Social Media Marketing
You may have heard the myth before, “you must be active on every channel to succeed with social media”. This is simply Not True. In fact, the right approach to social media starts with investing in a few of the right channels, as opposed to trying to be everywhere on social media. Otherwise, you may end up with limited results and wasted money and time.
Ok, so if you’re a large enterprise such as Coke-Cola or Pepsi, it is perhaps more common to be active on every channel but at the same time even a large brand is more than likely going to be looking where to be the most active and understand that they must have a strategic plan for success. Otherwise, they may as well be using a channel because it is trendy. This should never be the sole reason for your choice on social media.
Take your time and research a few channels that make the most sense for your organization. Then you can make small investments on two or four social networks instead of trying to spend time and money on many different platforms that may not be providing you the results you wish. However, that all being said, I do recommend that you set up a profile on each social network to reserve your company’s username. This prevents others from taking it and gives you the option in the future to revisit this social network if you decided to be active on it. Some allow for cross posting or networked functionality, such as Facebook and Twitter, post on one and it updates the other.
In the end, it comes down to striking a balance between being on enough channels where your audience spends time without trying to be everywhere and over-extending yourself. Don’t get confused by the hype but instead, take the time to figure out which social networks will bring the most value to your organization.
The first thing to do is determine which social platforms your audience is active on. Most social networks themselves provide data on their audiences’ demographics in terms of size and composition along with information on their activity level. It’s a good idea to start by searching for this information on their websites, press pages and review the data to give you an idea of which platforms is best for your business. For example, if you look at Snapchat’s guide on their website you will see it indicates that 41% of 18 to 34-year-olds, use the platform daily in the United States. If your company is trying to reach a younger audience, then this platform is probably a good fit. However, if you are targeting retirees, you probably should give Snapchat a skip.
Make sure to verify audience data supplied by the social networks, it is always a good practice to see the full picture.
The companies that tend to see the most success in social media understand what makes each social network distinct. For instance, Twitter only allows 280 characters within their tweets. Vertically aligned visuals perform best on Pinterest. And snaps on Snap Chat disappear in 24 hours. Knowing these differences is essential. So, it is important to identify the types of content that users tend to share most per channel, and which are more prominently featured by each network.
Like how GIF’s are prominently shared on Tumblr, over other types of content by its audience, which is worth noting. While a video is widely shared on Facebook, the social network gives priority to this type of content to help make the platform more of a destination for video. Organizing each network by content type can help simplify the differences between channels. Pinterest and Instagram are highly visual networks. So, images are primarily shared there. While YouTube and Snap Chat are mainly used for sharing video, Facebook and LinkedIn are used to share all different types of content.
Take note of the specific feature sets like these, to both guide which channels you’d like to be active on and to understand how to best package the types of content you’ll share there. Although links and images are widely shared on both Facebook and LinkedIn, content shared on LinkedIn is mainly focused on business and professional topics, as the network is widely used by users to find their next job, network with colleagues, and connect with recruiters. While Facebook is used by people to consume the news, keep up with family and friends, and share content on any subject of interest. Again, you don’t have to be everywhere to be successful with social media.
In the end, no survey or research study on social media can give you the full picture. You must mix research with experience. Get active on social media yourself to learn and see what is really happening, then go out and make it happen.