Online social networking sites are still a mystery for many businesses. Every business wants to know who is logging on and how to best target this audience, but they still are searching for that information to determine a good social media strategy.

It is important to know who is using which social sites and even how they are using the sites, because this information is key to determining how to best create a successful online marketing campaign. If you have a small business and want to utilize social media you need to know exactly who you can access and how.

Facebook

The premier social media site in 2010 is definitely Facebook. They consistently update their stats and to date they have over 500 million users. The real question for small business owners is who are all of these users, particularly their age and how are they using the site. Facebook attracts people of all ages however; the most predominant age group on the site is 45-54 with 35-44 coming in a close second.

Of course, age is not the only important factor when it comes to analyzing the demographic of social media users. Other important pieces of information include marital status, income, length of time an individual stays on the site and the reasons. For example, social media games are played mostly by women, in fact, studies show that 55% of social media gamers are women and more importantly, the age range of these gamers is 38-48. Since many marketers are developing these games and advertising around them this is very important information.

MySpace

MySpace may have been displaced by the more popular Facebook, however do not count them out. They still have a large following of active users who spend a good deal of time on the site. The average age of users on MySpace is 31 years old and the majority of users are single. This is key information for marketing techniques. Small business owners and marketers can tell by this information whether or not their products or service will be wanted by the primary users of the site.

How to Interpret Data

As you can see, there is a good deal of information available about the unique users of all social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and much more! The biggest challenge you face as a business owner or marketer is how to interpret and use this data. First, understand that the overall numbers are good tools but you may need to look deeper to truly put this information to use.

Use the broad data as a starting point for marketing however do not forget to keep an eye on trends. Who is using which site the most in the last 30 days for instance and is this a swing from current statistics. Marketing your business is an ever-changing proposition; you want to be on top of any trend shift that may occur. It is important that your recognize how important a user\’s behavior is on the site, in addition to their age, gender and socioeconomic status.

Your Online Marketing Campaign

Creating a good online marketing campaign for your business is becoming increasing important for businesses of all sizes. social media is a gold mine of potential marketing possibilities.

However, in order to make a marketing campaign effective you have to know when, where and who to market to. The usage statistics of social media sites is a good place to start.

Author Bio: Ashley Lane shares more tips on using online social networking sites to promote your business. For more social networking success tips for your business, visit Social-Networking-Success.com.

Category: Marketing
Keywords: Online Social Networking Sites, social media strategy, social media, business