Be where you need to be

A mutual friend of me and my business partner Troy – let’s call him Joe – went to a Social Media for Small Business conference recently. He’s a sports bar owner, and has been thinking about using social media for a while.

We’ve actually spoken with Joe before over at Bonsai Interactive, about how he could utilize some of the tools available. Having carried out a social media audit for the hospitality and restaurant industry, we’ve got a lot of critical insight into the kind of local and national opportunities Joe could have.

At the time, Joe didn’t feel social media was right for him, which is fair enough.

Having come away from the recent conference, Joe now sees the benefits of what we were talking about earlier, and that he wants to implement a program for his restaurant/bar.

Cool – thanks, conference organizers!

Yet something Joe said worries me, as it’s something we’re hearing about a lot more when we speak to clients (both existing and potential), and that’s the need to be everywhere.

According to the social media expert that was speaking at the conference, businesses need to be on as many social media channels as they can. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Ning, blogging, Facebook Places, Posterous, etc – the list goes on.

The reasoning? You never know where your customer is going to be, so you need to be in all the places they could be.

Bullcrap.

You can (and do) know where your customer is going to be by doing the research. I mentioned earlier we’d carried out a social media audit for the hospitality industry.

Because of this audit, we can tell demographics, spend decisions, social network use, optimum time of day for social network use and promotions, and much, much more.

We can then use this information to make a recommendation for Joe (or any other client) on where they need to be, when they need to be there, and what they need to be saying while there. This targeted approach makes sure no-one’s wasting their time, and goals can be set and results measured.

It’s not rocket science – it’s called marketing.

Saying you need to be on every site because your customers might be is like saying you need to advertise in every single newspaper because some of your customers might read it.

Sure, they might. But if your customers are vegetarians, would you advertise in Slaughterhouse Weekly?

No – so why take that approach with your social media strategy? Instead, be where you need to be.

Make sense?