Now when you understand what your goals are for your social media marketing, you should choose the networks to direct your efforts on. First of all, search for your business on various networks to see if you’ve already got a community there. The social network where you find your most vibrant community, is probably where you should start investing your time and resources (keep in mind that, for SEO purposes, Google probably values Google+ activity more than activity elsewhere) .

However, if your company or product is new and has no community, choose a marketing network according to how you might use it. Would visual sites like Pinterest and Instagram make sense for your industry? Should you use YouTube videos to promote your business? How should you integrate your blog and Facebook/Twitter pages? And do the demographics of the social networks match up with your target audience?

Remember, that Foursquare and Yelp are essential if you own a local business. Foursquare lets you reward frequent customers, encouraging them to “check in,” bring their friends with them and keep coming back. Check-ins have a snowball effect, turning your place into a hangout for groups.

Facebook and Twitter are good to expose your products – potential customers can see reviews, praises and pictures from users and you. This information helps customers make an informed purchase. And if they like the product, they can share the information among their friends and bring you more traffic.

It is always a good idea to make videos showing your products and post them on YouTube or Vimeo. Videos are a low-maintenance way to make information about your product available. As long as the product stays the same, the video stays relevant.

Next, develop the content and a schedule to publish your content when your audience wants it. This is where you really need to understand your audience and your brand. You must be highly creative and much of what you say within social media channels should sound like your brand.

Optimize your content with your targeted keywords. Armed with a solid keyword research report with relative categories, you should be able to derive some great ideas for relevant content that will resonate with your audience. This content can come in various forms. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Daily deals and coupons
  • How to’s and tips
  • Relevant and interesting statistics
  • Take polls and share results
  • Cartoon anecdotes for your industry
  • Case studies
  • News
  • Photos
  • Gift ideas
  • Contests
  • White papers and guidelines
  • Top 10 lists
  • Little known facts

There are two main questions to ask yourself before you post to social networks:

  1. Does this help to improve the likeability of our brand?
  2. Is this interesting and useful to our audience?

So to summarize, choose networks that match up with your goals and target audience demographics. And post only that which is interesting to your audience and helps to improve your brand.

For more insights into optimizing your content and choosing the right social media networks, use WebCEO’s Social Media Analytics Tools. This suite of tools can help you track your social mentions, analyze your social media traffic, and see how well your content works for you in social media, ensuring your efforts align with your marketing goals and audience needs.