There are so many options available for social media. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. In fact, according to Wikipedia, there are currently 189 social networking sites to choose from. How can you possibly keep up? This is usually the first place that overwhelms people.
The good news is, you do not have to keep up with all of them. Your job is to pick the one that make sense for you and your content.
Recently I was speaking with a client about whether she should be spending her time on Twitter or Facebook. When I asked her about Twitter her response was:
“I just don’t get Twitter. I signed up for an account, read about how it works and tried to start posting regularly, but it just did not work for me.”
After that she went on to explain that she loved Facebook and was already heavily involved there. Since a lot of her potential fans were also involved in Facebook, it makes complete sense for her to spend her time tribe-building on Facebook. It just makes sense for her.
I also spoke with an author that is writing a book around acting, specifically improvisation. As we discussed where she would get the biggest results, we landed on YouTube. She was already teaching classes that could be recorded, she had enough skill to do basic video editing and the subject of her book obviously lent itself to the medium.
When you are making the decision on which social media platform to engage in, here are a few questions to ask:
- Does it make sense for me? Is it something I can easily fit into my life? Do I have time to do it? After doing some research and observation, do I “get” how it works?
- Does it make sense for my content? Twitter is only 140 characters. Can I adequately use that for my content or the content I’m sharing? Do I feel more comfortable producing audio or video instead of written?
- Do potential fans spend time there? Many authors have an extremely small niche and tracking those people down on Twitter may be too hard. Your time may be better spent focusing on Facebook groups or large online forums. Make sure people using the platform are in your tribe’s demographic!
April 19, 2011
