The Shotgun Social Media Strategy

by Karen Cioffi

Most marketers know that the majority of social media channels don’t share your posts to all your connections. So, if you post something to Facebook, the majority of those connections won’t see your post. We’re talking about at least 98% of your connections will never see that post. Pretty dismal, right?

And, the same holds true for most of the other channels, including Twitter.

This obviously affects your marketing reach.

According to marketing pro Jay Baer, there’s something called “reliable reach” and social media doesn’t make the cut.

So, what is reliable reach?

It’s the ability to have a message you send to a particular person actually reach that person.

Emails have reliable reach, so do telephone calls, a fax, and direct mail. Social media does not.

If you’re like me, you spend time and effort on working the social media channels. BUT, the majority of your connections aren’t getting the opportunity to receive what you’re posting.

So, say you have 5,000 Twitter followers. Your reliable reach is only 2% or less of that number which is about 100 followers.

The reason given for this lack of ‘real’ marketing reach on social media channels is because there’s just too much information being posted and processed.

Sounds convincing, doesn’t it?

Well, if you want to cut through that noise, all you have to do is pay. If you pay Facebook or Twitter, your posts will reach a lot more of your connections.

But, what if you don’t want to pay or don’t have it in your marketing budget?

slide: @JayBaer

How do you compensate for this highly unreliable reach?

Baer recommends putting down your marketing ‘rifle’ (targeted approach) for a marketing ‘shotgun’ (board range approach).

Let’s break it down:

With the targeted approach, you produce great content, focus on one to three social channels, and strive for a large following on the channels you’re working.

But, for this approach to work, you need reliable reach and that’s just not happening.

The broad target approach is based on using a lot of social channels and posting lots of content.

The theory is if you send more posts in more places, you’ll reach more connections.

The shotgun approach makes sense to me, as long as it’s not used abusively. People don’t want to be bombarded with your content or sales pitch for that matter. You’ll need to fine ‘the magic number’ of postings that enables you to reach more of your followers, but not so much that you put anyone off.

As with everything in life, moderation is best.

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Karen Cioffi is a former accountant who is now a multi-award-winning author, ghostwriter, freelance writer, editor, and author-writer online platform marketing instructor. She founded and manages Writers on the Move (a marketing group), and presents online writing and marketing workshops and webinars.

Karen has published 12 writing and marketing eBooks, the most recent, Article Marketing: Increase Website Traffic with Properly Formatted and Search Engine Optimized Content.

In addition to this, Karen’s website, Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing, was named Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012.

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Join Karen Cioffi's upcoming online class, GIVE YOUR AUTHOR/WRITER BUSINESS A BOOST WITH INBOUND MARKETING. You'll learn about basic website optimization, blogging smart, email marketing, and social media marketing. Visit our classroom page for details and enrollment!