FOMO for Businesses

“You should be on social media.”

“You have a Facebook page, right?”

“What about Twitter, you have to have Twitter!”

“Pinterest is so great.”

“Have you thought about Google+?”

“Everyone always forgets about YouTube, do you have anyone that can do video?”

“LinkedIn is great for B2B. You have a LinkedIn page, right?”

(Photo credit, Stelzner, 2014)

Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Pinterest. Google+. Tumblr. These are just a few of the social media platforms available to marketers. It seems like there’s a new “it” platform every week. The latest platforms to join the mix are Ello and Snapchat. Users flock to these networks, sharing personal information, photos, and data. A company can build a loyal fan base and gain marketplace intelligence with relative ease (Stelzner, 2014).

“Marketers saw an increase of 74% in website traffic after devoting just 6 hours per week in social media (Costill, 2014). No wonder marketers are worried about missing out. But with so many networks, it takes too much time, manpower, and effort to maintain a quality presence on every site. Unless you’re a super conglomerate like Coca-Cola or Nike with thousands of employees and public relations/ad agencies on retainer, it’s nearly impossible to adopt multiple platforms (Glauberman, 2012).

That leaves marketers with some big decisions to make, mainly which platform is going to be the best value to a marketer’s company. Will there be a main platform and one or two offshoots? Or should the focus be on as many platforms as possible for fear of ignoring customers, thus missing out?

Marketers can’t always have the fear of missing out. There are so many platforms with so many updates that it’s better to have a select group of quality sites, than to spread a company’s presence thinner than paper (Costill, 2014). Quality over quantity.

Who is your target audience and where are they?

When evaluating each platform it’s important for marketers to keep in mind who their target audience is and where they currently are online. Are you B2B or B2C?

The Next Web as an easy to understand explanation of each major platform: (Chitwood 2014)

1. Twitter

Who should use it: Everyone – from individuals to the largest multinational corporations

What to share: Start, join, and lead conversations; interact directly with brands and customers

Post frequency: Multiple times per day

Twitter is the dominant democracy of the social-sharing economy. Relevancy, personality and brevity are the keys to making your voice heard.

2. Instagram

Who should use it: Lifestyle, food, fashion, personalities and luxury brands

What to share: Share visual content, including short videos (less than 15 seconds)

Post frequency: Once a day

Instagram invites brands with visual content into their customers’ zone-out time. Create and post content accordingly.

You’ll want to experiment with your own userbase and followers, but it’s likely that the best time to target your posts will be to get to your audience’s eyes during their commutes, nights, and weekends.

3. LinkedIn

Who should use it: Businesses (especially B2B service providers), Recruiters and Job-Seekers

What to share: Job-postings, company descriptions, employer/employee research

Post frequency: Two to four times a week

LinkedIn is the online analog to old fashioned networking. People – and connections to people – are everything

Keep a company description and profile page mindful of keyword SEO, but your network of employees and contacts is your most valuable (and potentially damaging) content on LinkedIn. Make sure people in your organization are appropriate, professional and on-brand. There’s nowhere online where employers and employees are more intimately linked.

Company seeking clients and individuals seeking employment should grow their LinkedIn networks by adding as many real connections as possible. Use your second and third-degree connections to request personal introductions (when reasonable), and weed out the Internet’s infinity of companies and applications, focusing on opportunities where you have some real connection.

4. Facebook

Who should use it: Everyone and their grandmas

What to share: All types of online content, events, ads

Post frequency: Once or twice a day

Consider advertising or paying to promote your page on Facebook, but don’t make your brand’s Facebook page itself look like an advertisement. Inspire conversations and shares – and be sure to ask questions.

Of all social networks, Facebook is best equipped to linearly share responses to a post asking a question or sparking conversation. Answers then appear in friends of your respondents, spreading the conversation.

Facebook offers personal connection and an enjoyable distraction amidst the work day, but use typically peaks outside of work hours. There’s no shortage of options for analyzing Facebook data. Track the success of your content by date and time to hone in on the best times for engaging your audience.

5. Google+

Who should use it: Brands already on the other major social networks, B2B networking, bloggers

What to share: More formal and professional than Facebook; Hashtags have major search value

Post frequency: Once or twice a day

As Google’s proposed alternative to Facebook, keywords and search engine optimization are central to the appeal of Google+. Link often to content on your own website to direct this search boost where you want it most.

6. YouTube

Who should use it: Brands with video content and ads, anyone giving explanations or sharing expertise

What to share: Short (less than 1.5 minutes) video content

Post frequency: Once or twice a week

Google treats its own well, and YouTube is the prime example of this fact. YouTube videos feature prominently in Google search results.

7. Pinterest

Who should use it: Fashion, food, design, travel and anything DIY; audience skews female by 4:1

What to share: Creative, visual content

Post frequency: Multiple times per day

Users pin and re-pin posts to Pinterest Boards, which naturally push the content on Pinterest into categories. This makes easily-categorized content most apt for sharing, and wisely-chosen keywords essential to successful post captions.

