How much is too much?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Ok, so you’re on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, Google+, Empire Avenue, FourSquare and YouTube...you have a corporate website, a WordPress blog, and RSS feeds galore. You check Google Analytics, Klout and Twitalyzer to make sure you’re connecting. Yikes!

How can you possibly keep up? Should you even try?

Here are some questions to help you set priorities:
• What are your primary reasons for using each platform? Do those reasons match your business strategy and objectives? “Because we have to” is not a sufficient reason to be on a particular platform.

• Do you understand the pros and cons of each platform? Most platforms were designed for a specific purpose, which means that some may be better than others for connecting with your key audiences.

• Speaking of which, who is your primary audience? On what main platforms is the audience most active? Connect with your primary audience using the method that’s most comfortable to them.

• Where are your customers most likely to look for you? In business, most customers still search for corporate websites first. Gathering “likes” on a Facebook page is nice, but not really a measure of anything. Same with the number of Twitter followers. It’s what you do with those audiences that count.

• How many accounts can you reasonably manage to keep current? Stale content is a death-knell. Unless your company is over-staffed, it’s unlikely you have the trained and qualified people available to suddenly take on the management of social media accounts. While the platforms are free to use, the time and energy to maintain them is not.

• Who is managing your various accounts? Well-connected, savvy communicators are able to post interesting and provocative content. Make sure your content isn’t one big sales pitch or an endless series of inspirational quotes. Both of those activities will turn off audiences.

• How are you quantifying success? Your metrics should link back to your business strategy and objectives, and your social media presence should help to further those objectives.

Bottom line: you’re better off to manage fewer accounts, but do each well. Don’t feel pressured to hop on every new platform as it emerges. And, finally, make sure you have a strong purpose for participating in each social media account that you have. Linking your purpose and your measures to your business strategy will help keep you focused on results.
 

 

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