Michael Epps Utley 
Welcome to part two of our series on making it through today’s ever-evolving social media landscape. Didn’t read part one? Click here to get started.
Social Media Tips
Be Nimble and Responsive
Flexibility and adaptability are crucial to navigating a very fickle social media environment. It could be wise to hedge your bets and diversify your social media portfolio to help ensure ongoing engagement as people move from platform to platform during these volatile times.
Invest More in Owned and Operated Channels
It probably makes sense to spend additional time and effort on the channels you control, such as your website, blog, and email list. It will help ensure you can stay in contact with your customers no matter what happens on social media.
Try New Social Platforms and Tactics Quickly
Not long ago many naysayers said you couldn’t market serious businesses on Instagram and TikTok. They’re probably on the platforms now, lagging behind early adopter competitors.
The more things change, the more likely the risk of adapting too slowly. Businesses that stay curious and open to new tools, platforms, and formats earn the highest engagement. Jump in quickly, knowing that if something doesn’t work out, you can stop doing it and move on.
Do More With Public Relations
If your business has a public relations resource, consider using it more. They can place items you typically distribute through social media, like customer stories, thought leadership pieces, and case studies, as earned media news and stories. This type of content play earns you the halo of being published by a respected outlet, even if it’s just a local blog. This is a benefit not provided by social media, where almost anything can get distributed.
Request Emails
Rather than building a community (your followers) on rented land (social media), start developing a community on owned land (email). Consistently ask for email addresses. Then use them to distribute content through newsletters, deliver special offers, and invite people to virtual and live events. Compared to the unpredictability of social sites, the relative level of control email provides once again makes it an attractive option to many people.
Stick to What Makes Your Organization Different
Your social media strategies and tactics are based on your overall marketing strategy, company culture, and business brand. If you always keep this in time, you will be able to present what is uniquely different and authentically meaningful about your organization, no matter the social platform.
Take a Stand
Your social media strategies must be based on your business principles, not the social media platform. Of course, you need to make adjustments depending on the channel. However, if your company is clear about what it stands for, you can take those qualities from platform to platform.
Don’t Put All Your (Social) Eggs in One Basket
Don’t depend too much on any one social platform. It may put your business at serious risk. You could be surprised when the platform or a feature disappears or changes in a big way. Twitter and TikTok are just the latest examples of this. There was a time when MySpace, Vine, Tumblr, Friendster, and Google+, seemed like the future.
Pick a few different social media battles so if one goes awry, you can live to fight another day.
Tell Great Stories
Focus on extraordinary storytelling, which works on every social media channel. You simply need to adjust it based on the platforms. For instance, you may tell it in images on Instagram and words on LinkedIn. Stay laser-focused on telling stories the people you’re targeting will want to engage with, and you’ll be ready no matter which channels they move to.
Invest in Your Fans
To succeed in social today, it’s critical to have a clear brand presence and develop content your followers can’t live without. Similar to television shows that are given a second life on a new network after being canceled by their original networks because of loyal fan bases, brands whose content delivers significant value will find that their followers will seek them out on other platforms.
Go Evergreen
Businesses should be open to expanding their evergreen content libraries. It will give you easy-to-use content that can work on different social platforms.
Partner With Content Creators
During these volatile times in social media, it might be wise to engage with content creators. Popular creators connected to your brand will most likely be effective on multiple social media channels. If one platform goes down, the creator’s followers will move to other platforms to stay connected.
Ultimately, following the advice in these two articles could help you survive the social media chaos and make it through to a brighter future.