Pinterest differs from other popular search engines in heavily favoring recent content. Pinning and re-pinning frequently is necessary to appear within current results for a given search term, regardless of how popular your content is.

8. Yelp and/or Foursquare

Who should use it: B2C companies, brick-and-mortar outlets (especially stores, restaurants, and travel/tourism related), reviewers and bloggers

What to share: Location-based business search and reviews

Post frequency: Before your physical business opens and whenever information changes. Otherwise, at least weekly.

Share details about your business on an official company profile page. Monitor customer feedback related to your business, and respond to concerns raised in reviews. Consider it free promotion and advertisement (although paid promotions are also available).

Keep your information updated, and pay attention to keywords and SEO in crafting descriptions – Yelp listings in particular feature prominently in Google searches for local businesses.

On the consumer side of these B2C networks, reviewers and bloggers can use Yelp and Foursquare to grow their following. You can’t post a link in a review (Yelp with flag those and potentially suspend your profile), but you can develop a reputation for reliable reviews.

What is your goal and which platform will help you reach it?

When determining which platforms are going to be the most valuable to your company, it is important to identify goals and metrics that are measurable. Knowing these KPIs will help marketers to unearth trends and spot opportunities or uses (Lake, 2009).

Each platform has benefits that may outweigh another as pictured below (Nilsson, 2011). It’s about weighing the strengths and benefits of each platform and comparing them to the goals of your organization and the target audience.

Photo Credit: (Costill, 2014)

Time Management

It would be inefficient for marketers to be constantly on and posting to social media channels.  The time spent by marketers on social media is growing exponentially, with 64% of marketers claiming that they spend 6 or more hours per week using the platforms (Stelzner, 2014).

Photo Credit: (Stelzner, 2014)

This is where services like Buffer, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Facebook Scheduled Posts are very helpful in managing content and time. Using these tools, marketers are able to schedule posts to be distributed at a determined time. But marketers should be careful when using these tools. Auto-posting to Facebook decreases likes and comments by 70% (Constine, 2011).

Content vs. Conversation

There’s a long-standing debate over whether marketers should focus on content or conversation. Knowing that auto-posting hurts engagement, marketers should be aware of the need for quality content that is genuine. With social media placing a focus on engagement, should marketers place more focus on the content on our pages or on the conversation, or lack thereof, on each platform?

Personally, I am in the content is king camp. Content is going to draw different responses, leading to conversation. But if a company is simply posting the same content over and over on multiple platforms, the conversation will not follow (GoLocalProv Business Team, 2014).

Advertising Options

Marketers must also consider advertising abilities on the social platforms they select. In addition to updating content and links back to a company website, marketers have the option to invest resources into social advertising.  

While most social platforms are still testing their advertising, Facebook has an established program in place that helps to track engagement. Social advertising will continue to develop over time, but presently there are few systems that offer insights as detailed and cost effectively as Facebook.

In Conclusion

There is no golden answer for marketers when it comes to selecting platforms and creating content that drives traffic and engagement. However, it is important to select the proper social media channels based on resources and the target audience. Don’t let the fear of missing out put a damper on your plans. Let it inspire you to take full ownership of the few channels you select.

References:

Chitwood, L. (2014, March). The Next Web. “Which social media platform is best for your business?” Retrieved from, http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2014/03/05/social-media-platform-best-business/.

Constine, J. (2011, September 6). InsideFacebook. “Study: Auto-Posting to Facebook Decreases Likes and Comments by 70%.” Retrieved from, http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/09/06/hootsuite-tweetdeckdecreases-feedback/.

Costill, A. (2014, June 4). SEJ. “SM101: Which Social Media Platform Should I Use?” Retrieved from, http://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-platform-use/108057/.

Glauberman, S. (2012, May 17). Content Marketing Institute. “Many Platforms, One Voice: How to Maintain a Consistent Social Media Platform.” Retrieved from, http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/05/how-to-maintain-a-consistent-social-persona/.

GoLocalProv Business Team. (2014, November 10). Go Local Prov. “Small Business in a Digital Age: Social Media.” Retrieved from, http://www.golocalprov.com/business/small-business-in-a-digital-age-social-media.

Lake, C. (2009, October 30). Econsultancy. “media KPIs help to measure engagement.” Retrieved from,  http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/4887-35-social-media-kpis-to-help-measure-engagement.

Nilsson, J. (2011, April 29). SCRM Cloud. “The 16 best Social Media Management tools reviewed.” Retrieved from, http://www.joakimnilsson.com/reports-white-papers/15-social-media-management-tools-report/.

Stelzner, M. (2014, May). Social Media Examiner. “2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.” Retrieved from, http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2014.pdf.