Why A Social Media Strategy Needs To Be Diversified

Facebook is great, obviously! It’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to social media marketing. The whole world seems to be on Facebook! But there is more to social media marketing than Facebook. I know, it’s hard to believe, isn’t it?

I want to share some reasons why it’s not a good idea to make your whole social media marketing strategy depend on Facebook, and talk about some other things you can do. It’s sort of like thinking about an investment portfolio - it’s always better to diversify, instead of putting all your money into one investment.  You don’t want to put all of your eggs into the Facebook basket!

Don't have all of your eggs in the Facebook basket

We have our clients use other social media platforms as well. I want to share some advantages of other social media platforms with you.

First, let’s talk about Twitter. There are two main reasons I love Twitter. The first is that you can get exposure without having to have someone follow you (the equivalent of “liking” you on Facebook).

The second is that you can use hashtags on Twitter. The “hashtag” is just this: #. It’s Shift + 3 on your keyboard - you know, we used to call it a pound sign on our old phones. Remember that? Now it’s a powerful little symbol that we use to mark keywords. So if I use #socialmedia in a tweet, everyone who searches on that hashtag will see my tweet! I will be blended into the conversation, and they will see me whether they follow me or not. For instance, let’s say that you are a local business in McKinney. If you use #mckinney in your tweets, anyone who searches on “McKinney” or clicks on a #mckinney hashtag will see your tweet!  And they will see it whether they follow you or not. 

Another powerful aspect of Twitter is the search feature. You can use various search terms to find the service you need. For instance if you are running a pest control company, you can search for people using words like “termites,” “bugs,” or “pest control” in their tweets. You can see who is tweeting about those things in real time, in your area! This can put you right where your clients need you, when they need you! Many people wish Facebook operated in real time, but Twitter actually does, making it such a powerful tool!

The Twitter search tool is powerful!

A third platform we have our clients on is Pinterest. Pinterest is great because it’s all pictures, all visual. You’ve heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words! Some people are very visual and love to see your photos on Pinterest, where they can easily pin them to their own boards to save your information and ideas. Plus it’s hard to believe but there are some people who just don’t like Facebook. My wife is one of them! My wife is never on Facebook. I could send her a message right now on Facebook telling her that she’d just won a million dollars, and she’d probably never get that until next week. But she’ll be on Pinterest tonight, “pinning” all kinds of things! So this is another area where you can blend in with the conversation and take advantage of it to reach people who are just not Facebook people.

A picture is still worth a thousand words

So you can see - there is much more out there for you to use than just Facebook. The more platforms you use, the more people you will reach, and you’re not stuck with all your eggs in one basket. And now that I’m finished with this article I’m going to upload a video to YouTube - which is yet another platform you can use to reach people! 

I hope this helps in developing your social media strategy! For more tips please visit us on Facebook at MarketWithMario.