Spending Time on Social Networking – Make it Count!

Have you set up a Web 2.0 strategy for your business?  Do you use social networking sites to build your prospect listing?  Do you know if the sites you have chosen are a fit with your target market?

Before you take a lot of time managing various social networking sites, make sure that the people using that network are in your target market!  Today I'll tell you about a great tool that will help you figure that out.

Know Your Target!

So, I figure before I go into social networking, I had better take just a few minutes to make sure to  explain what I mean about target market.  A target market is a group of people that are most likely to want to buy what you have to offer.  That is not to say that you would not sell to someone else, this is just where the most likely sale will happen.  For example:

• If you sell pizza on a college campus, then your target market might be young adults between the age of 18-24. 
• If you sell home interior items, your market might be females between the age of 35 – 54.
• If you sell hot rod magazines, your market might be males between the age 18 – 34.

So, do you know your target?  Good!

Get the Data!

In order to know that you are spending your time in the right place, the next step would be to see where your target market “hangs out” on the net.  Fortunately, you don't have to do a bunch of time consuming research, because Ignite Social Media recently came out with an awesome report that has really helped me target which social networks it is beneficial for me to spend my time in. 

You can find the report here: The 2008 Social Network Analysis Report – Geographic – Demographic and Traffic Data Revealed.

Brian has compiled a slew of data from a number of social networking sites. You can learn the user trends for the site, gender demographics, age demographics, income demographics as well as global location saturation.  Whew!  That is a lot of information in one spot.

Not only has he collected the info in one spot, but he gives you easy-to-read graphics so that you can review and make decisions quickly.

If you would like a quick link to see how your favorite site compares check out these links.

Badoo.com    Bebo.com    Digg.com    Facebook.com    Fark.com    Flickr.com    Flixster.com    Friendster.com    Gather.com    Habbo.com    Hi5.com    Iambored.com    Identi.ca    IndianPad.com    Last.fm    Linkedin.com    Livejournal.com    Meetup.com    Metafilter.com    Mixx.com    Myspace.com    Netlog.com    Newsvine.com    Plaxo.com    Plurk.com    Pownce.com    Propeller.com    Reddit.com    Reunion.com    Shoutwire.com    Skyrock.com    Stumbleupon.com    Seamsugar.com    Tribe.net    Twitter.com    Wayn.com    Xanga.com    Yelp.com    YouTube.com

What To Do Now: Go take a look and see if you have any surprises or if you are spending your time in the right spot.  Then, please give me your candid comment below and tell your friends and colleagues to read this post and give me their candid comments below as well.

I look forward to hearing from you.

To your success!

PS – Much thanks to the Blog Squad for their post on this resource!