7 Key Areas to a Successful Social Media Strategy. Rule #2: Research

Hey everybody, this is Brandon Hensinger, founder of Cima Growth Solutions. Last week we started a series about the seven ways to maximize your R.O.I. With social media as a small business owner or as a small business marketing department. We talked last week about the importance of reviewing what you're doing.

Today, I want to talk about the importance of research both researching your competitors and your audience. It's important to take time to look at all of your competitors, look at what they're doing on social media, on all of the different platforms. Most likely you're going to find a lot more companies doing things wrong than doing things right.

However, it's important to write down what you see that they are doing, who they're interacting with, what their customer base is like -- really understand what seems to be working. Next, you want to make sure that you research your audience. You have to know who your audience is. No business has an audience of everyone.

Even the biggest businesses in the world are not for everyone. You have to be crystal clear on who your audience is, what your audience size is, and what your audience's buying patterns are and what their online activity patterns are. Getting crystal clear in those things is really important because then it will allow you to target what your marketing efforts should be, not just what you think they should be.

So make sure you're crystal clear on your competitors and on your audience, and make sure that you visit cimagrowth.com/social because we can give you this entire guide for free and give you a free strategy call to get you started. I look forward to talking with you. Have an awesome day and stay tuned for part three.