Are you still shoehorning content into social media? Stop it now!
Hmnn, social media, I’ve always wondered why people DM me on Twitter with this kind of call to action:
‘Thanks for the follow. Now follow me on Facebook/ LinkedIn etc.’
Why would I want to do that? I always wanted to reply: ‘Hey buddy, you’ve got my Twitter vote, now just run along and be grateful!’
Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are very different social media arenas
I don’t know about you but I always reject that kind of CTA. After all I use different platforms for different needs and reasons. I keep Facebook for friends and family and have ads disabled so I am left with a really simple feed that doesn’t change much; that’s how I like it. I imagine I’ve just come off the motorway and I’m enjoying a truck stop before I move on after a break! Or think of it this way, would you play soccer with a cricket bat?
Twitter is my default social media choice
Each platform has a personality. Don’t insult it by trying to make it fit yours.
I use Twitter for news; for blog ideas; for cutting edge opinion and conversation. In many respects it has really replaced my newspaper – unless I am searching for ‘slow journalism.’ I communicate with the great and the good, have been solicited for my opinion and arranged interviews with key players on Twitter too. If I need to speak to someone I am usually quite successful at reaching out. It’s my social media account of choice; it’s grown organically and I keep it small. You can catch me on there every day: @supposeiam
Don’t mess with me on LinkedIn!
LinkedIn is where I post and converse when I’m being super serious and studious. It’s also my first port of call when I am generating leads. Or even when I want to communicate something I think fellow professionals might appreciate. I’ve won work on LinkedIn and my profile demonstrates I’m a woman with a thoughtful and professional side. Don’t mess with me on there!
Life hacks? Go Pinterest!
Pinterest , on the other hand is my opportunity to demonstrate creativity. It’s beautiful, useful and if I need a hack for absolutely anything it’s where I go. I even know how to refill my water filter capsule – give me a drill, some aquatic charcoal, a cork and I’m done! It’s a fabulous visual search engine and I adore it.
What I’m saying is if you followed me on different platforms you’d find a very different Vivienne K Neale to the one who writes with an acid pen on this blog. That got me thinking. Why don’t many brands choose their social media platforms depending on where their target audience actually hang out? This is a better tactic than trying to drag people around with you or stuffing square content into round social media holes.
Recently, I have been consulting with a tech firm in London right near the Silicon Roundabout. They have five verticals including: gaming, video streaming and digital transformation. Imagine where the target audience for each vertical might be? If you segmented it crudely you might say Snapchat or Instagram for gaming; YouTube for video streaming and LinkedIn or Twitter for digital transformation. Treat social media with respect
Be individual, original, creative and most of all, customer centric
During one of our meetings I suggested we created highly individualised campaigns for each vertical. We would obviously put customers at the centre of every piece of content we created. The aim would be to develop a persona with a very characteristic tone of voice for every specific arena. Instead of shoehorning content into a platform or – gasp – cross posting, we would create specific content for each. The result would be highly original, platform specific campaigns.
Each social media platform has a personality; don’t insult it by trying to make it fit yours
So, to return to my original point, if I were to DM you on Twitter saying “catch our digital transformation news on Facebook”, you might consider it. There would be a reason to do it or at least take a peek. It would also save a lot of brand embarrassment. What you post on Twitter just doesn’t fit anywhere else. Read an earlier post on what works for business on Pinterest. You have to take this seriously. After all social media has come of age – even Mark Zuckerberg has been hacked – so it must be so! Each platform has a personality, don’t insult it by trying to make it fit yours.
Vivienne Neale is a strategist who delights in change, digital transformation and disrupting meetings. If you are looking for a completely different way to fillet your social media content then contact her on Twitter.
