Syncing Death Of Brand Authenticity
While going through the #usguys stream I stumbled upon a tweet, which offered social media tip #15. I won’t name who it was, that’s not really important. The important part is the tip they offered.
Social media tip #15: Use ping.fm to synchronize all of your social media platforms!
It sounds like a pretty good tip, doesn’t it? Saves you time from updating individual accounts by syncing them.
Let me make a point with an analogy. What if you replaced oil, power steering fluid, washer fluid, and other fluids in your car with gas by syncing all the lines. How far would your car go?
Do you see what I’m getting at? Every social media platform is a unique communications channel with a unique audience and tools. Yes, they overlap like a Venn diagram but should that small portion of the overlapping audience be treated the same as the ones who do not fall within this category? Absolutely not.
Authenticity is not optional in social media. Dumping information without regard for the communications channel and the audience is like dumping trash at a landfill. Nobody cares and if they do, it’s not a positive sentiment. Is that what you really want for your brand? Don’t let your brand become that car, it will suffer.
Frankly, I’ve done it myself. It’s easy to do with tools like Hootsuite. So hashtags end up in Facebook updates, Twitter updates get cut off, etc. Authenticity is very important to me, that’s why I’ve taken the time to put a better filter on my social media activities. I suggest you do too. Stop being part of the white noise, stand out.
But Viktor, I have way too many social media accounts to update them individually.
Here we go, social media pile up. This means you haven’t done your research, you don’t know what social media channels your specific audience (customers/clients) prefer to use.
Everywhere is NOT an answer. Social media groupthink is the worst decision you can ever do. Just because someone else does it, doesn’t mean it will work for you.
The question you should ask yourself is this, which social media channels are better for your business objectives (e.i. leads, sales, or whatever your objectives are)?
Social media promiscuity wastes time and resources, focus and tightens up your communication channels to maximize their success. Don’t dump generic content through all your channels, personalize them for individual channels.
Remember what you were taught as a child, squares don’t fit in triangular holes.