How many social networks can one person really actively work? The answer is one, maybe two, if they want to do it right. If you’re doing more than three or four, you’re either unemployed or lying about the “actively working” part.
The Definition of “Actively Working”
If you’re going to use a social network as part of your marketing arsenal, you have to develop that network, and that takes time.
That means actively working each and every social network you’re a part of, which in turn means participating. Sure, you can fire up some ping.fm feeds to auto-update all of your social networks at once, but that’s not really actively working a network?
You’re posting, but are you reading the posts of others? Are you engaging in conversation? If not, then you’re not working anything.
Concentrating Your Efforts
And every social network is different, each with its own nuances and quirks. For example, the kind of post that flies on Twitter may be frowned upon at LinkedIn while the audience you can expect on Tumblr is significantly different than the one on Facebook. That means you not only need to spend time maintaining a presence, but even more time on learning and understanding the platform.
Get Out of the Kiddie Pool
Your efforts are better spent working the deep well of one or two social networks than simply dipping your toe in the shallow waters of 10 or 20. So get out of the kiddie pool and dive into the deep end. Make a real splash.
About Erik Deckers