LinkedIn Just Another Rolodex?
You could get very creative with Snapchat and never show your face if that’s something that bothers you. Obviously, you could market in Facebook very effectively. In general though, I do think there are core platforms. If you’re a business professional Linkedin is an important platform still, but it is ultimately a rolodex in a publishing platform so use this judiciously and really think about how to be creative about that. Twitter is great for being able to interact with people in real time and I spend a lot time doing it.

So, I actually do like Twitter as a core platform. So, if you’re going to do five platforms I would say obviously have Linkedin, but Linkedin doesn’t mean you have to spend every single day in Linkedin, you could be in Linkedin twice a week and it’s fine, and not spend more than five minutes there each time and it’s ok, so being in Linkedin almost doesn’t even really count as something that’s sucking up your time.

That’s the thing that people are confused about. I need to do a whole video about this, about that perception but you know it doesn’t have to suck a whole lot of your time. Twitter, you can do when you’re in line at the bank like I do. So, that doesn’t have to be a huge time suck if you don’t let it, especially from your smart phone.

The same is true for Facebook. So again, these platforms don’t have to take over your life and posting at least once or twice a day to them is not anything difficult. You could do this with 15 minutes out of your day and be fine.

The real biggies are should you be in Periscope, should you be Youtube, should you be in Snapchat, should you be in Instagram? These are important, and I would say if you’re doing anything that’s product related then Instagram could be very good for you.

If you’re a marketer I would say you should go out of your way to use Instagram because there’s a lot of attention there and it’s a very unique platform that you can take advantage of and I think that if you’re smart you can actually use it to grow your email list. But, you know there are other things you need to consider about that. Do you have something that you’re doing that you feel you can make visually interesting and are you creative enough to pull that off? So really think about playing to your strengths here.

Snapchat is something new, I’ve got to do a dedicated video about this, but ultimately, the bottom line is Gary V. was kind of right about Snapchat. But again, I don’t think it’s for everybody. Just try and educate yourself about Snapchat as much as possible and see if it’s for you.

The key here, that I keep reiterating, is play to your strengths, use the social media platforms that fit your personality, fit the needs of your audience, and that you think you can succeed in,and again, only dedicate the time that you actually have a day to take advantage of them and use them effectively. Maybe set yourself a timer, maybe you actually should only be spending 30 or 45 minutes out of the entire day in social media.

If you’re going to do that you can take advantage of microtime. Again, this is something I do on a regular basis. I literally just take a few moments, especially if I’m already doing something that doesn’t require my full attention and it’s time I’m never going to get back anyway, like if I’m in the passenger seat, or if I’m traveling, or if I’m in line somewhere, I just go ahead and whip out my phone and I just use social media and use that time effectively to connect with people and build relationships.

So, I know this one was a little long but I hope it answers your question as far as, how many social media platforms should you use? The ones that work for you, but again, maybe you should have a presence in all of them but keep your activity focused around your top five.

For some of you that might be too much, so maybe it’s your top three. Anyway, I hope this answered that question for you but if you still have questions about social media, marketing yourself.