Smart Social Media: Why You Don Need to be Everywhere

Have you ever had a first encounter with an organization through social media? Maybe along the bottom of a search result was a clothing store you have never heard of, and you decided to take a look. I know this has happened to me, and I’ve ended up finding some great online shops I never knew existed. Now what if you came across that Facebook account, and when you looked at their profile they hadn’t updated their status in three months, and there were no fan comments. Would you bother to click through to that organizations website?

Social media is not just about presence. Merely being on a platform doesn’t increase your customer base. It is the engagement on that platform that makes a difference for your business. I have made the argument, and will continue to make the argument, that abandoned social media accounts are bad for your organization. It is better to not be found, than to be found and leave a bad impression.

More than likely, your organization does not have the time or budget to dedicate the necessary amount of time to each social media if you are going to be involved in every single one. As a social media manager I have been known to spend two hours a day just on Twitter, scheduling status updates for the week, checking for new followers, and generally scanning for conversations we should be a part of. Curating that much information takes time and effort. And if having an inadequate presence on a media makes your organization look bad, you can see why it would be smart to stick to just a few social media accounts.

There is also the argument that not every social media makes sense for every company. Just like deciding which magazine would reach your target audience with an ad, or an article, your social media platform should strategically reach your target audience. Photo-driven platforms like Pinterest and Tumblr are great for fashion magazines, or stores, while a news resource will get the most out of the immediacy and openness of Twitter.

choosing which social media platform is right for your organization is a completely different article, but it is just like any other form of advertisement or public relations- you need the right vehicle to reach the right audience.

So, we’ve established that:

• A stagnant social media account does more harm than good.
• No one has time to be on every social media.
• And you need to choose the right social media to reach your target audience.

There’s social media strategy 101 folks.