Keep it simple, social

Now that social media has been around for several years, more businesses are questioning the economic value and trying to determine the ROI. Yet, being in a bunch of social channels seems compulsory. Since the channels are there and (sometimes) the audience is there, it feels like you have to be there, too. Except perhaps you don’t…at least not in all of them.

In a recent blog post called “How to suck at social media: An indispensable guide for business,” Google’s Avinash Kaushik goes into glorious detail about brands in various social channels and how they are getting virtually no engagement. Yet they just keep pumping out their content, because it’s there. What a purposeless waste of resources. It’s a lengthy and pivotal article, well worth the time and the coffee it will take you to read it.

I am not asserting that social media can’t have economic value. It absolutely can, when used strategically. However, I do recommend evaluating the actual value of every social channel that you are using and whether it is contributing anything meaningful to your business.

Is it driving traffic to your website? Once those people get to your website, are they converting to any meaningful action? Secondarily, is any meaningful engagement or interaction happening? Whether your posts are getting shared – what Kaushik calls amplification rate – is a good engagement indicator. Are you getting comments? Are they at least liking it?

If you have a tight strategy and are just getting a few “likes” here and there and no more demonstrable value, rethink your priorities. Spend more of your time on other channels. Improve your website, your email program or other activities that actually are driving your business.

After all, half of strategy is deciding what not to do.