Every time I turn around there is a new social media app. Maybe if I stopped wasting time spinning in my office chair—thereby reducing the number of times I turn around in a day—there wouldn’t be so many social media apps. But let’s be honest, social media is here to stay and I’m never going to stop spinning around in my chair.
The trend of many agencies is to chase that new app and to say things like, “Facebook is for old people now.” Those same agencies also say things like, “Travis, stop spinning around in your chair. You’re making us dizzy!”
Social Media Trends Change Quickly
How and which form of social media we use is always changing. Up until two years ago, 28 percent of CMOs published tweets from Foursquare (a local search service). Now it is just 5 percent. At the same time, there was a surge in LinkedIn users. Not only that, but there has been a 200% increase in cross sharing of LinkedIn content on Twitter in the last 2 years.
Some people are saying that Facebook is dead and the future belongs to Instagram, Vine and Snapchat. Don’t believe them. Facebook has more than a billion subscribers so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. And other services are far from providing that kind of subscriber base.
Quality Over Quantity
So maybe you move at lighting speeds and are one of the first on every new platform. Or maybe you like to keep it old school and stick to tried, true, and heavily populated platforms like Facebook. No matter your method, you have to go where your people are, and you have to shoot for quality over quantity.
Gone are the days when the number of followers equaled successful campaigns. The word “like” no longer carries the weight it once did so we Like things haphazardly now. What good are 10,000 casual followers when you could have 1,000 true believers?
Facebook recently took steps to improve user experience by limiting advertiser access to them. For example, it has reduced the organic reach of business pages. This was necessary because many businesses were bombarding their followers with blatant advertising messages. Most of these ads were boring and led to lower engagement. The only way through is to post better content.
The Bottom Line
Whichever platform you chose, craft your message to attract your core audience—give them an experience, not an ad—and don’t lose them. The true believers will pay off more in the long run and in the best case scenario, they will do your advertising for you. Don’t waste all your social media marketing time gaining followers. Instead, try to offer more value to the followers you already have on whichever platform you like the most.
You see, the social media experience will keep changing and there will always be a new app (and I will always be spinning in my chair). But the heart of the matter stays the same: Find your people and give them what they want.
