Adoption of social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube has been significant, and according to CMO.com it is anticipated that “CMOs will invest more in social media this year than ever before.” Earlier this year, CMO.com launched its 2nd Annual Guide to: The Social Landscape in an effort to capture the social media landscape.
While the CMO.com guide offers tips on nine social media platforms, new platforms continue to emerge and attract attention and members everyday such as Quora, Empire Avenue and Ning. For a complete list of active social media networking sites check out Wikipedia – but be ready, the list is extensive. It is easy to reach platform overload.
For most marketing professionals, the social media platforms with hundreds of millions of active members continue to draw the majority of their resources and attention, and the benefits of even the most popular networks differ greatly. Just last week, we wrote about how LinkedIn compares to several other networks and outlined the different pros and cons (The Value of LinkedIn vs. Other Social Media Networks).
Clearly, as communicators, we need to stay up to speed on these new platforms and understand which networks will be most effective and efficient in reaching our target audiences in order to support an organization’s business objectives. Is the best platform the one with the largest number of active members? Or is there a niche platform that may not have reached the masses yet, but specifically caters to a critical target demographic?
Ironically, we utilize some of these same social networks to stay informed of new entrants. We also look to resources such as Mashable, TechCrunch, Soshable, and Social Media Examiner to become aware of changes in the landscape.
How do you stay up on the changing social media scene? What platforms are you investing in today?