ONE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM OR MANY?
This
question can be answered in several ways, with advantages and disadvantages to
picking one road or the other, but while the decision to focus on one or many
is debatable, it really comes down to resources.
Big
corporate giants have resources. They can designate an entire department solely
to the management and cohesiveness of its social media platform. This might
have one senior level manager keeping a finger on the rest of the group,
ensuring the messages across all platforms are accurate and consistent. One
employee might work on Twitter all day, tweeting and managing ads, and looking
for relevant hashtags to join conversation. Another will have the same duties
for Facebook, and YouTube, and Instagram, and LinkedIn, and Pinterest, and so
on. Wherever relevant and adding value to the corporation, a resource can be
placed in that area.
For
the big corporations that have the resources to spare, it is advantageous to be
everywhere, linking the media platforms together to raise awareness and
increase connections across the various sources. If it is possible, to have a
presence everywhere and get the exposure of all of these platforms linked
together, that can have an amazing impact.
For
a small business, it is much more difficult to try to keep up with all of it.
Generally, one person must manage the social media aspects of the company, and
most of the time, that person is managing several other areas of the marketing
as well. In some cases, one person is managing all of the marketing in the
company.
If
your company can’t afford to divide and conquer, then conquer with just one or
two. If your company is a start-up, in those first 3-5 years of businesses, or
just starting up in the social media realm, then choose just one, and focus all
of the attention to gaining a large and captive audience in that one spot.
So,
first and foremost, decide which is the most likely you can rule in your
industry (or at least claim a top spot); keep up with enough that you engage a willing
and hungry audience.
Making
the choice of which to go with can be difficult. Twitter is great for everyone,
and has an active participation of individuals and all kinds of businesses.
Twitter is great for locking in on conversations, joining in and using hashtags
to further the conversation or involve others. Twitter can be effective, but
only if you can engage several times a day. Instagram is great for food,
fashion, or personalities (thenextweb.com, 2014). Sharing visual content once a
day is sufficient and connects to a target audience. LinkedIn is a focus for
business to business, or human resource companies or departments. Facebook,
like Twitter, has everyone, individuals and businesses. The engagement is
similar to Twitter, although generally more visuals, however the post frequency
requirement is a bit less, usually once or twice per day. Google+ seems to be
big for business to business and bloggers (thenextweb.com, 2014), and has a
similar interaction to Facebook, with the added benefit of integrating keyword
and search engine optimization on Google to increase presence on both. Google+
can be a great for businesses since a lot of the informal conversation is left
for Facebook, and most of the interaction is on a professional level. YouTube is
great for those that have time to create engaging and conversational video
content, including ads, advice, and information. Many small businesses need
heavier resources to create enough videos to gain an audience expecting
consistent content. If you are a sole proprietor, or small business in food,
fashion, or especially any DIY company, Pinterest will be beneficial, primarily
for women-oriented products, since the ratio of women to men on Pinterest is
4:1 (thenextweb.2014).
Once
you’ve identified which social media platform would prove the most value versus
time spent, as well as the platform the company can slowly become a winner, an
organized approach must be created and implemented to reach that goal.
One
woman has built a very strong case for giving one platform everything. And her
argument is quite strong.
Megan
Auman is one of those people that have built a business doing something they
love. She designs jewelry, is an entrepreneur and educator, and provides
excellent advice to the small business owner that is trying to carve out their
market.
The
first point recognizes that Andrew Carnegie (the second richest man
in history), gave this advice: “‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ is
wrong. I tell you ‘put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that
basket.’” Carnegie goes on to say that it’s much easier to carry (and not drop)
one basket than many (designinganmba.com,2014).
With too many social media
platforms, the results are slow across the board, efforts spread too thin, so
burn out is common, and the ball is dropped, often just on the brink of
something great happening. We are impatient by nature; we hope to post
something and see an increase in that interaction immediately. But give it a
year before your expectations seek any type of traction, and then grab hold.
As Megan points out, finding the
best way to connect one on one with your customers is key. So if you discover a
social media platform that can direct people to your website and get them to
subscribe to your email list, that is your best conversational asset. They
might miss your ‘tweet’ or the Facebook algorithms might bypass you on their
news feed, but if you can get their most engaging point of contact (email),
then you will be able to reach them no matter what.
After giving that some thought, I
think for small businesses, it could be very product or service dependent, or
possibly personality based. You’re likely to spend the most time on a social
media platform that you integrate well with, you feel comfortable with, and
that gives you enjoyment, whether that be from success or from the connections
you make.
As a small business owner, the
investigation of the best social media outlet has been well underway. Most of
all, the realization is concrete that it is an investment of time in people,
and engaging them to believe that it is worthwhile to make an investment of
their time into your business.
So, to conclude, the argument
persists that big corporations can afford to go for all of it, but the small
business owner should nail down one social media outlet that will connect with
the audience on the most personal level to get the most engaging interactions,
subscriptions, and email!
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