Wouldn’t our lives in digital marketing be so much easier if someone would just develop a one-button solution for managing marketing on all social media platforms? Well, we need to keep on dreaming, because in this ever-growing digital landscape, that’s going to be a long time coming, if ever. We don’t want to sound so negative about it, but we all too often see clients buy into vendors offering an all-in-one social media management solution just to find that in order to make these so-called solutions actually work, they end up having to put in even more effort and/or resources than they would have with a more carefully conceived and executed social media marketing plan. Bottom line: you get what you pay for, and if you take the “easy” way, you will just end up right back where you started. Let’s take a look at what the issues are and what you should focus on instead.
Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen
With so many social media platforms in the marketplace, digital marketing has never been so broad of a channel for opportunity. This has allowed for an influx of developers and programmers to fill a void once desperate for diversity and led to many proprietary marketing solutions – many that require much more development in order to play nice with the more complex platforms at the top social media food chain. It comes down to time and money, which the larger social media platforms have plenty of and don’t wish to share with young open-source developers or fledgling startup firms.
Not Enough Teams
Considering that the very engine of social media is user-generated content, a similar approach to the development of social media management platforms would be amazing, but capitalism continues to win out. While there is the open-source market, many programs end up breaking with an update from the social media platforms they help administer or they become obsolete when the “next big thing” hits the consumer market, which is often simply a commercial spin on the open-source program being usurped. If the larger social platforms teamed up with open-source developers, we might see a full 180 degree turn in how digital marketing evolves, allowing true cross-platform symbiosis. However, as long as the mighty dollar keeps its place as king, this won’t happen any time soon.
But I Currently Use a One-Button Solution
Of course, there are plenty of options out there that at first glance seem to do the trick, but realistically, how much do you follow up on the results? More often than not, you will find that the work you’ve done really needs to be optimized for each individual platform, depending on the initial posting. We’ve seen clients purchase a third-party program that integrates beautifully on one social media platform, but when viewing it on another platform, there are no links or calls to action, forcing the targeted user to stop dead in his or her tracks. Talk about losing potential business! The only way to fix this would be to attend to every cross-post and ensure links are working as expected. But doesn’t this go against the initial point of a one-button solution? Exactly. There are no one-button solutions, at least not yet, when dealing with digital marketing or even web design and development in general.
So, What Should We Do?
First of all, don’t get suckered into the idea that there’s a one-size-fits-all solution for social media management. It doesn’t exist yet and considering that the web is increasing with complexity with every passing day, it is unlikely it ever will. So the next best thing is to spend the time and effort to do it right the first time around. Choose your social media platforms wisely and market according to the best practices of each individual platform. Next, find someone in-house or contact a company like Blink;Tech to help ensure your marketing dollars are bringing real results. Having a solid infrastructure for evaluating your web marketing efforts is key here. If you have to spend money, make sure it’s well spent! Lastly, keep your eyes open for the latest in tech and social media. While there’s no current one-button solution, we won’t give up hope that someday there might be!
Contact Blink;Tech today to see what we can do for you and your company’s social media marketing!
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