When I was growing up, there were no digital cameras. I had a Kodak Instamatic camera that would take 12, 24 or 36 pictures at a time, depending on the size of the film cartridge used. Once you reached that limit, you had to remove the film and insert another roll. As a result, you had to be choosy about what pictures you took, especially if you were running out of film and didn’t have another roll handy.
Today, my digital camera lets me take hundreds of pictures before the memory gets full, so I can keep snapping pictures till my heart’s content. But that also means I have hundreds of pictures to look at when I come back from vacation, which can be quite overwhelming.
The number of social networking sites available today can be overwhelming too. Many small business owners fall into the trap of thinking they need a presence on all of them to be effective. I’ve been guilty of thinking that way too. I recently hired a virtual assistant to help me with my own social media marketing, because it’s time-consuming to come up with posts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and run my business at the same time.
Here’s a little secret. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can limit yourself to one or two different platforms. The best photographers take time to craft their shots, and choose only the best images to present to the public. You should do the same. Take time to craft good quality content that will be appreciated by your audience and engage them. If your business lends itself well to visuals, spend the majority of your time on Pinterest. If your audience is B2B, spend more of your time on LinkedIn.
Experiment to see what type of content appeals most to your target audience and gets them to engage with you. Try out different types of posts, photos, contests, even ads. Test and re-test. In time, you’ll develop a good eye for what works.
Image courtesy of ammer / freedigitalphotos.net
