Stop Being A Platform Loyalist (Here’s 5 Reasons Why)

Andréa Jones (00:00):
As much as I talk about sticking with one social media platform, I firmly do not believe in putting all your eggs into one social media basket. And in this episode I'm going to talk about why. Let's get into it.

Intro (00:25):
Welcome to The Savvy Social Podcast, the show that blends stories and strategies to help businesses create engaged and profitable online communities using the unique power of social media. And now, your host, Andréa Jones.

Andréa Jones (00:42):
I like to think of myself as platform agnostic, social media platform agnostic, because I don't believe that there is one platform to rule them all. And in preparing for this episode, I actually looked up the term agnostic. And it means according to Merriam Webster, a person who holds a view that any ultimate reality such as God is unknown and probably unknowable. And I'm replacing God with social media in this instance. I hold the view that there isn't an ultimate social media, and in fact, we don't know what social media is the one we don't know, which social media platform or which social media network is the best. And while I have recommendations that apply to here now in 2023, that changes and it has changed over the years. I remember when TikTok first hit the scene in my world, March, 2020 is when really took off lots of new downloads and users for them.

(01:53):
And I downloaded the app, logged in, got a video instantly playing with sound, and I was like, oh, no. Exited immediately and was like, who even wants this? No, thank you. And then as the pandemic started becoming more than two weeks to crush the curb, I realized that I had a little time on my hands and the platform wasn't going anywhere. So I started studying it. And now my recommendation is that most of my clients should be on TikTok, and that's because I'm platform agnostic. I don't believe that there is any ultimate social media network that's going to always be the one true network. And what I know today is probably going to change one year from now, two years from now. So I want to talk about why I chose this route and to help you make the decision in your business or with your clients as well.

(02:48):
And this conversation actually came up with a colleague of mine who also considers herself platform agnostic. And we were talking about how a lot of people brand as an Instagram specialist or a TikTok marketer or a YouTube specialist, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, it could be really helpful for people to find you in that moment. But I really struggle with this because the approach that I take with my clients is a multi-channel marketing approach for a specific reason. Usually at the stage of business that I'm working with my clients, sure they have a handful of primary platforms, but we're making the most at a social media. And when you're at a certain level of business too, it just makes sense to have a multi-channel marketing experience. And so that's really where my application started is I apply what I know and learn and study to my clients, and then that trickles on in to my students over at the Savvy Social School.

(03:52):
I teach social media and I teach it there. I teach it in workshops all over the world, both digitally and in person. And one of the things that a lot of these planners look for is someone who can answer questions about multiple platforms, someone who understands the implications of when new platforms pop up. So that's where I plant my flag as a social media strategist who is platform agnostic. But let's talk about why that is. The first reason is flexibility. When I think about social media and how quickly things change, I want to be completely flexible to switch between platforms. I mean, take a look at a platform like Facebook, for instance, the OG of Social Media Marketing. When we think about social media marketing as businesses, we usually think about Facebook first or we used to. Facebook is the king when it comes to paid advertising, organic marketing.

(04:56):
It's really where a lot of this started, especially for businesses. But here now today, Facebook's very challenging. It's still one of the most affordable and highest converting paid ads platforms, especially when you look at things like Instagram being under their wing and their network. And they still are considered an industry leader in a lot of the decisions that they make on their platform. However, if a brand new, brand spanking sparkly new client came to me today, starting a business from ground zero, I don't know if I would recommend putting a heavy emphasis on Facebook. And my decision to do that is so different than it was five years ago. So that flexibility allows me to switch between platforms. And I think about this with one of my clients who was actually on Pinterest. Now, Pinterest is great for a social network, but it mostly performs as a search engine.

(05:57):
A lot of the strategies we apply to platforms like Pinterest are search or what I call social search, which is also what YouTube is. Okay? So there's definitely community components with comment sections and resharing and reposting and that sort of thing. But the algorithms are mostly fed by search. So what users are typing with their little fingers to get something to pop up. So I had this client who is a coach, and when they came to me, she said, we're on Pinterest and we see a lot of traffic from there, but we're not really sure what that means. And so when we started working together, we worked together for almost four years before they took this in-house. We started working together. We put a lot of emphasis on Pinterest and doing all the search research. We saw their traffic on the platform, their impressions were great.

