Yesterday I talked about the differences between LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Today I want to build on that article by showing how an analysis of your goals can guide you to the right site(s) for you.

1. A restaurant/retail establishment wanting to extend its reach

A number of retail establishments are setting up Facebook fan pages, and it can be a good way to build customer loyalty. If a business can encourage its fans to spread the word, it can be a tool for extending reach and bringing in new customers. But Facebook’s strength is in relationship building and deepening. It’s not as strong for reach. Twitter is more suited for that because of the ease of retweeting good content. My restaurant client started tweeting interesting menu items. One of his followers retweeted one of the items, and the restaurant’s followers went up. A strategy like that can bring in steady followers and extend a business’ reach faster than Facebook.

2. A professional speaker who wants to expand his engagements to other parts of the country

Obviously Twitter could be a good tool here for “meeting” new people and building relationships out of his geographic area. But LinkedIn would also be a vital part of this strategy because he can post his resume and past experience. Testimonials are an important part of his strategy, and LinkedIn is the best of the three for gathering testimonials. If the speaker has done his research and knows specific organizations he wants to meet, LinkedIn would also be a good way to arrange those introductions. Facebook would be the least effective tool of the three for this scenario.

3. A real estate agent looking to bring in more referrals

Real estate agents depend on strong relationships and being “top of the mind” with her contacts. Facebook is the tool for this. Regular status updates keep her name in front of her clients. Mentioning listings she has available (with good pictures) can bring in potential buyers. Offering occasional tips and information about the local real estate market can reinforce her branding with her friends and family. I know an agent who is using Facebook this way, and the referrals are coming in.

In each of the case studies above, I highlighted one of the three sites and showed instances where one would be the most effective for a referral building strategy. So don’t just create a Twitter account because someone said you should. Define your goals and select the site(s) most aligned with them.

Anyone else have a good case study to share?

Tags: Referrals, Relationship building, social media

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 9:38 am and is filed under social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.