Do You Have The Same Followers On Your Platforms?

Do You Have The Same Followers On Your Platforms?

Let’s ask some basic questions before we get started:  Are you on the trifecta of social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram? Are you active on the outlier platforms: Pinterest, YouTube, Vine, LinkedIn, SnapChat, Google+?  Is your activity on each platform equal?

The truth is if you’re equally active on each of the top three platforms, and equally invested in any one of the outlier platforms you’re either not on them at all or you live with your face in your phone.  To be an active user on these platforms you’d be spending hours refreshing, posting, following, engaging, or just passively watching what others are saying.  The average Facebook user spends 42 minutes a day on this network.  If you’re an average user spending that much time on the three top tier networks as well as any additional network that’s nearly 3 hours of your life staring at the screen just to keep up with the platforms. Add in texting, checking the weather, refreshing your email, and that intense game of Trivia Crack, we’re not sure you’d have time to do anything else but holding up your phone hoping the battery doesn’t die.

Our guess, since we’re assuming you’re all busy people, is that if you are invested in any social platform you’ve got your one go-to favorite. The one you instinctively check first when you grab your phone, the one whose notifications are rarely ignored, the one you scroll through while waiting for your weekly teleconference to start.  And if you look at your fan/consumer base as though they are using their social platforms in a similar manner then you should make the fair assumption that each platform may share fans and followers – but they aren’t engaging and using the platforms in the same manner.  Maybe they live on twitter, but only check Facebook when they are trying to make the red bubble go away on their phone. Or maybe they can’t wrap their head around the fast paced nature of twitter and instead they are constantly refreshing and double tapping photos on Instagram.  And even still they may be the people who can’t stand the idea of missing a single status or post on Facebook and completely neglect all other platforms.

When we break down social media usage in this way it becomes self-explanatory why a strong social media marketing plan should include, at a minimum, the three standard platforms.  You should plan and budget for a strong campaign that includes these three networks – and even a plan that rewards and engages with your audience on each during your campaign.  As a bonus you should be discussing how you can leverage an outlier platform to increase your brands reach and give your brand an edge with all the noise that can consume the trio of platforms.  Giving your marketing team the freedom to be creative and represent your brand and voice in a new and innovative way can reach a new audience that can only strengthen the efforts you’re all putting in to the success of your company.