Site Selection: Deciding Where to Spend Your Time
Yesterday, Kama posted about how the spring weather we’re finally seeing here in the Ohio valley is getting her excited about gardening.
img "strawberries" courtesy swirus71 on sxc
My mom was an avid gardener as well, and gardening makes a great metaphor for your social media efforts. Site selection, when you’re gardening, means finding the space with the best combination of elements to grow the results you want. Some plants prefer sun and dry soil, others prefer shade and lots of moisture. Planting the right seeds in the wrong place can make your efforts a waste of time.
It’s no different when you’re planning a social media strategy–except the “site” you’re selecting is a website, not a particularly lovely part of your lawn.
Certain websites are better suited to show growth for particular results.
If you’re looking to create a mass following, you’ll need to select the social websites with the broadest reach–sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter.
If you’re looking to engage deeply with a very narrow niche audience, you may need to use tools like PostRank, RapLeaf or Flowtown to find lesser-known sites that are go-to spots for that crowd.
Or you might create a panel of enthusiast experts, whose tribal knowledge, to quote Avinash Kaushik, can point you in the right direction.
The important thing to remember is to begin with the end in mind. Plant your efforts firmly in the ground best suited to produce the harvest you’ve set as a goal.
Work diligently, and odds are good you’ll be enjoying some tasty results sooner than you think.
