Why I chose not to focus on all of the social media platforms for my business
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I can scroll through social media platforms all day long. I’m either looking for inspiration, keeping up with friends or family, or just killing time.
Most people, especially business owners, are in on the current trends and content strategies for their social media platforms. It’s easy to see why social media marketers have such large followings when you read their posts or listen to them speak.
When I post to social media, however, I can be quite clueless.
How long is too long? Isn’t this supposed to be quick? Do I have to pose for all these selfies? Can’t I just use a stock photo?
I complain so much when it comes to managing my social media accounts for my small business. When I first started, I tried to maintain accounts on all social media platforms. I quickly realized I wasn’t cut out to maintain 5 different social media accounts on different platforms.
So, I did the next best thing. I downsized.
Instead of maintaining 5 different social media accounts, I focused on 2-3 accounts (specifically Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn). Any other social media platforms weren’t getting my attention enough to maintain and I wasn’t as interested in learning about how to manage them.
For a little while, I considered integrating one social media platform at a time, however, I knew it would be easier to streamline my social media management across my preferred platforms, rather than only focusing on one platform. This became even easier when I started using social media management tools, like Hootesuite and Later.com. Even using Tailwind for Instagram has helped me learn how to improve my #hashtag uses.
Not sure if you're ready to start managing your social media content alone just yet? Try out Tailwind free for a month when you click the link and recieve assistance to improve your #hashtag game, like me, for Instagram.
While social media management tools won’t fix all your problems in regards to social media, they will help you keep your business’ social media posts organized.
I’m not alone on the disengaged social media management platform either. Many business owners also struggle when creating a social media strategy plan and growing engagement for their business.
Why should your business be on social media platforms?
Social media is a constant source of new information.
Whether you are looking for your local news to business updates to popular culture, social media is more likely to have your answers. Siri or Alexa might beat you to finding the information, but your social media feed is bound to be a high volume source as well.
Customers, clients, and vendors are constantly looking at social media for business and product referrals and updates regarding businesses. New posts and stories allow you to stay current with other businesses in your industry.
Social media content is often referred to as microblogging. With 400 characters or less and an image, social media platforms are encouraging users to create mini-stories and pieces of content for customers. Microblogging is a great way to encourage engagement with your clients and vendors because they know your story without having to spend 20 minutes reading about your growing business.
How many social media platforms should your business be on?
You can choose all 5 social media platforms if you think you can handle it. It can be very overwhelming if you’re trying to juggle multiple hats in regards to your new business.
If you don’t think you’re cut out for a particular platform or, better yet, your ideal client isn’t popular on a certain social media platform, put it on the back-burner. It’s not a sign of defeat. This just means you’ll look back on the aspect of starting an account on another social media platform for your business at a later date.
I’d recommend starting on 2 or 3 social media platforms. Instagram tends to be a popular front-runner for businesses because you can see a visual with you’re content. Others, like Twitter and Facebook, are impactful depending on which you put your most time into.
You might recognize that I did not include Pinterest on my list, but I do post content and have a business account. I do not consider Pinterest as a social media platform. I consider it as a search engine tool. Pinterest is a great tool to make use of to generate leads, increase your traffic, or network with other businesses, similar to other social media platforms. I don’t see it as a social media platform thus I’m reserving it for another post.
Find the right social media platform for your business
You might be thinking about which social media platforms are right for your business. Again, you might not need to be using every type of social media platform but know why others might be pursuing them could help you understand another business strategy a bit more.
You’ve probably seen Twitter as a source of content and information for many news outlets. Outlets like BuzzFeed will take a collection of tweets to make a story. Others, like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, will use snippets or individual tweets to refer or source commentary on his show.
Twitter is great when you want a quick and easy way to refer and respond to others in 280 characters or less.
That being said, tweets with images tend to do better than those that are only text, about 150% more engagement, than those without. So don’t forget to add a photo to your tweets.
Twitter is also curating more content on a quicker scale. Most businesses need to tweet on average about 5-7 times a day to keep up. The half-life of your standard tweet is usually only about 30 minutes, so you’ll need to schedule your tweets beforehand or be quick about updates.
Facebook, the originator, tends to be a popular go-to for social media engagement.
Lots of businesses start either business pages or Facebook groups for their small business start-ups. It’s important to note that these two formats create to very different prospects for your business.
A good way to identify each is this: Late night talk show hosts typically start with a monologue. This is a great example of your business page. The monologue tells you a lot about the topic of the night and encourages laughter and expressions from the audience, but not necessarily a call and response. Once a talk show sits down with a guest, they are focused on creating a dialogue and interaction with that night’s guest. This part of the show would be a Facebook group, where members want to interact, learn, and talk with one another.
Facebook business pages generally promote someone’s business, but doesn’t reach the same interaction that a Group would. A Facebook group, however, thrives off of engagement between its members.
Instagram is one of the bigger microblogging social media platforms in various industries.
Being a visual-based platform, it’s become a powerhouse to create various types of content and focus on quick content. With their addition of story content, posts that are not recorded in your feed but are connected to your profile for 24-hours, Instagram has been all about the quick, authentic post.
When it started competing with Snapchat, Instagram condensed its viewership and content duration. It was easier to post something, everlasting on your Instagram feed, but the quickness needed in a story allows viewers to see more in-real-time content, rather than curated content.
Instagram’s half-life is still quite long compared to other social media platforms, like Twitter, but is slowly changing its engagement methods to focus on real-time, compared to stock and prepared content.
Need a bit of help finding the best #hashtags for your Instagram posts? Tailwind is a great way to start researching #hashtags for your target audience. They give you recommendations and level of engagement from users depending on your preferred #hashtags. Try for a month free when you click the link.
If you’re looking to expand and network within your business, I would start learning how to manage your LinkedIn profile. Not only will it be great to get you out and about among your ideal network and industry leaders, but for your business as well.
LinkedIn can be such an under-utilized social media platform. So many people see it as a website to host your resume and gain job opportunities.
While this is true, it’s also a great way to network and connect with people in your industry. Knowing people who have resources and connections of their own will help grow and expand your business.
Many industry leaders are still learning how to use LinkedIn for their business. If you choose to focus on LinkedIn, you could be gaining a big advantage by starting in an up-and-coming social media platform.
YouTube
YouTube has become a great place to organize and curate video content for businesses.
Not only does it help promote your business visually, but it also helps your business’ content marketing strategy create stories for interested audience members.
Video tends to be king when it comes to content. Videos tend to get the most engagement from readers compared to text or only a picture. Whether your business is promoting an event, participating in a news story, or giving an in-depth interview, video content is a great way to entice viewers.
YouTube could also be seen as a search engine with its countless tutorials and news content stored on the website. Based on its interaction and engagement, I’ve kept it classified as a social media platform.
It’s no surprise that social media management can be a handful when combined with the rest of your duties as a business owner. Choose maybe 2-3 social media platforms and utilize a social media management tool to keep organized and on top of your responsibilities.
Need more help managing your social media accounts? Check out Tailwind’s feature for Instagram for free for a month to research and pinpoint your best #hashtags and engagement times for your business account.
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