Social Media Marketing All-in-One For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 1: Weighing the Business Benefits of Minor Social Sites

In This Chapter

• Reviewing goals for social media marketing
• Conducting social media marketing research
• Assessing audience involvement
• Choosing minor social communities strategically

Without a doubt, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ are the elephants in the social marketing zoo, at least in terms of the largest number of visits per month. But this is one big zoo, as shown in Figure 1-1, which displays only 35 of more than 300 significant social sites. Among these sites, you'll find lions and tigers and bears, and more than a few turtles, trout, squirrels, and seagulls.

You have to assess your business needs, research the options, and select which (if any) of these minor social marketing sites belongs in your personal petting zoo. In this chapter, we look at methods for doing just that.

Figure 1-1: The zoo of social media sites is vast. Your time, however, is limited.

With the exception of the community building site, Ning (described in Chapter 4 of this minibook), and free-standing blogs (which can become your primary web presence if you use your own domain name), these smaller sites are best used to supplement your other social marketing efforts.

Reviewing Your Goals

In Book I, we suggest that you develop a strategic ...