A recent article from Forbes made a very simple, but often overlooked statement important to any business’ social strategy: “Not all social media platforms are created equal. Contrary to popular belief, having a company page on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Google+ and YouTube, among others, will not necessarily drive value for your customers.”

And yet, it is not at all unusual for almost any firm to attempt effective social media marketing across multiple channels. Common wisdom dictates that you don’t get much out of anything if you spread yourself too thin, and this applies to your social strategy as much as your overall marketing efforts.

What to Ask of Your Social Strategy

To begin calculating which of the biggest platforms is most effective in your social media marketing, you need to ask yourself an array of questions. The first, though, is whether a particular channel can drive the level of customer engagement required or desired?

It is tempting to go for broke with social media marketing because it is not expensive and because most of us still believe there is no harm in “covering all the bases.” This, however, is outdated wisdom that does not work well in any sort of social strategy. Rather, it begins with a consideration of that point above – customer engagement.

Social Media Marketing 101

Social media marketing is effective because of its social nature, but also because the tools behind social media platforms enable us to target our mission to a specific range of platform users. For example, just where and when would your audience “hang out” online at a chosen channel? A social strategy can leverage the answers to ensure your message reaches the intended audience. In other words, it can be very targeted and have very specific goals. What are YOUR goals for social media? Only by answering that can you narrow down the options between the big players like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

As that Forbes article iterated, Twitter and Facebook are for high consumer interaction through a very strong messaging interface, while new products and promotions work well on LinkedIn (as well as the Twitter and Facebook).

Brand awareness is another common goal, and it can be heightened through the visuals of sites like Instagram or YouTube, but only if you can maintain the constant feedback and demand for new content.

Demographics are also a key factor in gauging the right social media. How old is your ideal audience? Depending on that answer, you could be directed to one or more specific platforms. Of course, the kind of content you hope to share to social media (images, videos, text, etc.) influences the choice, as well.

How do you narrow it down to the right options? You start by asking these questions. What is the goal? Who is the target audience? What are they like, specifically? What content can we create?

At Organically, you can partner with a team of experts adept at all aspects of social media marketing. They can help you choose the right platforms, establish a presence and build an audience.