A recurring theme among organisations towards social media is the feeling that they should be utilising every social media channel when it comes to their digital marketing strategy.  In the same way that organisations don’t always advertise across all traditional media channels, it is important that you don’t feel an unnecessary pressure to pump resources into every social media channel just for the sake of it. The result can lead to a diluted strategy which is often targeting audiences that are not relevant to the business.

In the same way that an effective business strategy is not always being all things to all men, an effective social media strategy is about finding what works best for your organisation, focusing on it and doing it well. For some this may involve utilising several social media channels, but for many this is not necessary. There is no need for organisations to be rushing out and developing a social media strategy that covers all the bases from day one. Put some thought into it and plan it well. Research what has worked for other companies or organisations in your sector – the evidence is online to be accessed and digested. And put the resources and effort into the channels that work best for you. Hairy Baby is an Irish T-shirt retailer that I think uses their Facebook page really well and obviously values it as a key marketing channel. They seem to focus their resources and creativity on Facebook and it pays off, with great interaction on the page and a real sense of community. Based on the comments around their vouchers and giveaways, it obviously pays off in terms of sales also.

It is true that the same content can often be replicated across several of the channels and this can work well to increase traffic to a website. For example, a company produces a two minute product demo and posts it on the ‘product details’ on the website, uploads it to the YouTube channel, drafts a Blog about the video, Tweets about the video and highlights the video on its Facebook page. Job done, and not too many resources wasted as much of the activity is just replication across the channels. But ultimately only some of the channels will be effective in terms of getting the message to your core audience. 

Research conducted recently by Microsoft Ireland with 400 businesses revealed that more than 31% of the companies surveyed are currently using Facebook to interact with customers, 23% are using Twitter, 26% using LinkedIn and 10.6% using YouTube to provide video content to their customers. I wonder how many are using all of them, and how many of them know which channels are really getting the message to their core audience. Social media is free, but your time and resources are not. Identify what will work best for you and focus on it, don’t spread your social media marketing too thin.