For a marketing professional, the online world of social media can be daunting. Should you focus on Facebook and Twitter? Do you need to be on Google+? What is OutBrain?

At the Cleveland AMA Digital Marketing SIG meeting on June 3rd, Kyle Chandler of Hileman Group lead a discussion to answer these questions and more with his presentation: Digital Marketing Platforms: From Social to Search. In his presentation, Kyle offered advice for choosing the right platforms for your business. Here is a recap.

LinkedIn
Catering to the B2B professional crowd, you can target prospects by location, industry, title, company and more resulting in a high conversion rate and low cost per lead.

Facebook
The largest social network for engaging with B2C prospects and customers. There is a low barrier to entry for ad spend, but as a result there can be a lot of noise for advertisers, leading to lower conversion overall.

Twitter
Twitter attracts a wide range of people, which can benefit B2C and B2B companies. Use it to link to important content—it’s great platform to kick-off content launches.

Google+
While much smaller than Facebook, Google+ helps drive conversation with your target audience and influences search engine ranking.

Google Search
Google is the largest search engine. When starting campaigns, try multiple ad types and targeting to see what connects with your audience. Be cautious: due to sheer size and targeting options you can consume your monthly budget quickly.

YouTube
The second largest search engine whose content is published in Google Search. Video production can be costly, so post engaging content that drives relevant search.

Bing Search
Bing is smaller than Google and YouTube, but offers the same targeting options, has less competition and a lower cost per conversion.

Bizo
Highly-targeted display advertising with the ability to market based on industry segments and job title. Bizo has a large minimum ad spend with premium editions.

OutBrain
Use OutBrain to get your content featured on some of the largest publication websites. Good for kick-starting new content.

StumbleUpon
A low cost way to kick-start your content distribution that drives content discovery without use of ads or pop-ups.

There is no platform silver bullet in the world of social media, so a credible strategy is to spread your budget across four or five platforms to start, see what works and shift your budget accordingly. Review your plan once a month at the most; look at it quarterly for better trend analysis.

Digital Marketing SIG meetings are for AMA members only and are held at 8:00 a.m. on the first Thursday of the month at Perkins Restaurant, 5180 Tiedeman Road, just south of I480.

Richard Price is the Director of Special Interest Groups “SIG” with Cleveland AMA and a Product Manager in Northeast Ohio.