Is it better to champion one social media, or do them all

[TreyAllDay]

I've heard a few varying opinions on this concept:

1) You need to get on every social media platform available and push yourself hard on every one, split our your resources evenly

2) Specialize in one or two that make sense and champion those.


Curious what you all think on this one? Which is better.

 

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[MakeItHappen]

This are just my 2 cents.

First I would find out what social media channels my targeted market is using the most.
Than I would be sure that I rock this channel.
Once I am rocking it I would add the next most popular channel and do the same.
Keep doing that till you don't see a decent ROI% on your time/money spent.

 

[Bearcorp]

It really depends on what your using social media for and what type of content you aim to put out to connect to your target market, but option 2 is what I have done and what I have seen work for others. As @MakeItHappen said, focus on a couple, knock it out the park, then look to branch wider.

 

[JohnCee]

Hey, Trey,

I recommend focusing on one at a time, but after gaining traction, start building up the next one. I've had success this way with Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Plus. No guarantees, though. When G+ closed, I lost 34K targeted followers.

I think the social media market is ready for a new platform (hint, hint--somebody...).

Cheers,

J

 

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[The-J]

Depends on your market.

Is your market huge? Is your product distribution ubiquitous or close to it? Do them all.

Is your market niche, with specific behavioral patterns that cause them to favor one platform over the others? Champion one.

 

[NandoJr]

I'm gonna go with 2 social media platforms first. I'm currently getting everything done by myself so I'm going to perfect Instagram and Twitter since those are the 2 platforms my customer base will be using the most.

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

Whichever one your customers are using.

I like Gary Vee’s idea of devoting 80% of your time/energy to what works, and 20% of your time/energy for “tasting” other channels.

If your main channel dies then you’ve probably figured out what the next best platform is.

 

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[Ocean Man]

This may be pretty obvious, and a bit out of your question, but building your own brand and website is where you should be focusing. Yes, utilize platforms like Facebook, eBay, and Amazon. But try to make people come to your place instead of theirs (control). (By the way, I advocate for building one, then building another sales channel).

A good example, of what happened recently at the company I work at. About two years ago, the majority of our selling was done on platforms like eBay. Recently, eBay shut down our account without notice, and it took us about a week or two to get it back up. If that happened two years ago, we'd be done for.

What's the difference? Now about 70%+ of traffic goes to our main website instead of other sales channels like eBay or Facebook. Although when we did retrieve our account, all the listings were removed... So over thousands of aged listings were gone... We're in the process of putting everything back, but again the moral of the story is to dedicate to building your own selling channel/website. When eBay closed our account suddenly, we were not worried. Because we did not depend on them.

When you're using Facebook/ eBay/ Amazon, you're not really in control. And without notice, you could lose everything.

 

[Xeon]

I think the social media market is ready for a new platform (hint, hint--somebody...).

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Your target audience will dictate what you need to be focusing on.

 

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[John F.]

Like some other have already said. Your primary objective should be to figure out which platform your ideal customer (which you should have figured out through market research) is using the most. Once you figure that out, pour everything you have into mastering that social media channel. Once you have that figured out and things are starting to provide value there, move on to the #2 platform for your target customer.

If you are doing 5 things all at once, are you really doing anything at all?

Take an Agile approach to it. One thing at a time. Focus. If you are working on learning 5 platforms at the same time, you are learning none.

 

[Andy Black]

Find a (the?) channel that works for you (it’s not just that your customers are there, but also that you “get” this channel and can live, eat, and breathe it).

Then live, eat, and breathe it.

Become a 10/10 guy/gal in that channel.

Don’t become a 7/10 guy in five different channels, because you’re up against a different 10/10 guy who specialises in each of those channels.

Caveat: If you’re really a 7/10 guy in five different channels then you can see stuff those 10/10 one-channel guys can’t. You likely can create something greater than the sum of the parts.


Don’t use tools to post to all the channels either. Go native. Get your fingers dirty. Get to the point where you see the girl in the red dress in the sea of green symbols flowing up the screen. Oh, and get to the point that you’re profitable - this is super important.

Dig into that channel till you get diminishing returns.


Then... consider this...

Should you learn another channel for the same product?

Or should you find another product to sell using this channel you’ve mastered?


Me personally, I’ve chosen to focus on the second of those options, and am starting to branch out into other channels slowly.

Oh, and make sure you’re building something that can exist when/if that channel disappears. My own client acquisition channel is relationship building. Sure, I post here, there and everywhere, but all those places dsiappeared then I still have the relationships I’ve built, and I still have the skills to build more relationships. (By skills I mean I am able to build relationships, and because I have skills people value.)

 

[MattR82]

At first I thought I would try and do as many as possible - only got as far as the main one the target market is at. Hopefully, branch out a bit to other platforms in a few months.

But having a super average approach on 3 or 4 platforms looks like a crappy option compared to blowing it out of the water on one, then moving them from that platform to the others (and most importantly an email list).

 

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[ZeroTo100]

Find the one that works best and focus everything you got on that.

You’ll know right away after using them which is suitable for traction in your business...

I used twitter and still do. People on this forum (there’s actually a thread) saying that twitter will be dead in a few years!

HAHAHA

Twitter is crushing it right now! Stock is performing beautifully. For me, I focused on 1 and this was in the fitness niche.

For paid ads, I focused on a different platform (Facebook).

I've heard a few varying opinions on this concept:

1) You need to get on every social media platform available and push yourself hard on every one, split our your resources evenly

2) Specialize in one or two that make sense and champion those.


Curious what you all think on this one? Which is better.

 

[Pratik_ITpro]

There are few questions that someone asks to itself before choosing the right social media platforms to market their Brand.

• Who is your typical customer?
• How old are they?
• Are they male or female?
• What is their income and education level?
• What are they interested in outside of your product and service?

Now match it with your Goals (which you might have written already)

And start searching for your audience.

Hopefully, this will help.

 

[TreyAllDay]

Thank you all for this invaluable advice. I have been thinking a lot about this - I suppose coming from a background in marketing for a retail brand (my business is b2b now) I assumed I needed to be on every channel like most big retail brands are, so I have a shitty facebook, youtube, instagram, and linkedin account instead of one good channel.

I am thinking linkedin is going to be my focus.

 

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[Valhalla]

I think seeking out new platforms to experiment on is important. I put a few minutes into Weheartit and we had a flood of sales for a while. I've changed focus but it's worth seeking out these less competitive environments.

 

[ZeroTo100]

Thank you all for this invaluable advice. I have been thinking a lot about this - I suppose coming from a background in marketing for a retail brand (my business is b2b now) I assumed I needed to be on every channel like most big retail brands are, so I have a shitty facebook, youtube, instagram, and linkedin account instead of one good channel.

I am thinking linkedin is going to be my focus.

Don’t get me wrong, you should be on all platforms...However, you should only focus on each one for its specific purpose. In my case, I had Facebook and used it just for paid ads. I used twitter to build the community around the brand and for unpaid traffic.

It would be a stretch for a solo entrepreneur to extend themselves into every single social network...I don’t get why anyone would do that aside from general link building purposes or to lock up their accounts for future sale.