Or: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
The other day I read an excellent article by Joe Hall over on the Marketing Pilgrim blog. In it, Joe discussed the recent changes at Digg and the uproar those changes caused among some of the heavy users of Digg before the changes. Basically, those folks are upset because Digg upset their apple cart.
I can’t say I blame them. They spent a lot of time and effort figuring out how to work Digg to their advantage. With the changes made, their methods no longer work and they’ll need to move to another site or start over working out the new system.
The saying goes something like “There’s nothing so constant as change” and it applies very much in our web marketing world. Things change every day, as to web sites and services.
I cringe when I read about people who are planning to put their entire web presence on Facebook or other such service. It’s not that these web sites are bad or not useful – they are both good and useful. But, what should happen if, all of a sudden, your chosen site changes the rules and completely trashes your carefully laid web marketing strategy? All of your eggs were in one basket and someone dropped a hand grenade in it. Well, you get the image.
I fully advocate the use of social media tools to communicate with your customers. Social sites like Facebook, Twitter and such are great tools. Like with any tool, you need to use the right one for the right job.
Andy Beal, founder of Marketing Pilgrim, offers his version of the “80-10-10″ rule as it applies to web marketing. Andy advocates spending 80% of your efforts on sites you own and control, 10% on sites where you generate the content but someone else owns the site, and 10% on sites where you neither control the content nor own the site. This seems very wise advice to me.
I like to use a net analogy for social media efforts. You spread a wide net through your social media activities, but links are provided along the way to channel users to your web site. Cast your net into the waters and haul the people you gotten attention from into the boat. I’ve also used a funnel analogy in the past – both work out basically the same way.
You own your web site and completely control the content. This is your “fixed” place on the web, the place where you keep all your basic information which doesn’t change very often. Yes, you keep it updated, but it’s not going to be as fluid as your social media places. Use your blogs, Facebook postings, tweets, etc. to lead people to your web site’s information when appropriate. Everything linking together helps your customers find your information easier and helps your SEO efforts.
Strategic planning helps work this out better so everyone on the team understands what’s going on.
photo credit: A writer afoot
