It’s easy to get caught up in all the “social media” marketing opportunities available and it’s even easier to feel overwhelmed with all the new ways to build traffic, make sales, get links, rank higher etc.  Knowing who your ideal customer is from age, sex, and income to what they wear and when they shop is good for any business.  A great site to help with that understanding is (drum roll please…..)  SiteVolume.  Simply enter a few words or phrases and see how often they appear on the site you select (direct quote from their site).

They compare data from Digg, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter, all of which are popular new media sites (social, cool and everything in between).   As an example, I’ve looked up some shoe brands to drive home a point: details matter.

Let’s suppose your ideal client is a “Skater Dude” (Male, 16-25) and you have a cool new product you want to promote.  Should you spend more energy, time and money on getting things ranked on Digg or create a really cool MySpace page?  Should you experiment with all things Twitter or post some cool videos of your product and/or sponsor videos on YouTube?  We can post all the options on a whiteboard and debate this all day OR use a site like SiteVolume to know where your “ideal customer” is spending their time.

Pay attention to the details of your “ideal customers”.  All of the “Skater Dudes” wear Vans.  So here’s what we learn from SiteVolume:

DIGG – More Nike however Vans is second (distant second)

Digg talks more about Nike (green) than Vans (orange)

MySpace is getting closer so perhaps a MySpace page and promotion would make sense.

MySpace talks more about Nike (green) but Vans (orange) is up there.

YouTube:  Now a cool YouTube channel and focusing on this avenue seems to make a lot of sense.

YouTube is high on the list. Vans (orange) is #1

Twitter users aren’t mentioning Vans very often so perhaps a Twitter push doesn’t make a lot of sense

Twitter talks more about Nike but Adidas and Vans are tied for #2

Although SiteVolume isn’t the savior of trending (obviously) at a quick glance it’s easy to see that YouTube and Vans seems to be a match so having fun with some cool videos and sponsoring channels that appeal to your ideal “Skater Dude” will be a great branding push for your new company, new product and new social marketing initiative.

Obviously there are other ways to use and learn from SiteVolume so feel free to use the comments section to share other options but it’s sites like this that make internet marketing so much fun.  Always something new to learn and try to figure out.