Avoiding Undue Concentration with Social Media

OK, I’ll admit it.

This article’s title may be a bit cryptic for many of you.

But, all I’m referring to is making sure that you don’t over rely on one social media app to the exclusion of others in your social media program.

A robust social media program will have a primary social media app and a secondary or secondaries depending on your specific needs.

In this article, I’ll discuss why this is important and what should be done about it.

First, why is this important?

Well, what about something called primary system failure?

What if your primary social media app goes away?

Reasons could be business failure, the app just loses market momentum (Remember MySpace?), or it’s hacked.  (I think all I have to say is the name “Sony” these days.)  

The reasons don’t have to be so dramatic either.

The app’s functionality could change.  (LinkedIn and Facebook change their functionality all the time, sometimes with little or no notice.) What if you’ve build your social media program around some of that now missing functionality?

Another reason could be that your needs are changing but the social media app isn’t changing in ways to support you.

Other reasons for having multiple social media apps in your program are to familiarize yourself with the functionality and features of different apps.  Being current is always a good thing and a key differentiator for successful businesses.

Being familiar with and using other social media apps permits you to know if you’re getting the return on your investment in time and effort with your primary app.

In addition, you’ll be prepared for the inevitable market and technology changes that will be coming in the future.

Using multiple social media apps gives you opportunities to expand your community.

Cross promotion across different apps is possible.

Content can be reused and followers who are not in your primary app can be discovered and included.

Hopefully by now, I’ve either convinced you or frightened you to do something about this situation.

Which segues nicely into my next section on what to do about this.

My 8 step approach for developing a social media program has several steps which address this question.   

Step I: Establishing the Social Media Footprint addresses mapping the appropriate social media apps to your goals and objectives.   

Here is the opportunity to determine which app will can give which result.

Step VII: Measuring the Results develops metrics to measure the success of each app and is your opportunity to ensure that your app portfolio covers as many of your goals and objectives as is practical and affordable.  For those who may say one app does it all for their goals and objectives, I have two things to say.  One, go back and look at your goals and objectives, you’ve missed something.  Two, remember what I said earlier about redundancy for your primary app?  (This is why folks need advisers!)   (Place Link here.)

Which social media app is going to be your primary one?

The one that you’ll make your major investment in time and effort while achieving most of your goals and objectives.

You’ll also develop your social media program and critical metrics around the primary app.

Which social media apps will be your secondaries?

The ones which address the goals and objectives not covered by the primary app, allow for sourcing of followers missed by the primary, and provide some degree of redundancy should the primary go walkabout unexpectedly on you. Also, you won’t be putting as much time and effort into the secondaries as in the primary app.

Hopefully, this has given you somethings to think about.

Future articles will address some of the points covered here in more detail.

That’s enough for now!

In future articles, I’ll drill down into the details behind some of these ideas.

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have.  I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.

Remember!

I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me.  Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.

I can also be reached at conpsweeney@someddi.com.

My Twitter handle is @conpsweeney.

Stay well!