Choosing the right social media channel for your marketing efforts involves developing a deep understanding of who your audience really is.

Every industry, product and service has a dominant channel. Placing your marketing efforts on a select few of these dominant channels will allow your brand to invest the necessary time and resources on winning customers over.

In today’s post, we’ll be helping you find your own dominant social media channel.

Uncover Your Dominant Social Media Channel

Not sure where to start? Ask yourself the following questions to maximize your social media channel presence:

Where are my prospective customers hanging out?

Where is your audience spending most of their time? While a group of people who fit your target audience may have profiles on a social channel, if they aren’t actively commenting, sharing, re-posting, liking or show no signs of engagement, then they will not be of much use to you and your social goals. Facebook has recently reported that they have over 1.09 billion monthly active users as of March 2016.

Every industry will have a dominant channel where its audience is most active. Brands in the fashion and accessories niche will have no trouble finding very active audiences on Pinterest or Instagram. And as you can rightfully assume, business topics dominate LinkedIn while Facebook, Reddit and Tumblr are optimal for miscellaneous content-heavy brands.

But don’t be limited by looking at the same major players, there’s tons of unique social channels that tailor to a niche-focused audience. Untapped, for example, is a social site for beer lovers.

Likewise, Ravelry caters to knitters while Gentlemint is basically Pinterest for guys. So go out and find your where your niche’s audience is actively hanging out, you just might come across a few hidden gems.

Where is my audience searching for information?

Social media platforms aren’t strictly used for socializing. People also use them to search for information. Google may have an automatic upper hand when it comes to its social users searching for information, but Twitter and Facebook are constantly updating their search algorithms.

If you’re active on any social channel that has a helpful search function, then your company has a chance to appear in those results. Look for smaller to middle tier channels where people are actively looking for information related to your business. If competition on that channel is low, consider filling that void.

Save Your Social Sanity

Not every channel you establish a presence on will work out in the end. Avoiding wasting your time on the wrong channel is just as crucial as uncovering your dominant ones. Some companies have to find out the hard way that their product or service isn’t driving much interest on Pinterest, a social channel that is overwhelmingly used by women.

Create a plan for defining the opportunity cost for each channel. Assign a number or letter grade to each one based on your own factors. It can be levels of engagement, levels of competition, buyer-readiness, the amount of time it will take to see any results, etc.

Also, set realistic expectations for each social channel. Many companies approach social media with the idea that it’s purely a sales channel. While social media should definitely be used as a sales channel, social channels are also a place to increase brand awareness and create conversations.

Most social users won’t read one of your posts and check out your page because they’re considering making a purchase right now. If the content’s good then they’ll want to see more of it, which if applied consistently, can lead to more conversions and more sales.

By identifying your brand’s social footprint and answering the questions above, you’ll have a clearer understanding of where you should prioritize your social channel efforts – identify which channels will bring you most impact, engagement, and ultimately, the most sales.