How Industry Impacts Your Approach To Social Marketing

Today, we’re going to begin with a simple question, and even give you the answer: what’s the quickest way to tell whether or not a social media ‘expert’ is bogus? See how they approach Social Marketing.

It’s the fact that most of these self-professed gurus will offer a one-size-fits-all strategy. They will claim they’ve access to a process which will work for any business on just about any social network.

Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of social media understands exactly why a one-size-fits-all strategy is impossible, of course. Each social network is a very different beast; what works for one platform will likely crash and burn on another.

That isn’t the only reason an all-purpose approach to social marketing is effectively impossible. Every business and brand is slightly different, after all. What works for one most assuredly won’t work for another. Much of this links directly to the industry in which a particular brand operates.

Social Media Marketing

The truth is that one’s industry has a greater impact on how one approaches social marketing than anything else.

One of the reasons for this is the consumer. Different industries and brands will serve different demographics, all of whom will have different interests, ideals, and opinions. Within those different demographics, each consumer will have a particular approach that works best from a marketing standpoint; what successfully sells a brand to one group of customers might well leave another feeling bored, confused, or even insulted.

Similarly, consumers in different industries will as a general rule flock to different social networks, if they even use social media at all. If, for example, one works in an industry that primary serves men and women past the age of retirement, it may not be worthwhile setting up on a social network—many of the people such an organization is looking to market to might not even be online. On the other end of the scale, if the target is tech savvy twenty-somethings, it might be a good idea to broadcast over multiple platforms rather than just settling on one.

Where should you do your social marketing?

How does one determine which approach will be most effective? How can one determine who’s interested, and who isn’t? Moreover, how can one work out which platform will offer the best possible reward?

In essence, the answer to all these questions stands completely independent of social media: research. Before setting out on any sort of advertising campaign, an organization first needs to know two things: who they’re targeting, and what they hope to gain by doing so. The first question’s a bit more difficult to answer than the second, but both are equally important.

“Failure to do market research before you begin a business venture or during its operation is like driving a car from Texas to New York without a map or street signs,” explained William Bill of Wealth Design Group LLC to Entrepreneur. “You have to know which direction to travel and how fast to go. A good market research plan indicates where and who your customers are. It will also tell you when they are most likely and willing to purchase your goods or use your services.”

Create Personas to Learn What Social Networks to Market To

By carrying out market research—surveys, interviews, focus groups, and data gathered from Facebook and other social networks—a brand can begin to construct a portfolio of its average consumer—also called a persona. From this, a proper strategy can be put together; one which is most likely to appeal to the consumer in question. And from the persona, a brand can determine where its consumers are most likely to be found online, and therefore the best places to approach them.

Self-proclaimed social media gurus would have you believe that there’s a one-size-fits-all approach to social marketing, and that they’re the only ones who sell it. In actuality, how a brand approaches social media is informed by an incredibly wide array of factors, the most important of which is the industry in which that brand operates. One’s industry has a marked impact on one’s consumers, products, and competition, and hence on how one approaches both social marketing and advertising as a whole.

Summary

1. Do NOT approach your social marketing with a one-size-fits-all hat on.
2. Create multiple personas for exactly who you’re trying to reach.
3. Determine from your personas exactly which social networks you should spend your marketing time and dollars on.