Suddenly Social: 4 Quick Tips For The Last Girl At The Party
I never tire of my Instagram notifications letting me know that my obscure Facebook friend has launched a fitness IG account. There's nothing wrong with getting to the ball late. However there are a few things you should consider when joining a social media after the curve.
1. The Market is Saturated
When a new social app breaks there is a window of opportunity to join and become an early adopter. Being first is not the name of the game. The game is: getting established while the platform is relevant. Oftentimes an apps usefulness, and longevity are uncertain in it's beginning stages. There were a lot of individuals that were hesitant to move to Snapchat. However, once the wave starts, there's no sense in holding out for pride's sake. That just makes you look old and stuck in your ways. Being last to a new platform means that the market may be saturated with accounts and brands that promote the same things as you. Look at the fashion week pictures of late. It seemed like every fashion account posted the same pictures. No one needs another fashionista account that just googles pictures of the Kardashians and reposts. No thanks.
2. Learn the Language
Take some time to do a google search about what's relevant on the platform. First off, each platform has acronyms for its features. So take the time to learn what those are. Secondly, the users themselves will have a speak of their own. Oftentimes the social media world is dominated by popular culture. If you don't pay attention, you could miss out on a good opportunity to be relevant. Does that mean you need to post a "Becky With The Good Hair" meme just because Beyonce dropped a new album? No. However if you don't know what a DM is, and you're trying to network with your IG account, then you're going to make yourself look foolish.
3. Don't Friend/Follow Everyone
Following and friending is a tricky thing these days. Accounts take multiple approaches. Some accounts have spambots that will follow a thousand people a day, then immediately unfollow them. Some accounts have ghost account followers. Some accounts don't care. Typically the rule is, if you're popular you follow few, and have many followers. However, when you're new to the platform, the goal is to find individuals who have the same interests as you, and start there. I've seen some accounts just follow any and everyone and see if people will follow back, but platforms have fail safes that limit how many friends you can make in a set amount of time.
4. There Is A Such Thing As Too Many Hashtags
Hashtags are great. It's genius actually. Let people self categorize. But, what is the point of hashtagging? If you are an individual having social fun then there can be no point. However, if you are looking to build a brand, you should have two goals. 1. To create a unique place for people who are apart of your digital tribe to find content that appeals to them exclusively, and 2. to add your content to a place where your tribe is currently gathered. So, If you are the only one that uses #IKnowYouAreButWhatAmI and it's not getting any traction, it's not going to help anyone find you. This can be an issue on platforms that limit the number of characters you can use in posts.
Dusha Holmes II Digital Strategy ....Dude. Doing The Media ...Thing
