Isn't Social Networking for Young People?

This is the question I get asked most often when talking to businesses about Internet Marketing and in particular using social networks to communicate with their target audience.

The thing is, it's easy to forget that the people you are targeting probably use these media to communicate. Many of us struggle with the concept of marketing via social networks because we don't use them ourselves. It's true - many adults with busy home lives, businesses or other work commitments, simply don't have time to log on to Facebook when they get home. For many very successful marketers even, checking out what's happening on Twitter when we get up in the morning is not the first thing on the list. I've certainly noticed that a lot of 35 - 50 year old professionals are struggling with this one.

But that's not a strong enough argument not to add them to your marketing toolkit or even your media list. If you're trying to reach consumers (B2C or the general public), then these days individuals are even using their social network of choice as their search engine too. They're here to stay and we must consider them when we're marketing.

But just look at the stats for UK usage of social networks, it seriously isn't just young people...

Even for business to business (B2B, or marketing your services to other businesses), they are increasingly relevant because the Search Engines are starting to introduce social networking results into their search results - Google and Bing have now both signed a deal with Twitter to inlcude real time Tweets in results related to search terms. This shouldn't come as a surprise, given that search engines want as much current, relevant content as they can to match search queries and satisfy searchers.

So how do you use social networks for your marketing? Well you can start by looking at a Facebook Business Page. Do you write a blog, have pictures about your products or services, even video? You can post all of these onto your page - take a look at how some of the well known players use them, such as Coca -Cola.

If you do have video (if not, can you make one?), then set up an account on YouTube - it's free! Once you get your head around the "openness" of using these media, it becomes an opportunity to engage with your customers as never before. But that's another blog I think.

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk