Social Media in The SMB – Know Your Market

It is impossible to read an email, or a news story without the term “Social Media” coming into play. Jeremy Nedelka at 1to1 Media has a post titled ‘How to Build it So They Will Come.’

In it he states, (rightfully so) that any Social Media experience requires defining who to target, who will be your audience. As Jeremy writes, you need to define;

What do we hope to accomplish?
Who are we trying to reach?
Where are these customers finding information now?
What tool best fits our goals and the customers we want to attract?

In the SMB Space?

While I personally see opportunities for social media in the small business / medium business space, I think we have to be a little more cautious of these questions. We need to ensure that we really know our markets.

And knowing our market includes the term coined by Forrester Research;

Technographics

Traditional demographic studies have been used for decades, and we are familiar with the concept, and many products are pitched to age groups, income levels, and period of life. (ie young family, boomer, empty nester etc)

But ss soon as you add technology to the mix, these demographics can lose their meaning.

For example, a traditional demographic could consist of;

Male
55 to 65 Years Old
Owns his own business

Well, two males that may fit that demographic, and they may be completely opposite in their comfort using technology.

One may never have used a computer, (and does not want to) while the second is comfortable with technology and purchases though Amazon.com or EBay and utilizes  on-line banking.

If your market consists of retail to Gen Y, maybe you got it made!

However if your market is business to business, and your customer base is independent corner stores that still write out invoices by hand, you may get significantly less mileage.

Market Stall

Photo Credit

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