(06:51):
We actually saw most of the web traffic coming over from Pinterest to their website. But then looking into the numbers, none of that traffic converted, none. And when people landed on the website, they bounced. So we spent time optimizing all of the website pages and making sure it was all Pinterest friendly things. And still at the end of the day that traffic wasn't converting. So what we realized is that while Pinterest was great for perhaps discovery, people weren't signing up for her lead magnets, they were not going into her funnels and they definitely weren't purchasing her membership. Okay? So when you think about flexibility when it comes to multichannel marketing, you want to be able to analyze something like Pinterest, but beyond the top line numbers like impressions and followers and go, is this platform actually worth it to my business? And the answer for her was no.

(07:44):
So we left Pinterest alone, it still is there. People can still save all of her content from the years of posting there. We don't post there anymore. We focus on Instagram. Why? Because looking at the numbers, people actually convert from Instagram, especially Instagram stories. So people will discover her on Instagram through a reel, they'll connect with her through her content, and then they'll convert in her Instagram stories. And so we use a lot of those same size images we were using over on Pinterest in some Instagram stories with a link sticker and bada bing bada boom, people loved it. So that allowed us to be more flexible and allowed us to dig deeper into the numbers because I'll tell you this, Instagram does not drive the same amount of traffic over to her website, not even close, however that traffic actually converts. So that's what we look at.

(08:33):
All right, next reason why I love being platform agnostic is versatility and really versatility in skillset. So platforms are constantly copying each other. And really this started in my opinion with Instagram blatantly copying Instagram stories, straight up stealing it from Snapchat. And Snapchat still has a small dedicated following, but it's not really a huge platform for especially businesses and marketing. And so Instagram saw the opportunity with the dedication there with their user base stole stories, and now we have Instagram stories completely embedded into our experience within the app. So being able to study something like Snapchat helps me to really quickly adopt Instagram stories when it came into the scene. The same is true when we think about Instagram reels straight up copying from TikTok. And now lots of platforms have short form video placements. We think of YouTube shorts, we think of Pinterest idea pens, Facebook even has reels.

(09:42):
So that ability to take something from another platform that's being duplicated and being able to really understand it much quicker than everyone else is because I spend time studying all of the platforms because I want that versatility. And the same is true for Instagram threads when that launched. It has a very similar field to Twitter. And so taking Twitter strategies and applying them to Instagram threads has worked really well for us. Alright, third reason why I am platform agnostic is because I like to have the maximum impact. Okay? So I am a huge fan of content repurposing and I do consider this more of an advanced strategy. I do recommend starting with one platform, layering it in. I'll talk more about that later. However, when you've been creating content for a long time, you can then take that content, post it on other platforms, and maximize your impact so your followers on the other platforms can also see the beautiful content that you spend so much time creating.

(10:53):
Now, I do consider this an advanced strategy because three or four years ago, I would tell people take the same post and just slap it on any platform. And that square size, 1080 by 1080, it used to be chef's kiss when it comes to posting on platforms. And you could take that square image, post it on Facebook, post it on Twitter, post it on Instagram, same dang caption, and away you go. You can't really do that anymore. In fact, I do not recommend it. So it does take a little finessing to repurpose content across multiple social media networks. It takes some knowledge of understanding what the sentiment is like on that app. It takes some practice in seeing what sorts of posts would fit in with that feed. But once you get that down, man, that maximum impact can be great. When you take a concept for a post, say a video you recorded for TikTok, and then repost it as an Instagram reel and a YouTube show, or let's say a post you created for X, formerly known as Twitter, and you repost it on a LinkedIn post or even Instagram threads.

(12:07):
So you take the content that you work so hard at creating and give it more life. All right, we'll take a quick break. When we come back, I'll share three more reasons. I'm platform agnostic and some final notes with you today.

(12:23):
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(13:39):
And we're back. So the fourth reason that I love being social media platform agnostic is that I have the ability to reach new audiences. So remember my handy dandy little ability to repurpose content. Not only is that super effective for my current audience members, it can help me reach new people with that amazing content that I created. According to demandsage.com, 6.6 is the number of platforms that a typical social media user interacts with on any given basis. So users are actually interacting with more and more platforms every single day, and they use these platforms for different reasons. So for me personally, TikTok is like my entertainment hub. I go there to also do lots of trend research. I know that that's where I can find new and fresh ideas. Instagram is my connection point to a lot of my business contacts. It's where I network and meet new people, and it's actually my favorite platform right now for creating content for that changes a lot though Facebook is a lot of my personal as well as some of my closer business friends, and I kind of rotate through those three platforms right now.

