Cordny

Yesterday one of my clients asked me what social media channel is the best channel for him to reach his target group.

My answer was that I did not know it. I first need to know who is part of his target group.

And then I would communicate with his target group on the different social media channels they are part of.

This blog will show you my strategy to engage with the target group.

Build the target group

Let’s say the target group is a group of U.S. CEO’s of DevOps tools for the Fintech industry.

With LinkedIn you can get a list of these CEO’s with just a few clicks. Especially with LinkedIn Navigator. But that’s another story.

Reach the target group

LinkedIn is a terrific personal network tool.

But I would not immediately invite the CEO’s to your network. These people get dozens invites a day.

A better strategy is to engage with them by responding to their posts, build a relationship.

It’s just like dating, it takes time to get to know each other, do not push. It’s what salespeople call social selling. Hard selling is not necessary.

After some engagement you can start introducing yourself and ask for a connection. Always do this with a personal note. Then people know you took time in this invite and it is not an invite just to score contacts. Never ever pitch in your invite, that’s rude and people won’t connect.

As I already said, first build the relationship.

When you have these names, you can search for them on other social media like Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram. Follow them here, so the CEO’s know you are interested in them.

Choose the social media channel

As I already mentioned, LinkedIn is the first social media channel you have to use to engage with your target group.

But there are other channels too, like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Always test the engagement with your target group on these channels too.

Perhaps the CEO is not really active on LinkedIn, but he tweets a lot.

Or he is very active on Facebook, Instagram or other channels.

You do not know this, you have to test it.

Don’t stick to 1 social media channel

My client’s question was: 

what social media channel is the best channel for me to reach my target group?

When you found the social media channel which is the best fit for reaching his target group, do not advise the client to only use this channel.

He should still use other channels as well, although the best fit is the primary one.

Why? Well, social media channels are built by tech companies with their own agenda.

As a user you are at the mercy of these tech companies, because, if profit will go down, the chance of the social media diappearing will increase. It’s all about the money. Even for LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a great networking tool, but the data is still controlled by LinkedIn, not you!

So, when the prospect approves (GDPR!!) collect at least the e-mail addresses of these clients, so you can always contact them, even when the social media channels are down.

Do not let the social media channels dictate your relationship with your target group, be in control yourself.

The target group engagement strategy in short

1. Build the target group with the help of LinkedIn
2. Reach the target group by social selling
3. Choose the social media channel
4. Manage the target group contacts yourself

Try it.
And keep me updated on the results, I am very interested.

Last year, in the beginning of April I started my contentmarketing and software testing company TestingSaaS.
A 1-man army with a mission: Create content for IT companies by testing their software or IT-services.
It has been a bumpy road, with ups and downs. 
Starting a business shows a person who he or she really is. Persistence is key!
Great months with lots of revenue, but also months of losses.. it’s rough,tough.

But hey, I’m still here, still alive and kicking, lean and mean!
Still a startup, still learning.

Thank you!!

clients and prospects who helped me make the company TestingSaaS.

BPdelivery
Securify
eForensics Magazine
Watermelon
ACC ICT
Parasoft
CoVince
NovoLearning 
inMotion VR
TicTag
Eigenlijk Alles

I’m still learning, still tweaking, I’m getting there.

Let’s Create Content through Testing further in 2019.

Ever since I started my blog TestingSaaS more than 10 years ago on the Blogspot-platform, I wanted to write about IT in a practical way without the marketing slang.
This is my Unique Selling Point for years now and when the DevOps marketing company 
Fixate IO contacted me a couple of years back to contribute to their marketing engine I did not hesitate.

They even coined this kind of marketing: Practitioner marketing.
Developers are a special breed, and why not let developers write content to attract developers?
How? With technical content. 

How does a specific API work? What is a good mobile testing strategy? How can I use this monitoring tool?
All questions I answered in my years as a practitioner marketeer for Fixate IO.
With my latest content an article about getting started with Worldpay’s triPOS Cloud API.

Now with my company TestingSaaS I keep following this path and create content through testing the customer’s software:

“Create Content through Testing”

But this content can be also FAQs, customer success stories,  instruction videos or even online tutorials. See

my macOS anti-forensics course for eForensics Magazine.

For years I tested software  during the day and blogged about it during the evening and nights.

Now it’s my business, and I like it.

Do you want content about your software, website or IT-service?

Contact me here 
and let’s talk about how I can deliver you engaging content, just by testing your product.
Your clients will be impressed!