Pick Your Poison… I Mean Platform.
Whether you are starting a company or just hoping to extend your brand, you might be asking yourself which (if not all) social media platforms should I be on? Maybe your’e thinking of creating a Facebook page, an Instagram account, Twitter handle or even a Pinterest board. Now before you go creating an account for every social platform imaginable there are a few things you need to ask consider.
I get that it can be tempting to want to jump on each and every platform in order to reach a broader audience and potentially tap into another market, however, it’s easy to stretch yourself out too thin and most the time it’s unnecessary. Instead what you need to ask yourself is what’s your main objective in creating the page? Will that specific platform meet your needs and goals? These are just a few of the questions I hope to help you answer while I will walk you through my process of how I decided on which social platform was best for my message and kept my brand’s best interest at heart.
This past fall and the spirit of Halloween I decided I wanted to investigate some of the most haunted locations in my home state of Utah, I dug deep into the history of each location documenting my findings as I went along, after investigating several different locations I started to ask myself “how was I going to share this information in a way that people would want to consume it?” This question is what brings us to step 1.
1. Know your Purpose
In order to plan your social media strategy, you need to know what your primary goal? Is it to build up a large following, raise awareness, perhaps drive more traffic to website? Whatever the reason, the sooner you find out, the sooner you can decide on which platform is best for you and your brand.
In my case I simply wanted to provide information, I wanted to share the feeling of excitement that I had while investigating these locations with those who might share in my obsession of all things spooky.
2. What’s Your (Platforms) Purpose?
Before creating an account for any platform, it’s vital that you understand the purpose behind why that platform is used. For example, Facebook’s purpose is to build a sense of community so If you’re a local business Facebook might be a great way to branch out to the community. Instagram is highly visual, twitter for sharing quick thoughts and YouTube is great for instruction and storytelling.
As you can see from the image above, I decided to with instagram for my preferred platform, let me explain why: While there were several platforms that could have worked for my business goals, I decided to go with Instagram because it was an easy way to get my message across in a way that offered my audience a taste of what I have to offer without giving them everything. They could consume my content in little bite sized tidbits in one sitting and if they liked what they saw they could then be directed to my podcast, sort of like sampling the snacks they offer at Costco.
3. Know Your Audience
Is critical to your business that you understand who your audience is and what platforms they are using, in this way you have a better chance of reaching them and being able to get your message across. It’s important that you are where your followers are. So take a look at your traffic and analytics, if the majority of your audience is millennials than it might be smart to look at Instagram and snapchat.
After doing some research I found that roughly 60% of people who watch horror/true crime shows are made up of people ages 21–35, with women making up 49% of that percentage. This also played a part in my decision to go with Instagram as my outreach platform.
4. Stay Consistent
it can be jarring for your audience when they come to your page and don’t recognize it, it seems unfamiliar to them and they question whether or not they came to the right place?
It’s important to know the correct dimensions for your profile image to make sure it is recognizable and of the highest quality possible, it comes off very unprofessional if your image is blurry or pixelated.
Pictured above you can see my two variations of profile pictures from my podcast and instagram page, ideally I would have gone with the same picture but when looking at the smaller profile image for instagram, the text was small and difficult to read so I threw on the backdrop image to help get the message accross of what type of page this was, a place for Haunted locations.
5. Don’t double dip
Much like the dip at a party no one likes seeing you reuse the same chip, what I’m referring to is known in digital media as cross-posting, which is when you push the same content across all of your different platforms. Do not be that person, while this may be easier to increase the frequency of your posts, it comes off as extremely lazy.
This may require a lot of time and planning on your part to create new content and then determine which platform is best for that specific piece, but that brings us back full circle to #1: knowing your platforms purpose. But I promise you it is worth it, your followers come to you for relevant and unique content, don’t betray that trust, remember quality over quantity.
In Review
There is so much more that should be considered when creating your online presence, people can tell when you just throw something together half heartedly and aren’t utilizing the platform for what it is. Because while I’m hoping my page will lead my followers to my other platforms, such as my podcast, I don’t count on it. I treat each of my platforms as if it were my only one, making sure that my visitor’s experience is everything they would expect it to be and then trust that because I do so, that they will want to immerse themselves in my content through other platforms as well. You have to earn the trust and respect that come from a loyal following.
By keeping the five steps (above) in mind while you build your online presence you can be efficient in the way that you select your platforms that will in turn lead to more engagement, sales and loyal followers.