(15:01):
I also spend quite a bit of time on LinkedIn doing research, especially for new clients and prospects and collaboration partners, things like that, as well as joining conversations. And I spent some time on threads. Just hanging out threads is very casual for me. I like to just use it as my stream of consciousness, and that's just my personal preferences. As someone who lives and breathes social media, I know that users use it in a different way. My sister, for instance, is a huge Pinterest person. I think Pinterest is her main platform that she spends a lot of time on. And whenever I send her a TikTok video, she goes, oh yeah, I saw this on Pinterest, which is just wild to me that she uses Pinterest to watch TikTok videos. So many users use social media platforms for different reasons. And so when you have a variety of content that you're sharing for your business and the users are using the platforms for different reasons, you're kind of maximizing the opportunity to reach new people on those platforms as well.

(16:07):
Because you're dealing with different algorithms, you're dealing with different algorithms, and especially if you have discovery algorithms like reels and short form video, when you take a TikTok and you post it to Instagram reels and you post it to YouTube Shorts and you post it as Pinterest Idea Pin, you're maximizing the potential to reach new audience because that placement is designed to reach new audiences. So you're actually allowing your business the opportunity to reach new people. All right, and the last reason that I am platform agnostic is because of my job title. So for those of you who work in the industry, I think it is important to know them all. I think it is important to know them all and the significant context of them all. Think about something like Vine. Y'all remember Vine? It was the precursor to TikTok. I believe the videos were six seconds long, so you had to get your content in, okay?

(17:05):
It had to be short and snappy, and there were Vine creators who created content specifically for the app. Very popular amongst video content creators was all video. And you could have gone all in on Vine and become a Vine expert, but Vine is no longer here. Vine went under a few years before TikTok came into the picture. And so when we think about Vine as a historical significant moment in social media history, you realize that it is important as an expert, as an industry leader, so to speak, to know what that platform means and then to be able to apply that significance to other areas, even from a cultural standpoint. Some of the memes and jokes and things that you see on the internet today came from the Vine era. So I'm in a need to know space. I think the same thing about Snapchat.

(18:08):
I think the same thing about so many other social platforms that just do not exist today. So some final thoughts for you, dear listener, as you head along your day. If you listen to this episode and you're like, Andrea, that sounds great, but I don't have time. Definitely just start with one or two platforms and add as you grow. Okay. My favorite recommendation right now, September, 2023, is Instagram because of the amount of places that you can post content, I do think Instagram is a great starting point for a lot of business owners. If you're B2B, LinkedIn is hot right now, O M G, and if you like video, TikTok is the spot, especially if you've got some humor in your brand that can work really well for you. But don't try to do Instagram and LinkedIn and TikTok. If you're just one person just starting out, that's too much.

(19:03):
Now, if you've been doing business for years and you feel stuck, if you've been doing business for years and you're like, I've tried Instagram, Andrea, it doesn't work for me, it's time to try something new, friend. Okay? So layer in some content repurposing. Test out some of those other platforms because there may be a platform that works a little better for your content style. There may be a platform that you can use to maximize your content. There may be another social media platform that you just enjoy more. So now is time to start expanding. And if you are in a level of growth in your business where you know, need to expand because it's time to meet new people, definitely start layering in the multichannel marketing strategy. When you start building an audience, multichannel marketing is key to the success of that audience, okay? So you have to be able to reach new people at the stage of business that you are at when you're building an audience.

(20:00):
And being on multiple channels is a no-brainer. And it's why we do it for my clients. When we have private clients come to us who want services, we almost always a hundred percent recommend multi-channel marketing because it is the fastest way to grow. But at that point, you probably do need some support. You do need a team, virtual assistant all the way up to agency like mine. You can get support, especially if you like producing content. You don't want to be everywhere all the time. This is where a team comes into play. Alright, my friends, enjoy your social media agnostic life. I'll talk to you soon.