It's All About Who Knows You

Dear B-Reader,

With any marketing that you do in business, you want to address your message to the audience you are trying to reach. Try telling kindergartners your last business presentation and see how long they stay interested...tweak your message and bring it down to their level using Elmo or Dora as a mouthpiece, and bada-bing, you have captivated their attention. Same holds true online in social networking outlets. You must format your social networking messages to the audience who will be reading your postings.

Take Twitter. Twitter is intended to be short tweets (messages) of no more than 140 characters in length. These are similar to texts. Who is totally into texting these days? You bet, B-Reader, it's the teenager next door (or maybe the one living under your roof and monopolizing your cell phone plan). The audience for Twitter is the college student age and under. Make your tweets speak to this group...keep them interesting and less adult-ish in content.

Want to reach a slightly more educated audience? Try LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a professional networking website where users post their resumes online and link (network) with other professionals. As you connect (befriend) with more and more users, you increase your professional network exponentially through indirect connections. One great feature of LinkedIn is the referral capability. I can refer you to a great veterinarian through the click of a button (and of course, I'd refer you to Jeff Chalkley, DVM). So, who uses LinkedIn? Professionals, which would be anyone employed or self-employed who is over college age and below retiree age. Want to send messages to this group? Fine, but keep it professional and very business-related.

How about Facebook? These days, it appears everyone and their mama has a Facebook page. This is the most popular social networking site for women in the baby boomer generation. Take my mother for example, she is on Facebook daily, and she has reconnected with many old friends, made new friends, and keep tabs on her kids and...bonus...see photos of their latest activities. Many new grandmothers simply love the photo feature, and this is exactly what draws them into using this particular form of social networking. Want to reach this wise and nurturing group? You can if you write your posts using smart, cultured language and include pretty pictures. Seriously, a picture speaks a thousand words.

Most important to all of these social networking avenues is their original intent: to network. Don't forget that you are a part of a community. The people who follow, connect to, or fan/like you on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook (respectively) want to interact with you. Nobody enjoys a one-sided conversation. Dive in, join the chatter, and have fun with it.