There is no advantage in indiscriminately using social media platforms if you don’t even know who use the platform. Choose an appropriate platform for a given social media goal by looking at user demographics.

Your users

Who uses your product or service?

Internal records

• in what way did they first reach out to (communicate with) you? Email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, website contact form?
• what information did they provide? Age, method of payment, where they live?
• what does the info you have, tell you about them? Middle-aged or young, internet savvy with eft payment, or not internet savvy with cheque payment, lives in a retirement complex or a yuppie suburb?
• did they use personal or business email? A business email enables you to research the business – is the client the owner, salesperson, bookkeeper, or technical staff? (each role indicates the likely type of person).
• what info does your website’s Google Analytics give you?

External records

Google the client’s name – all results, images and news

Social media profiles

Social media is where your customer is.

Social media users

Who are the users of each social media platform?

At the time of writing, 30% of South Africans use Facebook – that is 16 million South Africans – with 5 000 000 in Johannesburg.. Fourteen million use Facebook from mobile devices.

There are more than 8 000 000 Twitter users in South Africa. Tweeting activity spikes on Thursdays and all days between 08:00 and 09:00, with a spike around 18:00.

There are more than 6 000 000 Linkedin users in the country while Instagram has around 4 million users.

Statistics by Worldwideworx

If your potential clients use something else than social media platforms, you may need to reach them via email or WhatsApp.

Where you meet your potential customer is dictated by them, not you.

Once you have a good idea of who your potential clients are, you will be able to use the best social media platforms to reach them.

Then it is important to use social media correctly so you will attract potential business and not deter them from communicating with you. To use social media most effectively, you need to understand the difference between marketing and sales as well as the needs that social media fills.