If you’re a small business, choosing what social media platforms are important for you to keep updated is a challenge. But one thing is sure – don’t spread yourself too thin.
As I mentioned in my post about Which Social Media Platform You Should Use there are a lot of options for you – both general use (Facebook, Twitter) and targeted (Cross.tv, Disaboom). But no matter which social media platforms you choose, make sure you have the time to make sure each site is updated often.
Think about your own online experiences – if you go to a website and click on one of their Social Media links and then see that their Facebook Wall hasn’t been updated since 2013, how does that make you feel about that company? Despite the fact that only about 2.5% of all organic Facebook posts are seen by your fans on their Walls, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make sure that you post often – even if it’s just a few times a month. Potential customers come to your Facebook Wall from a variety of paths – and you should be doubly sure you update your Facebook Wall if you have a link from your website to Facebook (or links to any other platforms from your website).
So how do you make sure you don’t spread yourself too thin?
There are a number of tools that can help you manage multiple social media platforms simultaneously. Hubspot for one can help you manage a variety of platforms. Keep in mind, though, if you’re using a tool to update several social media platforms, make sure you tailor the posts to match the platform. For example, using hashtags on Facebook typically looks out of place. In fact, according to a study done by EdgeTracker, using hashtags on Facebook actually decreases engagement (versus Twitter, where the use of hastags will double the likelihood a post is shared).. Granted, this study was done in 2013 – which may as well be 1,000 years in online marketing years – but overall, make sure that you’re using the expected posting techniques for each social media platform you update.
Overall, you should make sure that you spend at least one to two hours per day promoting your company on social media. If you find that this is too much time to devote to your social media outreach, then consider scaling back the number of platforms you’re using. If you can choose only one platform, choose the one that has proven to be where your potential customers are – don’t just pick one because you’re familiar with it and it’s easy for you to use. It’s better to spend less time on one, highly targeted social media platform than it is to spend hours updating multiple platforms that your customers never use.
