Which social networks guarantee success?

_I often get asked which social networking platforms a solopreneur should focus their energy on for their digital marketing strategy.

Well, that's kind of a personal question.  Not that I'm embarrassed to share, but rather the answer is personal because it depends on who you are trying to reach and engage with (your target audience), where you're most apt to find them (which social networks does your audience use most), and what are you comfortable managing (it's hard to be everywhere all the time, limiting the amount of social networks you have a presence on helps ensure you manage those networks well).

I'm influenced by Chris Brogan's approach to keeping your digital marketing strategy, including social networks, simple, effective and manageable.

For me, my primary digital marketing strategy looks like this:

• GrowLoop website
• Blog
• Email
  
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• (to a lesser extent I also use Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+, but these are not as heavily used as LinkedIn and Twitter)
  

In terms of social networks, LinkedIn is my front-runner. As for GrowLoop's target audience, I primarily work with other entrepreneurs and business owners.  I've found a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners use LinkedIn and their intent is to build professional business contacts for referrals, vendor relationships and certainly to gain new business.  So LinkedIn, for me, is where much of my target audience resides, thus I'm there too.

Fun fact, according to HubSpot, LinkedIn is 277% better at lead generation than other social media sites.

Twitter, I choose to use as a real-time-updater and broadcast network.  This is a staple in my opinion for any digital marketing strategy.  Twitter is like a real-time news feed.  It allows you to view and see what others in your network are up to or posting and likewise allow you to do the same, quickly.  However, messages on Twitter have a very short shelf life -- I'm talking 15-20 minutes on average, unless a tweet is viral in popularity.  The short lifespan of a tweet makes having relevant and timely tweets critical to them being seen and engaged with, but Twitter makes great sense for quick posts to notify your network of what you have to share.

These are just a few thoughts, what's your approach? 

Posted by:  Nick Venturella

Learn about

social media management