Trying to be all things to all people on all channels is a recipe for social dilution and burn-out. Some publishers are going the other way and choosing one primary social channel that is a good match for their content, their audience and their engagement style.
Foilo: provides a great overview of some big name content publishers, both print and digital, who have found their niche in “Profiles in Social Media: Has Your Brand Found Its Social Soul Mate?”
Take the Pinterest early adopter Real Simple for example, whose image-rich lifestyle oriented content is the perfect match for the Pinterest audience. Editor Kathleen Harris explains that the channel is an ideal place to engage. That is one of the reasons that the magazine was pinning as early as October of 2010, months before it hit the mainstream.
If Pinterest and Real Simple are the icing to each other’s cupcakes, Twitter and WIRED are the peanut butter and jelly of the print-digital hookup. WIRED values accessibility across platforms, and editor Joe Brown touts the friendliness of the brand and its “democratized set of tools” that make the publication highly relatable to its readers.
Twitter is nothing if not democratic, both in terms of access and content. The revolution, many say, will be Tweeted.
Publishers looking to engage on social media would do well to take a lesson here. For killer social engagement avoid the tendency to over-commit, and choose your channels carefully for a match made in media heaven.