77. Should You Be Expanding Your Social Media Presence?
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All right, friends. You might have caught wind of a hot topic being debated among social media gurus right now: whether or not you need to expand your social media presence to multiple video platforms.
If you’re intimidated by showing up on video, you probably just felt a shiver run down your spine. I get it—the idea of mastering your social media presence on ONE video platform can be daunting enough, let alone SEVERAL.
But here’s why you need to consider expanding your social media presence anyway: we cannot control our audience. So as much as we might like to hang out on one social media platform and make it our marketing home, it’s just not practical.
We need to extend our social media presence across multiple platforms because our target audiences are on multiple platforms. Not everybody who might be the perfect client or customer for you is on Instagram; many of them might be hanging out on TikTok. Others might not have touched TikTok, but they spend a lot of time scrolling through Facebook videos. Even LinkedIn can have some great opportunities to reach people through video, though it might not be a platform you considered before.
We don't want to put all of our eggs in just one basket. We want to have multiple baskets that have multiple different eggs in them.
So we know we need to do it, but how do we keep up with it? How do we actually add in that next platform in a sustainable way? And if we’re not so fond of one of these platforms, should we be leaving them entirely and turning our attention to others?
I've been getting some messages and seeing conversations being had by many people who shared at the beginning of the year that they were leaving certain platforms in favor of others. “I'm leaving Instagram for TikTok,” or “I'm leaving Instagram for YouTube.”
I’ve seen a lot of this “jumping ship” lately, and honestly, it’s not a surprise to me. It’s no secret that Instagram has gotten a lot of heat recently, and while I have a lot of opinions on that, I personally think that it’s come about because social media has changed so much since the pandemic, we all needed someone to point the finger at. We needed someone to blame for things becoming a hot mess. And while I do think each platform has places where they could improve, I definitely don't think that we want to be leaving one platform entirely for a new platform.
Reform Your Mindset Around Your Social Media Presence
Ultimately, what it comes down to is that you need to be thinking like a marketer, whether you identify as a marketer or you're just a small business trying to market your business.
I often find that we allow peer pressure to influence the choices we make regarding our social media presence and the platforms we choose to engage with, or we allow our emotions to take over. It’s easy to be influenced by what everyone else is doing, or by how we feel about a specific video platform instead of taking a step back, regaining our objectivity, and thinking of these platforms differently.
These platforms aren’t out to get us; they are simply tools to use in our business. They’re only one part of our marketing strategy, and we need to think of it that way.
Think about your favorite brand and their social media presence. Chances are they don't think, “Well, everyone's loving us on TikTok, so let’s ditch our Instagram because we’re doing too much.”
Now, they might reevaluate their strategy. They might pivot the angle of their messaging. They might update things or add in a new platform that they see opportunity in, but you'll never see them completely ditch a community that they've been creating. You simply don't see it with big brands. But we see it a lot with smaller businesses, solopreneurs, online businesses, etcetera.
As smaller creators, we feel like we need to pick and choose. But even if you only have a few hundred to a few thousand people in your Instagram community, you can’t just dip out when things get hard. That's not how marketing works. That's not how relationship building and audience building works.
So that’s the first thing that needs to change: you need to shift how you think about video platforms and limiting your social media presence. These platforms are simply tools. They are opportunities for you and your business. You don't want to be thinking about downsizing your social media presence; instead, you want to be thinking about how you can reevaluate or add in new opportunities.
When you start thinking about platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok this way, it will transform your relationship with social media and where you spend your mental energy, because your mental energy should be spent thinking of opportunities with your video content, not constantly evaluating whether it’s worth even showing up.
Content Ecosystem
So we know now that we need to have a social media presence on multiple video platforms, but how do we keep up with it? How do we build what I like to call a “content ecosystem?”
Firstly, let’s talk about how to know when it's time to scale to your next platform and identifying these opportunities while it's still the right timing. You want to expand your social media presence to a new platform while that platform is booming, but also while you have the capacity.
This is a really big focus inside the Video Content Camp, my program designed to help you grow with strategic video content. With the last part of my Shine framework, we talk about sustainability, and my goal with the camp wasn't just to talk about how to use Instagram videos and call it a day. I really wanted to focus less on just one platform and more on having a solid foundation to create that content ecosystem with the strategy, systems, and skills on your own time.
One way we do this in the program is by utilizing a scaling self-auditing tool. I’ll give you a peek at the process here, but you get the full experience inside the Camp!
The first thing you want to do is make sure you're auditing your current systems and boundaries and making sure you can keep your social media presence consistent on a new platform without overwhelm. You can do this by looking at your social media presence on your current platforms and checking to see if you've stuck to your posting plan for thirty, sixty, even ninety days.
Have you been consistent on stories? Have you been posting your reels consistently? Have you been going live weekly? Whatever that posting plan is, are you following it consistently and with the right boundaries and systems in place?
If the answer is no, you’re not even there, then you don't even need to be thinking about expanding social media presence to your next platform.
Next, you want to look at your strategy and see if it’s getting you closer to the results that you're looking to achieve with your marketing. You should feel confident that whatever type of content you're currently creating is speaking to not only your ideal follower and the person you're trying to reach, but that you're getting some type of result.
Inside the Camp, I break down how to measure your goals into two different categories. We have tangible goals, which are metrics, insights, numbers, etcetera, and intangible, which are based on making sure you’re not burnt out, you’re having more fun, and you’re enjoying your content.
So for this, you want to go back to your strategy and see if it’s already working where you’re at. Because if it's not working where you're at, it's not going to work on the next platform.
The next thing you want to think about is whether there’s an opportunity on another platform that you can leverage. Once you go over your strategies, systems, and consistency, if you’re able to check “Yes” on all those boxes, it’s time to start brainstorming to decide which platform you want to establish your social media presence on next.
You want to think about which platform seems to be bustling right now, but most importantly, does that platform lean into your strengths? Will it get you in front of the right people? Does this make sense for your marketing strategy?
The last thing to consider, if you've gotten through all these questions and believe you’re ready to add on to your content ecosystem, is which things are currently working for you that you can adapt to this new platform.
Take the time to get used to this new platform. Scroll on TikTok, binge YouTube shorts, get familiar with Reels, whatever it may be. Make sure you understand the platform that you're diving into, because every platform, even though they're starting to look a little more similar, is still pretty different.
Different Platforms, Different Purposes
For instance, I don't think enough people realize that platforms like TikTok or YouTube are focused on discovery. Unlike a platform like Instagram, there are many built-in things like the “For You” page or recommendations or the homepage of YouTube that are quite literally designed to show someone new content. Therefore, the content you're creating on a platform like TikTok or YouTube is more for new people, not for your current community.
But on a platform like Instagram, what if you just completely change your expectations of what your Instagram strategy is going to look like? What if the goal isn't discovery and getting in front of new people, but more about nurturing your current community? How can you make sure your warm leads know how to work with you and how to purchase your products or services?
This should be the focus for Instagram because when you build a community, they're going to be the biggest advocates for sharing your content and recommending your content and engaging with your content, which is going to increase the likelihood that more people are going to discover it.
Scale Up…But Only If You’re Ready
Essentially, the answer to the question of whether you should be building a social media presence on multiple platforms is a resounding YES…but only if you can do so sustainably. And even if you do scale to more platforms, you want to make sure you’re changing your strategy just enough to meld with what they prioritize: community or discovery.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
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