“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.
