Probably not. At least not right off the bat. There’s a convention that frequency is key, and while an important analytic: it isn’t everything. There’s a line that should be walked carefully. Quality over quantity. If your brand is capable of creating unique, consistent, quality content for each and every social media platform? Go for it.
If your plan is to push the same content, across every platform: we need to talk.
Plan, Practice, Perfect
When it comes to planning your social media presence, and subsequently launching it; I always suggest the holy trinity. Take the time to perfect your presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These platforms provide access to the most general, global audiences. Chances are, your target market is on one, some, or all of these. You may only use Facebook and Instagram, (or some other mix that makes sense for you and your brand).
Before signing up for an account on every platform, ensure that you can maintain consistent quality across your big two or three. Planning content a week or two, even months in advance is ideal. This allows you to spend more time on the content you’re producing. It is hard to achieve this level of productivity when you overextend yourself onto every platform. Once you’ve established a plan, and played around with it a little; consider ways to further advance your performance here, before moving on to the next platform(s).
Adapt & Diversify
The content that you put out on your first-focus social channels should be consistent, and similar. But never the same. Your messaging should be related; your angles and tone should instead be an interesting group to hang out with. Ideally, your audience will follow you on every platform. Realistically, they won’t.
Especially with the same picture, caption, video, and/or audio on every platform.
Creating custom content for each outlet will increase the chances that your audience follows you on more than one platform. See what people react to best on each one, and perfect their attributes independently. This way, you are able to cross promote your content and give people a reason to follow you to other venues.
You might do lives on Facebook, but not Instagram. In this scenario, you can show your Instagram following an IGTV clip from last week’s live; give them a reminder on your IG stories an hour before you go live on Facebook; and convert some of your Instagram following into Facebook page likes.
Perhaps you have a more serious, professional tone on your Facebook page, but act more casual on Instagram. Share an Instagram post with #CasualFriday on Facebook, to provide some insight into the energy and presence your activity there provides.
Experiment & Grow
As your established holy trinity of social media soars at new heights; look into other platforms for your brand to expand onto. YouTube? Pinterest? TikTok? Snapchat? There are a lot of options out there. And, who knows which one is the best for you? The only way to find out is to try.
Maybe your brand could find a way to benefit from an employee in uniform (or merch) playing video games on Twitch.
However, as you grow and expand onto new platforms, ensure you continue to bring new content. You can use your well established accounts to promote your presence on these new platforms, but again, it only works when that content is fresh and varied.
As you grow and expand, feel free to cut the fat. But don’t ignore the audiences that got you to where you are today. Continue to maintain a consistent presence on the big three if they have worked, and for as long as they continue to work for you.
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What platforms make the most sense for your brand? Which do not?
Let’s crowdsource some insight and ideas in the comments below!
Ethan Olkovikas, Creative. 