The first step in marketing, and ESPECIALLY in social marketing is to identify your target market. Ann and I had a great conversation today about the importance of niche marketing on the internet. And it’s even more important to be able to identify your niche in social marketing, simply because of the sheer volume of NOISE in the marketplace.

In the book Cluetrain Manifesto, the point was made that “markets are conversations”. If you can grasp the fact that EACH social network (Facebook, Linkedin, Digg, etc.) is a market, with thousands of conversations going on then you’ll understand the importance of identifying your most profitable customer well in advance of “going in”.

Ann has created a really valuable MBA Compiler Tool for each of the steps in the MBA process, that steps you through a series of questions and by the end of the tool, you have all the information you need, and it was a relatively painless way of getting it out of your head and into a tangible form so you could then REALLY start to figure it all out.

The Compiler Tool for Step 1: Identify Your Most Profitable Customer is interesting, because it starts with YOU. I’ll post more on it later today.

To Helping YOU Master Business Actions in Social Marketing,
Michelle Price, Social Media Maven