Posts over the last few weeks have talked about using social media for sharing the gospel and staying connected with friends. But how do you decide which social media site(s) to use? Below is a quick review of each of the major social platforms.

Facebook

  • Primarily used for: connecting
  • Primary demographic: 25 to 45
  • Ideal fit for: entertainment, lifestyle brands, and non-profits
  • Biggest opportunity: building fans
  • Biggest challenge: few appreciate Facebook advertising
  • Metrics: fans, comments, likes, wall posts
  • Helpful tools: Lexicon, ad interface, applications, analytics, connect, etc.

MySpace

  • Primarily used for: connecting
  • Primary demographic: 15 to 25
  • Ideal fit for: music and entertainment
  • Biggest opportunity: providing music samples
  • Biggest challenges: noisy; losing market share quickly
  • Metrics: friends, favorites, groups, impressions
  • Helpful tools: Open Platform, MyApps, MySpace Toolbox

LinkedIn

  • Primarily used for: connecting
  • Primary demographic: 35 to 55
  • Ideal fit for: service providers, industry associations
  • Biggest opportunity: creating thought leadership via Q&A and Groups
  • Biggest challenge: time commitment
  • Metrics: profile connections, best answers, group members, discussions
  • Helpful tools: Applications, Salesforce plug-in

Blogs

  • Primarily used for: creating
  • Primary demographic: 35 to 55
  • Ideal fit for: about anything
  • Biggest opportunity: develop thought-leadership
  • Biggest challenge: requires significant resources over time
  • Metrics: feed subscribers, comments, visits, unique visitors, page views, Technorati rank, pingbacks, inbound links, visibility in search engines
  • Helpful tools: WordPress plug-ins

Twitter

  • Primarily used for: creating (microblogging)
  • Primary demographic: 35 to 45
  • Ideal fit for: service industry, sharing ideas
  • Biggest opportunity: customer service, consumer insight, sales and marketing
  • Biggest challenges: noisy; reliability issues; platform limitations
  • Metrics: followers, @ replies, retweets, direct messages, custom hashtags
  • Helpful tools: BingTweets, TweetBeep, TweetDeck, HootSuite, CoTweet, Mr. Tweet, Twitalyzer, blog plug-ins

YouTube

  • Primarily used for: creating, sharing, voting
  • Primary demographic: 25 to 45
  • Ideal fit for: big brands and entertainment
  • Biggest opportunity: creating viral content
  • Biggest challenges: noise; conversions
  • Metrics: views, comments, subscribers, ratings
  • Helpful tools: TubeMogul, YouTube Insight

Adapted from Kent Lewis

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