May 19, 2017
5 years ago, a lot of people argued that brands should be on every major social media platform: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr. Now we’re wondering… was this such a great idea?
Well, all things considered, probably not! Let’s look at how everybody spits out content online: news, press releases, videos, tweets, documentaries, Facebook posts, Spotify playlists, LinkedIn pulse… did I mention comments, shares and likes? It would be hard to get bored even if we tried! (Well, considering some of the content quality, being bored is a luxury we can’t afford anymore). What does this information overload impact marketing? To brands, it means they should qualify their content rather than quantify it.
A lot of them follow this logic: “the more I position my brand on different platforms, the bigger my reach”. That’s not an issue as such, however, being on a lot of channels requires a lot of content and there lies the problem. Usually, brands take a short cut here and there, and re-use the same content across all channels. This also has an impact on the social media manager’s tasks as they will have less time to think about the specific possibilities of content and format for each network.
It’s better for a brand to target specific platforms. Mature social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even Pinterest have so many users that you can reach almost everyone, so demographic data is not enough to make your choice.
What about the social media culture? Just like big brands, the big social networks have their vision and their mission: Facebook is all about videos and voyeurism, Instagram perfection and idealisation, and passions are unleashed on Twitter. It might be stereotypical, but there is still a big part of truth to it. In concrete terms, each network has its own codes and customs, and an individual will not behave in the same way on Facebook as he does on LinkedIn. That is mainly due to the platform native functionalities but also to the group dynamic. It would be unrealistic to imagine that a brand, no matter how big, would be able to change.
A lot of brands didn’t think their strategy before launching their account (or sometimes accounts) on the different social networks under the pretext of digital transformation. Some of them have realised that, and are now withdrawing from the channels. You also need to take a step back and look at what you want to show about yourself and how you’re doing it. Are the results what you expected? If not, maybe it’s time to rethink your social media strategy (If you need a little help, remember that you can always ask for help ).
