A few days ago I chatted with a social media manager for a mid-sized software company. She was exhausted.
She and her team were responsible for managing LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as well as some smaller tests on Reddit, TikTok and Snapchat.
Basically, their charge was to be everywhere their customers were, even if, in some cases, there were very few customers there (TikTok for example).
This is the kind of nonsense marketers have bought in to.
When Newt Barrett and I started writing Get Content Get Customers in 2007, we wrote many times to “be where your customers are at online.” At the time I believed it. That was before Twitter was really a thing. Facebook was just rolling out publicly. It wasn’t a challenge to have communication strategies for all available platforms.
Today it’s impossible, and yet many companies are still trying to be everywhere.
Many smart people have said that strategy is about saying no. I couldn’t agree more.
The great experiment is over. It’s time to do some spring-cleaning.
Let’s start from the beginning by asking yourself some questions.
Do you have a goal for each social media channel?
Are you accomplishing your goals (or at least headed in the right direction)?
Are you targeting too many audiences with your social channels?
Is your content plan for that channel working? Is it consistent?
Is there a plan to move your social followers to email subscribers (see picture above)? Our job is to move them from rented land to owned media properties if and when possible.
After this analysis you’ll most likely find that some channels are working well, some are okay, and a few are doing absolutely nothing and are a drain on resources.
What should you do?
The social channels that are a drain on resources should be killed and transformed into listening channels (feedback only). The ones where you are just “okay” need to be dealt with appropriately. That means either invest the proper content and resources to make them great, or kill those as well.
If you look at most content properties, they seem to be great at two social channels. For example, Joe Rogan is fantastic at Facebook and Twitter and terrible or nonexistent at Instagram and LinkedIn. Rogan has also made a decision not to launch a TikTok channel.
Remember, you DO NOT need to be everywhere your audience is on the social web. Make a strategic decision to be in the places where you can serve your audience faithfully and at the same time help your business.
I just completed a webinar on this and six other marketing strategies to survive the pandemic. It’s free and you can access it here. Also, my friend and collegue Robert Rose is doing a presentation on May 26th about how to operationalize your content marketing strategy. It’s free as well. Register here.
The following was an excerpt from Joe’s newsletter. Only subscribers receive the full version.