Why you don’t need to be on EVERY social media platform.
As a business or brand, it’s essential these days to capitalise on the reach and targeting ability of the various social media platforms at your disposal. But that doesn’t mean that you need to be on absolutely every one of them.
Each of the major social platforms all serve a different purpose and for some the perception might be that spreading your net as wide as possible will ultimately be beneficial. The truth of the matter is that it’s incredibly easy to spot a brand shoehorning content to fit a platform it just really shouldn’t be on.
It’s simple.
- Choose the platform/s that offer the best chance of reaching your target market.
- Create and publish the type of media that is best suited to your business.
Essentially you want to make sure that you’re doing a few things really well rather than a lot of things poorly.
Let’s take a look at the major social media platforms, what they offer and who they’re generally best suited for.
Facebook is arguably the most powerful social platform in the world. It’s sheer size is one of it’s biggest advantages as you can safely assume that most people are on it in some capacity.
Facebook offers people the chance to build relationships and share their lives and interests with those closest to them. Essentially they are controlling the narrative of their feeds by being able to narrow or widen their Facebook friend numbers at will, as well as hiding people or brands they want to connect with but not always hear from.
Unlike Twitter, it’s not an incessant stream of consciousness (although we all have that one friend who posts EVERYTHING they do each day.) and so lends itself to a stronger sense of curated content from friends and brands you follow.
Almost any business can benefit from having a Facebook page. But Facebook isn’t about selling. Your goal in using Facebook for business is to let customers get to know the people behind the logo.
If Facebook is used well it will be a breeding ground for followers, and if it’s used really well it will also be a place where those followers are converted to loyal fans.
Twitter is a 24/7 hub for everything that’s happening RIGHT NOW! That means that this platform is a great place to share your content but allows you the freedom to post a lot more, get involved in ongoing conversation and interact with people in real time.
Twitter is also a great channel to use for any customer service queries or complaints. Due to its fast paced nature people will use Twitter as their go to channel of choice when asking questions or sending customer complaints as they feel that they will be helped quicker on this channel than any of the others. With a recent report stating that only 1 in 5 customer service tweets get answered by companies, it’s certainly one area to set yourself apart if you manage that side of your business well.
Twitter is best for businesses and brands that have a lot to say, or want to engage with people directly (something that is a bit more difficult to do on Facebook).
The key to Instagram success is consistently sharing beautiful images that are relevant to your business or brand.
And the part about beautiful images is really important. Instagram thrives on being an inspirational and aspirational social platform. Unfortunately, some businesses provide goods and services that don’t naturally lend themselves to this medium. A food or wedding themed Instagram account is always going to naturally have more content to share than a plumbing or accounting business. This is not to say that those types of companies can’t come up with really inspired ideas to fit the medium, just that they don’t naturally provide the content needed to maximise the return from this platform.
Pinterest is similar to Instagram in that it is a visually appealing content-sharing service that allows people to draw inspiration from other users or from around the internet and keep it all in one place.
Pinterest has a predominantly female audience and is the go-to hub for creative inspiration in many different areas. From wedding planning to travel destinations, interior decorating, fashion or food, you can really grow your brand through the creative use of your Pinterest boards.
Pinterest has a niche market and serves it very well. You can comment on people’s boards, share imagery and click onto the webpages from which the images came. You can also like what you see, or “pin it.” Each board is linked to the pinner’s profile page so people can see the person, business or brand behind the photos or videos.
YouTube
Youtube is probably the biggest and most difficult market to crack because you have to really be offering something unique and exciting in order to get noticed.
What YouTube does offer though is the potential for an enormous amount of traffic from all ages who could see your work/product/brand etc. in a fun and engaging way.
It’s worth getting creative here in order to take what might be a simple or seemingly boring story and tell it in a creative way. One of the best examples of this is the BlendTec channel. They’re trying to sell you a blender, and at first glance you might imagine it would be fairly impossible to produce engaging content across multiple videos that centres around a blender. What they did do however was turn the concept on it’s head by making videos fun and interesting. They blend everyday items like iPhones, marbles and selfie sticks to prove the power of their machine in their “Will It Blend?” series.
Conclusion
It’s hard to be on all of the social media platforms and be doing them all consistently well. It’s worthwhile choosing up to 3 that you think are the best fit. Then hire someone to manage them for you, preferably someone who also has the ability to create engaging content for those channels and who knows how to maximise your exposure through them.
Get the basics right and the sky really is the limit to what can be achieved through the power of social media.
Follow me on Twitter @nickcharliekey for more content marketing tips and tricks.
Images reproduced from the amazing www.sproutsocial.com blog.
Information from around the web, with specific mention going to www.entrepreneur.com
