Ben Leftwich | August 19, 2016

Don’t try to do it all online, do enough consistently

There’s a pretty standard conversation we have with our clients.

Often they come in and ask “should I be on Facebook?” That answer is usually yes.

“What about Twitter?” they say.

“Sure” we typically answer.

“LinkedIn?” they ask.

“Maybe.”

“Instagram, Snapchat, Google+, Tumblr, Musical.ly, Messenger, WhatsApp, YouTube, Pinterest, Periscope? What about those?”

That’s usually where we stop the conversation and ask them to take a breath.

Look, the social media space is mind-bendingly huge. Want a sense? Take a look at the latest Social Media Landscape by Fred Cavazza.

Asking if you should be on Snapchat is like asking if you should be on TV, or radio, or in The New York Times. You might want to, but only if it helps you get closer to what you’re trying to achieve as a business.

That’s where you have to start whenever you’re considering how to develop and maintain social media content over a sustained period of time: with business objectives.

If your business objective is to grow your customers who are under 20-years old by 15% in the next 12 months, then Snapchat might be the best way to help you achieve that goal.

If, on the other hand you want to increase the number of 65+ retirees who purchase your product by 20% over the next two years, local radio might be the way to go.

Step one, therefore, is to determine your objective(s).

Step two is to figure out your target audience and where they are.

Then a bunch of steps to develop your message, make sure it resonates with your target audience and tweak as needed.

Then comes the step to select your channels, and get your message(s) out consistently.

The consistency part is so tough because if you don’t have a dedicated marketing resource, posting on social media almost always falls to last on your to-do list.

There are services you can outsource your social media posting to, but honestly, of all the different companies that we know who have offer this type of service, most are a waste of money.

That’s because to do this type of posting well as an outsourced provider means they have to take the time to get into the head of their clients, and that doesn’t work with the business model of most of these social media companies.

However, instead of feeling like you have to post or that it’s a burden that must be outsourced, look at it as an opportunity to have fun and express the personality of your company.

You know what you do better than anyone else, and make sure that you’re seen as more than a faceless company.

Share what you read, add some comments on why you found it so useful and initiate a conversation with your customers.

I promise, your customers may have accounts on 20 differently social networks, but they probably only use three or four consistently. Be on those three or four networks, and post as often as you have something interesting to say.

If you want to lock down those other social networks so you have them in the future, or for a small SEO boost, then feel free, but creating enough content to keep them all interesting and worth following is hard work. Big companies spend millions and have teams of people to make sure those big social media accounts consistently churn out good content.

The point is to enjoy managing social media and having conversations with your customers, where you can learn invaluable insight and help meet your business objectives.

Don’t make it a burden by overcommitting, and make sure you know what you’re trying to achieve before picking which channels you want to use.

Ben Leftwich

Account Director