Why You Should Protect Your Brand from the Moodswings of Social Media and Go Multichannel

We all spend a lot of time on social media.

It’s become a micro-habit.

And that is not unusual for about 3 billion of us.

We upload photos of our travels, reveal corners and moments of our daily lives to friends and family.

We play with Snapchat and create virtual noses and ears.

And we keep logging in.

But for me social media is also an integral part of my business.

I use it to share content. That includes blogposts, insights and 280 word tweets.

I use social media to drive traffic and awareness.

Just like so many of you.

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, they are Platform Thinkers. They first create a large audience, in order to sell that audience later to brands.

So, to build that audience, they create an addictive and free medium. Fun. Connecting. Entertaining. While the audience grows, brands hop in. For free. That's the best part for brands. But suddenly... 

It becomes all about business.

And the large audience is now a targetted advertising group. So these social mediaplatorms start asking money to brands to get some attention. 

But social media, marketing and business growth in a digital world is not just about one channel.

It’s time to get back to basics.

Take out a bit of insurance.

Go multi-channel.

Lots of brands, lots of influencers focus too much on 1 social medium. There are plenty of "Youtubers", "Instagrammers" and "Snapchatters".

But what happens if a social medium suddenly changes the algorithm? Or if a social medium suddenly stops organic reach for business accounts? Or if a social medium bans you for just posting 1 missunderstood post? 

Right - all your hard work is thrown away. 

As a brand building an audience and creating a community, or as a person who wants to become an influencer, you need to protect yourself from the moodswings of the social platforms.

The social media platforms protect themselves by changing algorithms and by asking higher prices for their ad products. And so should you. You should also protect yourself, so you are not depending on that one social medium.

Here's what you should do. You have your story to tell. And you tell that story in weekly bits of content.

In stead of posting it only on Facebook or Youtube, you start creating small variations of that content, adapted to the social platform you are posting on. You make different kinds of content for Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. So you build an audience on every platform. 

But you should also get a personal e-mailinglist. Because, even with the new GDPR rules, that is what you can always control. 

So... Go Multichannel. NOW!

 

 

Written by Laurent Lootens - Lapin Quotidien, owner and Founder of Lapin Quotidien and So-Phi.