Double Down On A Top-Performing Social Channel Or Diversify Efforts Across Multiple Channels?

Social channel strategy: focus or diversify? Scott Morris, CMO at Sprout Social, shares research on the disconnect between marketer assumptions and consumer social media preferences. Morris advocates for strategic platform diversification based on audience demographics while emphasizing the importance of mastering primary channels before expanding. His research reveals that meeting audiences on their preferred platforms creates more authentic engagement than trying to maintain presence everywhere simultaneously. Show Notes Connect With:Scott Morris: Website // LinkedInThe MarTech Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterBenjamin Shapiro: Website // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.

• 0:36Speaker 02

  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

• 0:42Speaker 03

  Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

• 0:53Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

• 1:15Speaker 04

  I'm Benjamin Shapiro, and joining me to discuss the difference between what marketers think and what consumers actually want from social media is Scott Morris. Scott is the Chief Marketing Officer at Sprouts Social, which is a social media management and analytics platform. And his team recently surveyed a group of customers, social practitioners, and marketing leaders to uncover how consumer relationships are changing and how that's different than what social media platforms want. And today, we're going to discuss those findings and how marketers can break through the noise. All right, last question. Double down or diversify? Should brands double down on top-performing social channels or diversify their efforts across multiple channels?

• 1:58Speaker 05

  So it definitely depends on what your brand goals are. And this is a question that social media folks think about all the time, especially if they've invested a lot in the traditional channels that have been around for a couple of years. And then you have things like Threads and Mastodon and others that are coming on, and they're struggling with whether they also need to expand to those channels. I would say that what we like to call strategic platform diversification really is key. It's kind of hard to predict what's next, the way everything is evolving so quickly. Brands are experimenting with new platforms. Almost half of US marketers say that their audiences are starting to spend time

• 2:43Speaker 05

  on those emerging platforms, Threads, Blue Sky, Mastodon, all of which are sort of Twitter or X-like, Lemonade, which is TikTok-like. And platform usage really varies by demographic. So you've got to be thinking about all of those things. And so I guess my final answer is, meeting your audience on the platforms they prefer is more authentic than trying to be everything to everyone and everywhere. So you really need to think about what each of those platforms serves, the audience you're trying to target. That should inform your strategy, rather than trying to be everywhere all at once.

• 3:18Speaker 04

  You lean diversify.

• 3:19Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 3:19Speaker 04

  Be in multiple channels and be where your customers are. I don't disagree. I lean a little more towards focus on the channels that you can master first. And I think there's an 80/20 rule here, which is, for us, for example, we create social shorts, we focus on YouTube, we focus on LinkedIn. We don't spend a ton of time on Instagram and Twitter trying to fine tune and tweak, and the conversations are a little different. But our primary channel is video delivery, and we think that YouTube and LinkedIn are right. So we can continue to go and spread on Mastodon and Blue Sky, which I always want to call Bluesky. But you can go and you can spread the peanut butter real thin. And I think that you're right, in the sense that you need more than one channel, but

• 4:03Speaker 04

  you also want to be somewhat selective, making sure you're doing a good job in the channel. So I lean more towards do a great job before you expand. And it seems like make sure you have some expansion and coverage, but obviously you still have to do a good enough job for each channel.

• 4:20Speaker 05

  Well, I actually think you hit on a really important point, which is this idea of doing a good job before you expand. So it depends on where you are in your social journey. If you already have presence on a bunch of networks and platforms, you have a little bit more wiggle room or capacity, maybe depending on how many resources you have to start experimenting on some of those newer networks. If you're just getting started, we named, what, 10 networks on this conversation. You can't be on all of them. So you've got to pick the one that's right for your brand goals and then expand from there if that's the right thing for your brand.

• 4:52Speaker 04

  I think if you're seeing continued growth in one primary channel, you should focus your efforts there and make sure that you're getting the most of the channel that you're seeing positive business results before you get distracted trying to replicate what you think will work on another channel. And then when you hit the point of diminishing returns, then you think about expanding. But I do think that mastering the one or two channels that really matter first and right sizing the content for those experiences and for those user bases matters more than the blanket coverage across multiple different channels.

• 5:24Speaker 05

  Definitely agree. The only thing I would add to that would be that you might be going really deep on one of those networks because you're successful there and you want to build on that. But you need to make sure you know where your audience is, or where your target audience is, I should say. So doing a little bit of research and understanding what shifts are happening across those different networks, even maybe using social listening to understand across those networks where the conversations that are relevant for what you're trying to achieve are, that might also influence if or when you decide you're going to expand to something else.

• 5:53Speaker 04

  I couldn't agree more. Scott, I appreciate you coming on the show. I appreciate you telling us about your research and giving brands an understanding of whether they should slide into their consumers' DMs or not.

• 6:03Speaker 05

  Thanks a lot. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for having me.

• 6:05Speaker 04

  All right. And that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Scott Morris from Sprout Social for joining us. If you'd like to get in touch with Scott, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes, or you could read Sprout Social's research on consumer and marketing behavior by visiting their website, sproutsocial.com. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button. Subscribe button in your podcast app or follow us on YouTube. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

• 7:04Speaker 00

  Thanks for listening to the MarTech Podcast and I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand, then visit iHearEverything.com.