Social Media Platform Checklist

Facebook

Community mindset: connect
Primary demographic: 25 to 45
Ideal fit for: entertainment, lifestyle brands, and non-profits
Biggest opportunity: using ads to build fans
Biggest challenge: few appreciate Facebook advertising
Metrics: fans, comments, likes, wall posts
Helpful tools: Lexicon, ad interface, applications, analytics, connect, etc.


MySpace

Community mindset: connect
Primary demographic: 15 to 25
Ideal fit for: music and entertainment
Biggest opportunity: providing music samples
Biggest challenges: noisy; losing market share quickly
Metrics: friends, favorites, groups, impressions
Helpful tools: Open Platform, MyApps, MySpace Toolbox

LinkedIn

Community mindset: connect
Primary demographic: 35 to 55
Ideal fit for: service providers, industry associations
Biggest opportunity: creating thought leadership via Q&A and Groups
Biggest challenge: time commitment
Metrics: profile connections, best answers, group members, discussions
Helpful tools: Applications, Salesforce plug-in

Blogs

Community mindset: create
Primary demographic: 35 to 55
Ideal fit for: technology
Biggest opportunity: develop thought-leadership
Biggest challenge: requires significant resources over time
Metrics: feed subscribers, comments, Technorati score, pingbacks, inbound links, visibility in search engines
Helpful tools: WordPress plug-ins


Twitter

Community mindset: create (microblogging)
Primary demographic: 35 to 45
Ideal fit for: service industry
Biggest opportunity: customer service, consumer insight, sales and marketing
Biggest challenges: noisy; reliability issues; platform limitations
Metrics: followers, @ replies, retweets, direct messages, custom hashtags
Helpful tools: BingTweets, TweetBeep, TweetDeck, HootSuite, CoTweet, Mr. Tweet, Twitalyzer, blog plug-ins


YouTube

Community mindset: vote
Primary demographic: 25 to 45
Ideal fit for: big brands and entertainment
Biggest opportunity: creating viral content (e.g., United Breaks Guitars)
Biggest challenges: noise; conversions
Metrics: views, comments, subscribers, ratings
Helpful tools: TubeMogul, YouTube Insight