If you want to really use social media effectively for business purposes you need to be aware of two basic things:
1. which social media platforms most people use; and
2. what people use these platforms for.
The answer to first question is quite obvious since the popular platforms right now are undoubtedly Facebook and Twitter. The second question also has obvious answers inlcduing the usual reasons such as personal reasons, networking, etc. What is less obvious is the numbers how many people use the different social media platforms for the different purposes.
To answer these two questions you can go to polldaddy and answer these two surveys:
Which of the Following Social Media Accounts Do You Use Regularly (Weekly+)?
Why Do You Have Social Media Accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc.)?
So far the poll hasn’t generated enough votes to be thoroughly representative of the entire population of social media users but its a good place to start. If you are serious about finding the answers though I suggest that you take into account not only the popularity of the social media platform but the specific use of most users in that particular platform and how these facts will work best with your social media marketing strategy. Remember that the poll asks the use for all platforms as a whole rather than for each so don’t go jumping to conclusions. However, it is still a good idea to look into the polls to at least help give you a framework in which to gather specific target audience info and analyse what you get. I also suggest tuning into Seomoz blog since randfish has promised apost with his analysis and opinions on the poll results later this week.
