Underground Web Designs Blog

Where does your target market hang out?

Different markets spend time in different places, both online and off. With the advent of the social web, it’s now easier than ever to reach people where they spend a lot of time… but do you know where to look?

YouTube is loved by young people and teens, but few people who are out of highschool spend much time searching the site for the latest cool videos to watch.

Likewise, Facebook’s user base is mostly highschool students, college students, and young adults.

While I won’t argue that both Facebook and YouTube can be great potential marketing opportunities, I would suggest first thinking about who you are trying to market TOO. If your message is great for college students, then by all means, get an ad on facebook. If your target market is teens and pre-teens, make a super-cool YouTube ad. But if your ad is targeted at working class parents or baby boomers, YouTube and Facebook probably aren’t going to show a very high ROI.

The social web has more than anything divided internet users into groups. Different people use different services and get their news from different places. Different demographics spend their leisure web-surfing time in different places. So before you spend a ton of money on the next hottest YouTube vid, do some research into where in the online universe your target market hangs out, and advertise there.

You’re almost guaranteed a better ROI than just taking shots in the dark.

It seems like every time you check the technical section of the news you see something about yet another “social networking” or “social bookmarking” service. As a business owner you may just shrug and move on, if you read the technical section of the news at all. Social media isn’t something you can just ignore though, especially if you want to get the most from your website.

Social media sites –sites that facilitate communication between peers– are among the largest websites for a reason: people like to talk to eachother and share their opinions. Now, your business may not be in the area of social networks, or even in the area of communication. That’s ok. No matter what your area of expertise is, social media is still an important concept for anyone who does business online (and if you have a website, you do business online).

How can you use the popularity of social media to boost your business and increase sales? Well, it’s both simple and difficult. The concepts are simple, but pulling them off can be easier said than done. The best way to leverage social media is to get people talking about your product or service. A good first step is to post fun, interesting, or educational videos on YouTube, and be sure to leave the comments open. Another good idea is to start a blog. Blogs are very easy to create and maintain, and best of all they provide a place for people interested in your topic to agree, disagree, and discuss what you write about.

There are some people that think that since social media is so powerful they should throw everything they have at it, in as many places as they can. Others will even offer their “services” to put your videos, articles, or links on hundreds of social media sites. Beware of such “spam” tactics. Remember that the power of social media is in people talking to each other and sharing things they like. If you post something on one popular site such as YouTube, and people like it, they will tell their friends to come check it out. If you put a video on 100 video sharing sites and nobody likes it, your reputation may well be tarnished.

If you remember that social media sites are the ultimate democracy then you will be able to make full use of them to grow your business and sell your products. If you forget even for a minute that anyone can (and will) make it known to the world if you mess up, you’ll soon find out that social media has a downside as well.