit your interests or industry. Once you’ve been accepted as a member, browse the member lists and find people with shared interests that you want to connect with.
• Use the Questions and Answer function to start a conversation around your key subject area. You’ll find those people interested in this subject will respond to you, after which you can connect with them.

You can’t simply choose to connect with people on LinkedIn as you can with Twitter. They need to give their approval (which I’m a fan of), so if they’re connected to you through someone you’re connected to, request to be introduced to them.

How to find people on Facebook

• Use the find people tool by popping your email address in. It finds all those people in your address book that are using Facebook.
• Search for fan pages in your subject area and browse other fans there.
• Once you’ve connected with some key influencers, browse their friends and connect with people that way.
• When using the search function, filter your results to drill down to the people you’re looking for.
• Use the search for workmates function to find people affiliated with companies.
• Keep an eye on the suggestions that pop up on your news stream.

Do you know where your customers and prospects spend time online?

Marketers have long relied on market research to determine where to spend their advertising dollars on television, radio and print advertisements.

In the last few years, research organizations have begun providing intelligence on how consumers behave on social networks.

The following article is based on new social media research studies.

These findings will help you better strategize your company’s social efforts to match your customers’ behaviours.

#1: Know Where Your Customers Spend Their Time

Three recent research studies show active Internet users spend anywhere from 16% to nearly 25% of their online time on social networks.

 Researchers found that 90% of all U.S. Internet users visited social networking sites in December 2011. Additionally, consumers are spending 1 out of every 6 online minutes on social networks (16.6%). That’s up from less than 15% at the end of 2010.

The study found Internet users spend 21.3% of their time on social networking sites

Your strategic marketing plan should include a steady dose of social media along with email and other marketing strategies that reach your target audience..

#2: Find Content That Will Resonate Deeply With Your Audience

 Given the growing numbers of consumers ages 18-34 who watch videos and engage on social networks simultaneously, it is important for marketers to become skilled at engaging in conversations about hot cultural topics seen in the entertainment industry.

Nielsen’s study revealed that owners of mobile devices are increasingly multi-tasking while watching a TV program. While the majority of people check their email, a significant 44% also visit social sites.

Key Lesson:

Your online customers are spending significant amounts of time on social networks. While the average person might only spend 15-30 minutes per day, many people spend multiple hours each week. Your strategic marketing plan should include a steady dose of social media along with email and other marketing strategies that reach your target audience.

The top two sites visited while watching TV are the social sites Facebook and YouTube. This paints an interesting picture of people watching YouTube videos while also watching a TV program. It suggests that people want to be engaged.

#3: Focus on Facebook—It’s Where Consumers Spend Most of Their Online Social Time

We’ve known Facebook is the biggest social media site in terms of monthly active users (last published as 845 million). But  studies show Facebook dominates in two other ways.

First, Facebook is the premier player among all web properties in terms of time spent—and that means engagement.

Second, when compared with other social media platforms, Facebook has achieved an even more impressive percentage of mindshare. Facebook captures 14.6% of Internet users’ time compared to a combined 2% for all other social networking sites. Facebook also captures 16% of all page views.

The rise of Twitter and LinkedIn as the second and third most visited social networking sites is evidenced by another comScore graphic. Equally revealing are the rapid decline of MySpace and the ascendance of Google+ and Pinterest. (It should be noted that social sites like Twitter and Google+ likely get significant engagement through mobile devices, third-party apps and other forms of content.)

To highlight the engagement issue even more, comScore shows how Facebook keeps the average user onsite for 7 hours each month. Tumblr and Pinterest have also successfully engaged their users by keeping them onsite for more than an hour each.

Key Lessons:

• If your goal is to engage your customers through social networks, you would be wise to invest in Facebook (and keep your eye on Pinterest, and maybe Tumblr, depending on your demographic);
• Even though Facebook’s engagement numbers are impressive, if your customers are spending their time on LinkedIn or Twitter, that’s where you should be.

#4: It’s Time to Take Video Seriously

Americans are watching increasing numbers of videos online. According to comScore, this number has jumped over 43% to 100 million daily views (that’s roughly one-third of the U.S. population watching a video online each day).

Of the 43.5 billion videos viewed in December 2011, over half of those were on Google properties (21.9 billion), primarily YouTube.

With the advent of long-form video content online through vendors like Netflix and Hulu, there’s been an increase in how long users will watch a video from 5 minutes to nearly 6 minutes. This may open the door for marketers looking to produce edutainment videos(combining education and entertainment to produce engaging videos that keep people watching).

The way people watch videos is changing with the advent of mobile phones, notebooks and gaming systems. These differences are especially pronounced in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

For example, Nielsen found that someone from the Asia/Pacific region is more than twice as likely to watch a video on a mobile device as a North American. However, a European is half as likely to watch on a mobile device as the average global consumer.

Learn From the Best

Many companies are using video channels well, but many small- and medium-sized businesses have yet to embrace this powerful platform.

I like what Whole Foods has done by creating over 500 videos that have been seen by over 2.8 million people. They provide a wide variety of videos including how-to’s and a funny organic love story series. None of these require professional videography skills. All you need is just a bit of training on how to use YouTube to drive traffic to your website.

#5: Consider the Role of Mobile

PQ Media found that 100 million U.S. users access the Internet through smartphones, with 60% of those being business end-users. comScore determined that 8% of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices.

The time spent on social networks through mobile devices is relatively low (around 5%), but the numbers are still significant. For example, Facebook found that 423 million unique visitors accessed their site in December 2011 through mobile devices.

Nielsen compared how men and women differ in how they access social networking sites. Aside from the obvious choice of computers, mobile phones take second place with women being 10% more likely to access social sites on their phones.

Mobile devices are changing the landscape of retail sales. Shoppers can compare prices, read reviews and get real-time opinions from their friends through social media channels all while on their smartphones. Smart marketers will take this into account when creating content and finding ways to engage customers.

Key Lessons:

• Be sure your website is mobile-optimized;
• Create content that is easy to consume and respond to via mobile devices (shorter responses are better);
• If your audience is business-oriented or located in the Asia/Pacific region, make sure to develop a mobile strategy.