Social Media Marketing is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Figure out who your target audience is.
2. Find them online.
3. Connect with them.

Most people are good at figuring out who their target audience is (#1) and have good people skills to manage relationships successfully (#3). They only struggle at finding their target audience (#2). The good news is that finding your target audience online is extremely easy. I’ll show you how I’d go about finding potential clients online if I sold Harley Davidson merchandise.

How to Find Potential Clients on Forums

• Search Google for “[keyword] forum”.
  
• Some variations: “[keyword] discussion board” and “[keyword] discussion forum”.
• Use BoardTracker and BoardReader to find forums.
  
• I prefer the Google search over BoardReader and BoardTracker because Google will give you forums instead of individual threads within forums.

How to Find Potential Clients on LinkedIn Groups

• Choose “Groups” from the drop-down menu and enter your keyword.
  
• Join the groups and become part of the conversation.

How to Find Potential Clients on Facebook Groups

• Go to Facebook Groups.
  
• Search for your keyword.
  
• Join the groups.
  

How to Find Potential Clients on Google Groups

• Go to Google Groups.
• Search.
  
• Look for active groups. You should look at the date of the last post, the number of members and the number of messages per month.
• Join the groups and make a contribution by providing valuable content.

How to Find Potential Clients on Yahoo! Groups

• Go to Yahoo! Groups.
• Search.
  
• Look for attractive groups (with plenty of active members), join them and engage in the conversation.

How to Find Potential Clients on Blogs

• Do a Google search.
  
• Subscribe, comment and make friends.
• Make friends with bloggers too. Send them emails and congratulate them on their great blogs (make sure you really mean it). These people have access to thousands of Harley Davidson fans. Blog readers really trust bloggers, so take the time to develop strong relationships with the most influential bloggers in your industry.

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