Go your own way...

This is the fifth email in an eight week series, to help you evaluate your approach to your existing platforms, or whether it's time to add a new one to the mix.

Hi Reader,

Not all businesses have to be on social. It’s more common for personal brands, those who are represented visually and those who want to share expertise in a video format.

Usually social media platforms are free to post to and are widely discussed, so you might feel pulled to have them all, or sign up for more and then feel a pressure to keep them updated.

Instead, you can evaluate them as you add one, or take time in an instance like this to re-evaluate.

The current common options are:

Instagram (by Meta)
TikTok
Facebook (by Meta)
LinkedIn
Pinterest (more of a social/search combo)
X (Twitter)
Snapchat
Threads (by Meta)

Social media is often a discovery tool, allowing people to find you for the first time. That might be because a friend of theirs engaged with your post, or shared it. Other times they might follow a tag, or have interacted with content similiar to yours.

Social media can also be a familiarity tool and allow people to get to know you, your offers and your team better. This might be because of behind-the-scenes information you share, or just the accumulated posts over time.

Social media can also be a search and gut check option for potential customers. It’s funny how often people will go to your Instagram instead of your portfolio because they want to see your work in a context they recognise.

You don’t have to have the same approach for every social media platform, especially since the content itself should be different.

It’s up to you to mix and match and approach each platform independently with different approaches to content, volume, audiences, anything you need to adjust to make it feel right for you and your audience. I explained this in more depth in this blog post.

As new social media platforms come up, expand or grow in popularity, you might feel some pressure to do it all. When deciding which of the social media websites or apps to jump onto, be mindful of the following:

Would your target audience be on this platform?
What sort of content would you contribute?
Can you show off your brand in this space while sticking to your brand?
Does this fit in with my overall marketing plan, or is this just a distraction?
Am I just feeling pressured because other businesses are using it?

If this platform aligns with your brand and strategy, give it a go with the time you have available.

After a few months of trialling this space, ask yourself these questions to decide whether you should continue to use the platform:

Do I enjoy creating content for this platform?
Have I found my/our people and have had some engagement or following from people within your target market?
How much traffic have I gotten to my website from this space, or has my traffic lifted overall since I started on this new space?
Have I converted anyone to a sale, or had a decent amount of interest?
For the time it took, was this effective? And if not, are there shifts I can make to save myself time?

You can then use that information to lead you on whether to stay, delegate, outsource the work or leave it entirely.

When considering what content to make, evaluate the following:

Why might someone go to or stumble across you on social?
- Are they looking for a visual portfolio?
- Do they want to see more of you, the expert?
- Do they want to find a place to follow along since they aren’t ready or want to check you totally fit them over an extended period of time?
- Do they want to double check you’re active and still in business?
Where does your target audience hang out? What kind of content might they want to see in this platform’s context
Do you want to stay in front of an audience, or grow a new one? Each social tool has its own levels of discoverability and audience reach %, and the content you create might also match one situation or the other.

You can do social media your own way! What will you choose?

Next week, we’ll dive into ads, whether they’re a good fit for your business and how to choose your budget.