Never Rely On One Social Media Network For Your Business

It’s a common mistake for small businesses and solopreneurs to put all of their marketing eggs in one social media basket. They may hit a big number with their target audience on Instagram, so they stop promoting their business on other platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Or, they may have had a few LinkedIn connections turn into paying customers, so they pour all of their time and effort into that platform. But here’s the thing: it’s never a good idea to put all of your marketing efforts into one social media network. Here’s why.

The Risks of Relying on One Social Network

If you’re only relying on one social media platform to market your business, you’re taking a big risk. What happens if that platform goes out of fashion? What happens if the algorithm changes and your content is no longer being seen by as many people? What happens if you get banned from the platform for violating the terms of service – and not knowing why you violated those terms doesn’t help if you appeal?!

There are any number of things that could happen that would cause you to lose access to your main marketing channel if you choose to focus solely on one network for your business. And, if you don’t have any other platforms to fall back on, your business is going to suffer when something that you can’t control changes. Diversifying your marketing efforts across multiple social media networks (including offline!) will insulate you from these risks and help ensure that your business can weather any storm.

The Benefits of Diversifying Your Marketing Efforts

When you diversify your marketing efforts across multiple social media networks, you open yourself up to a whole host of new opportunities. You’ll be able to reach new audiences, test out different marketing strategies, and find the platform that works best for your business.

Diversifying your marketing efforts will also make you more nimble and responsive to changes in the social media landscape. If one platform goes out of fashion, you’ll still have a presence on other platforms that has already been established, you’re not the newbie popping in to start fresh. When a new platform emerges that looks promising, you can jump on board without having to start from scratch.

Risk of Getting Left Behind

When it comes to social media, things move quickly. A platform that’s popular today could be gone tomorrow, and if you’ve put all of your eggs in that platform’s basket, you’re going to be left with nothing. For example, in years gone by you might have signed up to MySpace or Bebo which are all but a distant memory in the tech space, by this time next year you might well be looking back on how Twitter used to be (more below). When you get comfortable with one network because maybe your audience is there and it’s doing relatively well for sales, driving traffic to your site and the audience is engaged it can be tempting to put most or indeed all of your efforts there. Meanwhile, your competitors who might be keeping abreast of whats happening online generally could well be making huge strides forward elsewhere, TikTok is the perfect example of that right now.

Missing Out on Valuable Insights

By spreading your marketing efforts across multiple social networks, you gain valuable insights into which platforms your target audience is using and what kinds of content they respond to. This information can then be used to inform your overall marketing strategy moving forward. Additionally, each social network has its own unique audience, so by being active on multiple networks, you’re able to reach more people with your message. And you might discover that you in varying your content styles across different networks you might find a style that beter works for your current audience too because different trends tend to start on one network before moving elsewhere.

Increased Competition

It’s no secret that social media is a competitive space. There are millions of businesses out there all vying for attention from the same pool of users and that’s the case no matter what industry you are in . So, if you want your voice to be heard above the noise, you need to have a presence on multiple platforms. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting lost in the shuffle and never being seen by your target audience. You also need to remember that unless your product or service can only be availed of by people close to you in location, that increased competition is coming into your space from across the world!

The Challenge Of The Unknown

If you’re a Twitter user you’ll likely have some insight into the changes that are underway there, at this point most of them not so good. The past number of weeks on the network must have been quite worrying for anybody who built their business there. With brands quietly quitting and pausing their advertising activity it’s difficult to know what’ll happen next. And, it’s just ahead of Christmas and New Year which for many are peak trading periods. If Twitter was part of your marketing strategy when you outlined it back in January 2022, will it still hold the same place for 2023?

We can never plan for the unknown, in the past year there have been outtages on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, for periods of time businesses couldn’t access messages to clients or share the content they normally would. What if those networks didn’t come back at all?

It’s Not All About Social Media

I regularly speak with people who haven’t got an email marketing list, who don’t do any sort of PR, who never realised radio might be more affordable than they thought or that a mailing campaign can still be effective in 2022. Why not?

More traditional methods of marketing might cost more in some cases or might not offer the same degree of flexibility. However, just one simple example is a local restaurant. They may have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok and you fall within their target audience but the algorithm dictates whether you see their posts or any ads they’re running. They could instead do a leaflet drop where they know their information is going through your letterbox where the chances of you reading it and remembering it might be a lot higher, more so in the case of those who aren’t active on social media at all which in many communities might be considerably more than you’d expect.

The email list, well it’s something EVERY business should have regardless of size. It’s an asset for your business and if you’re not sure, there’s a post here on our blog that you might like to read.

Don’t make the mistake of putting all of your marketing eggs in one social media basket. It’s risky and it limits your opportunities. Diversify your marketing efforts across multiple social media networks and other channels to protect your business from risks and open yourself up to new opportunities. Your business will thank you for it!

And if you need assistance in creating a strategy for Marketing that’s not just about social media or you’d like support in choosing what’s right for your business, pop an email to debbie@themarketingshop.ie and we can arrange a complimentary call with you.