Why Your Brand Shouldn’t Use ALL Social Media Platforms

Social media is a huge marketing tool for businesses and brands trying to gain popularity. While the general consensus on the amount of social media sites to use is the more the merrier, the opposite is in fact your best bet. Using only a few and only the best social media sites will lead to a higher marketing success rate and can help your company’s performance this year. Find out why this is true and discover which sites are best for your brand.

Don’t Spread Yourself too Thin

Whether your brand is small and just starting out or larger with a big reputation, the time you can devote to social media marketing can be limited. If your brand can only spend 6-10 hours each week updating social media platforms, there is simply not enough time to create quality posts on all sites. To use your time wisely, pick about two or three platforms and make your content engaging to your target audience.

Focus Only on the Platforms Your Audience Uses

To make the most of your brand’s social media use get to know the demographics of your audience and which sites they frequent. Getting on board with your subscribers favorite social media platforms will ensure that you pick the right sites to spend your effort on. For example, if you are a updating social media sites to enhance sales for contractor software from Maxwell Systems, your target audience will mainly be older, employed adults who work in construction. Therefore, spending time building up a Vine account or setting up Instagram won’t reach your target audience. Instead, writing a weekly blog on contracting tips and how-tos or using Facebook to reach out to contracting companies would be much more effective. Using the most appropriate form of social media will also make your brand more relatable, accessible and open to an audience with similar interests as your current subscribers.

Choose Sites That Work With Your Brand

To identify the sites that work best for your brand, think about what your business has to offer. Each social media site has different functions that could help your brand’s popularity:

Facebook – Facebook is the perfect platform for posting status updates, photos, videos or making events.

Instagram – This social media site is best for visual brands that can post photos regularly

Blogging – Having a company blog is perfect for companies who have longer written content to share.

Twitter – This site is great for shorter written comments and making connections with subscribers and other brands.

Vine – Vine works well for a company that can produce short, humorous videos that appeal to a generally younger audience.

Pinterest – Use this site if your brand deals with fashion, home furnishings or how-to’s.

The key here is to stick to two or three sites that will best showcase your brand and then work hard to make compelling content on that platform.

To make social media marketing really work for your brand, focus on higher quality postings rather than a high number of platforms. Choose platforms that will work best with how you showcase your brand and focus your attention solely on those sites. When thinking about using social media to enhance your company, always remember to optimize your time and reach your target audience and that less is more.

Scott Huntington is a writer, reporter, and social media marketer who does research at 12 Keys.  Follow Scott at @SMHuntington