I’m often asked whether certain social media channels are ‘worth it.’ It seems that we all have a lot of preconceptions about different channels, and whether we should be using them.
The short answer is to ask yourself what are you trying to achieve by being on social media, and on any particular platform.
Tweet like a pro
Twitter is often singled out as not being what people expect and I think that’s because success on Twitter comes down to the conversations – it’s named after birds chatting after all – interacting with others and other accounts. So many business accounts are a bit more ‘broadcast’ focused, they put out content but don’t often take the time to like, comment and share amongst other accounts that speak to them. On Twitter this is what brings results. So by just posting it can feel very much not ‘worth it.’
If you think about this in relation to other social media channels you can see why people start to feel like things aren’t working. Being discovered on Instagram is very much about hashtags, so if you don’t use them your discovery will be much slower. Facebook Pages have changed so much over the past few years that organic reach (how many people who follow your page will see your posts without you paying to boost them) is incredibly low. Setting up a page feels like a big step, but when you’re a month in and still only have 23 followers, you start to feel like it isn’t worth your time to post.
A few things to think about. Firstly, does your follower count really matter? What kind of content are you posting? Does it work for this social media channel? Are you engaging with your audience on this platform? Do you like, comment and share from other accounts that you work with outside of social media, or are you spending time finding accounts that speak to your business and audience on each platform? Most of my clients benefit from posting one less post per week and putting that time into engaging on that platform instead.
Be where your audience is
What kind of audience are you looking for? Are you a business who works with other businesses? In which case it would be worth having a look at what LinkedIn can do for you. But that doesn’t mean that if you are selling handmade crafts then you shouldn’t have a profile, you can build a great LinkedIn profile showcasing the business skills you are learning and using by running your business, with a smaller focus on the products themselves. Unless your product is a kick-ass business planner, in which case you’ll find a good audience there for both your product and your business.
Does your content match your social media channel?
When you look at social media, look at it as a whole. You shouldn’t be posting exactly the same content on every channel you have. You can use the same words/images and video but think about how you need to edit it for each platform. Videos for YouTube are a different ratio to the vertical video of Instagram Stories, posting a video edited for one onto the other is just going to look strange and might not come across as well to your audience.
Hashtags are big on Instagram, with 11 or more hashtags per post creating the most engagement, but they haven’t taken off as much on Facebook, and are used less and less on Twitter.
Pick your social media channels carefully
And you don’t need to do everything. There are some channels that might not make sense for you. I work with clients who only use Instagram, or who don’t use Twitter, it depends how you want to showcase what you do online. Don’t feel that you have to do everything, if there is a channel that works for you then choose that and go for it. The more you ‘force’ yourself to do something that should feel natural and creative, the more likely it is not to work, or you won’t keep up with consistent posting.
If you like what you’ve read here and are thinking about how your social media works for you then let’s chat. If you’re a great small business then here’s how I work, if you an Agency looking for a freelance resource to complement your core offering then I’m all about that too.
