Social media strategies: Make the right choice!

cnm4881
Sep 12, 2016
2 min read

Sure, you know all about the guidelines to get organised for your SM strategy -- setting your goals and objectives, defining essential metrics to monitor and creating social media policies to adhere to. And then you are faced with these:

With the abundance of social media tools at your disposal, how do you decide on which platforms to utilize? Social media campaigns differ from each other and while we can't give you a definitive answer, we can definitely tell you what NOT to do.

DO NOT

Attempt to engage in every single platform that you can think of

The saying goes that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. Engaging in more platforms may increase your reach to a wider diversity of audience, but don't forget the "social" aspect of the campaign. "Interaction" is a key term here, and you have to ensure that you have enough resources to monitor all the platforms you are using.

Forget the "Big Three": Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Not only are these three platforms most heavily used, YouTube is also the largest search engine in the world, behind only Google (Mansfield, 2012). Moreover, Facebook is increasingly central to the social web and requires minimal time to maintain.

Overlook the unique affordances of each platform

If you're not going to run a large-scale video campaign, it would be wise to reconsider the use of YouTube despite its huge user base. It's also important to customize the presentation of content for each platform (think 140 characters for Twitter) whilst ensuring cohesiveness across all channels.

Engage in social media without the right expertise

Not everyone is a Instagrammer or Twitterer. It is important that your friendly social media manager is the right voice to advocate the cause for you.