Select your optimal social media channel

At this point, you have done the work to evaluate all the platforms out there, specify your goals, and map them to a target audience. In the last step, you confirmed that you won’t hate creating the content and instead will find enjoyment in it.‍

By now, you should have a good sense of the channels that you need to prioritize. The purpose of this step is to narrow in on which social channels you should focus on next. 

Evaluate your scores

Through the following steps, use the scorecard in your workbook to add extra notes that matter to you for each channel. This could be anything that stresses you out about a channel, things you want to remember, ideas you have for the future, or anything else.

1. What’s the growth trajectory of the platform (e.g. Clubhouse was very trendy but then died off. Yet, you still had the opportunity to be the first to reach out to your audience there. Once interest in a platform like this fades away, you can just bring your audience to a new network.)‍

2. The political or cultural affiliation of the platform (e.g. Parler, Truth Social, Reddit, etc.)‍

3. What your ability to create or outsource content is (e.g. ghostwriting services availability and budget changes if YOU need to be in the images/videos)‍

4. What non-organic growth options the channel provides (in case you want to try out ads)‍

5. If members of a certain social network prefer a topic more than others (e.g. indie hackers are more active on platforms like Twitter, Product Hunt, or Indie Hackers so that’s where topics related to their pain points would work best)

Now, it’s time to look at your scores!‍

In your workbook, there is a column titled ‘sum’ that will sum up the scores for the channel in that row. Press Enter.

You should see scores that range between 5 - 25. If a channel got a score of 5, that means it isn’t a good fit for you. If it scored a 25, then you should seriously consider investing time into that channel.

These scores are only a guide to use for making a decision. They’re meant to affirm your intuition, help you get more specific in your outreach, and prioritize the channels you want to target in time.‍

Remember, you don’t need to be everywhere. Starting small helps you get the data and insights you need to make sure that one day when you decide to try a new channel like YouTube, you will know exactly what your target audience expects.‍

Put this into action

Congratulations on completing this process! You’ve identified the channels that are the best fit for you and your business. The next step is to develop a strategy before diving straight in.

Here are some next steps:

• Start by outlining what you want to get out of each channel.

• Clearly write down some insights into your ideal audience, like what type of messaging they’re responsive to and what content they’d enjoy.

• If you don’t already, follow accounts you admire to get inspiration.

• Use one of our playbooks on building a channel strategy.

• Take the first steps to build your content and put yourself out there. The sooner the better. You can always keep things efficient by repurposing content and even creating content ahead of time.