The sigh of relief is almost audible when we tell new clients that we are big believers in the “less is more” social media strategy. Many of them have been consumed by the “be bigger, be better, be everywhere” mentality that exists online. But if you don’t have the time, manpower, or content to be very active on 4 or 5 social media platforms, you really shouldn’t be there at all.
A whole bunch of poorly managed profiles is what’s damaging to your small business’ credibility; not only selecting 1 or 2 platforms on which to actively grow your presence.
For a long time, what we told our clients was this:
Get comfortable posting to and managing 1 or 2 platforms very well, and then consider adding a 3rd platform later on.
What the conversations we are now having with our clients sound like:
If you have more time to commit to your business’ social media presence, considering putting in more time with your current profiles instead of adding on a new profile.
OR
If you have more room in your budget for adding a new platform to the mix, consider using that money for an ads budget or analytical tool instead.
Although this likely seems like an unlikely or even foolish recommendation to make, let me explain.
We’re reaching a tipping point where social media best practices, active engagement of those you follow, and dedicated daily time spent on each social platform isn’t enough to move the needle.
Sure, all those things will keep your Follower count growing, but people responding back to your posts or clicking on the links you share?
Nope, that’s not happening at anywhere near the same rate as it used to.
Not even if you are doing all the *right* things.
Social media has grown so much in terms of active users (including those who are actively using social media incorrectly) that there is just so much noise in the stream now. There are far too many people posting only outgoing messages or auto feeds from other social platforms or using a social media management tool that autoposts the same content to 4 channels at once without them even being active on the platform itself. Now all these users and all this noise have pushed our favorite social media platforms to develop algorithms to help you “break through the noise” to see what you are (supposedly) most interested in seeing.
The Facebook algorithm is pretty well known, but did you know that Pinterest has an algorithm already in place, and that Twitter has been rolling out elements of its, too?
Yes, that’s correct. Three of the major social media platforms are trying to determine the best content for you to be shown, on their own.
As much as we’d like to hope, we know that none of these social media platforms are going to reverse course with their algorithms, so we need to instead determine how to best address our new problem. For us, the best defense is to build a stronger offense by putting more time, energy, and money into making the 1 or 2 social media presences we have, the very best they can be.
So if you have extra time to dedicate to social, pour it into your existing social channels to increase engagement.
If you have more money, look into platform-specific ads on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, or investigate some of the many paid social media tools that aid you in locating key industry influencers, identify the optimal time of day to tweet, pin, or post, or curate and create better content.
Focus on becoming extremely well-known for your active presence on your chosen social channels, and let go of the dream of “bigger is better”. You – and your business – will be better for it.
