Should a company adopt a single social media platform as its primary channel?

The answer to this question (as is to most complicated questions) is a definitive “maybe.” To pursue multiple social channels successfully requires dedicated attention to each channel, repeating your messages on multiple platforms at the very least, but ideally customizing them for the specific audience that has chosen to follow you on that particular platform. Additionally, many companies choose to use different social platforms and even different accounts across the same social platform for distinctly different business purposes. The analytics collected across these multiple platforms and accounts can have very significant results when interpreted within an appropriate audience context; however, if analyzed as a representation of the entire marketing effort they can lose all significance whatsoever. The importance of observing which channels reach which of your consumers cannot be understated. Therefore, when making the decision of which channel(s) to pursue, the first clarifying question to ask may be “which audience am I trying to reach?”

Know Your Audience(s)

Understanding which audiences you are targeting demographically, geographically, psychographically whether they are your B2B or B2C consumers, etc. through your traditional methods can help to clarify who you are targeting, prior to speaking to them on social media. For instance, if your company is an upscale toy brand whose value proposition is offering a child’s doll that resembles its owner (similar to the American Girl concept), the first key decision when engaging on social would be to decide whether your primary audience is your B2B customer (the toy retailer), your B2C customer (the toy purchaser, aka “grandparents”), or the end user of the doll, the child (IBISWorld, 2011). By determining how the overall marketing strategy addresses each of these segments, the marketer can then make a conscientious decision about how to create the social strategy. It may be judicious to create a seamless flow from the traditional to the digital marketing efforts; however, the conversational aspects of social could provide specific opportunities to speak to consumers and leverage the brand image in far more advantageous ways that traditional advertising (Novak, 2010). In the doll scenario, the marketer could choose to create a Facebook page or an Instagram account specifically the focused on reposting photos and stories about the dolls submitted by the purchasers and end-users.

Community, not just Content

By providing a community platform for like-minded users to engage with the brand accompanied by the enticement of having their kids’ photos selected for reposting, the company Is promoting an interactivity with the product that goes far beyond the initial purchase, and provides a word-of-mouth campaign for potential purchasers. Users sharing the happiness that the purchase has brought them and their child is far more effective than any traditional advertising can provide. However, the choice of  social platform is essential when deciding who you are speaking to, as well as discerning what that group would be interested in hearing from your company or brand.

An excellent example of choosing the appropriate platform as a medium for user-driven content is the marketing of the GoPro camera. By selecting YouTube as the main social channel, users can upload their creations with the product, hoping to be selected and promoted by the GoPro staff. The videos are stunning, infinitely sharable, and serve as the best sales tool for the product itself. Though GoPro has a large social presence beyond YouTube, maintaining presences on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram as well, it’s their YouTube page that ultimately drives the interactivity and consumer interest (Landau, 2014).

Leverage Available Resources

Another consideration for a company developing their social strategy is to assess the amount of dedicated resources available for a social effort.

If your company currently has adequate resources to pursue one audience on one channel, then that channel should be chosen wisely to reflect both the most important content to be communicated, as well as the broadest audience reach to make best use of the marketing spend. It’s possible to technically have a “presence” on several social media platforms, but if that content isn’t curated regularly it can do more harm than good, by making it appear that your company isn’t invested in the upkeep of its marketing efforts (Greenberhg, 2009).

Choosing one channel and curating it well not only sends a clearer marketing message, but It can also operate as a test balloon or initial investment for social efforts, to investigate whether there is an audience seeking more conversation from your company. Simply linking news stories from a corporate blog to a Facebook page, as well as posting additional relevant content from related sites including industry publications, can be a low-impact, low-investment way to test the value-add of social in your marketing mix.

Continually Evaluate Results

If your company is well beyond this entry level point, however, maintaining multiple platforms each with their own following, it may be worthwhile to occasionally reevaluate that strategy to ensure that the messaging is cohesive and serving a purpose greater than simply offering another way to theoretically “connect” with your brand. If a user connects to you, only to find an ill-maintained platform, it can do more harm than good. One way to approach this is to use an inbound marketing platform such as HubSpot, which will assist in blogwriting and dissemination to various social platforms, or a social media aggregator, such as HootSuite , which provides an overview of all the activity transpiring on every social channel, and allows scheduling and cross-pollination of social efforts.

Ensuring that each channel has an important role in the overall marketing effort is invaluable to running a successful social campaign. A small following on a channel that speaks to your most loyal brand devotees could be far more valuable that a large following on a platform with a broad audience, but the key is knowing your audience(s) and understanding what content on what platform speaks to them. Though what will draw your followers initially is the promise of content, what will keep them is the conversation that keeps them engaged as well as informed.

References

Greenberg, M. (2009, Oct 20). Content is King in Social Media. Retrieved Nov 10, 20104, from MultiChannel Merchant: http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/content-is-king-o…IBISWorld. (2011). Toy Doll and Game Manufacturing in the US. IBISWorld.Landau, J. (2014, July 22). GoPro's viral video marketing campaign turns it into top YouTube brand in the world . Retrieved Nov 10, 2014, from 2014Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gopro-marketing-turns-top-youtube-brand-article-1.1875573Novak, C. (2010). Why Conversation not Content is King. Retrieved Nov 10, 2014, from Social Media Today: socialmediatoday.com