Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
Notes on the endurance of social media platforms
I was reviewing a recent report from Marketo, one of my favorite “thought leadership” companies in the realm of – particularly digital – marketing. The title of the report is “Sample Social Media Tactical Plan” and you can follow that link to download your own copy (in exchange for your email address). I decided to save the document for future reference, and discovered that I also had the 2011 and 2012 versions of their same guidelines. I may have been sleeping in 2013, or maybe they didn’t publish that year, but no matter.
Intrigued, I decided to look for the similarities and differences in the three reports. What (if anything, had changed over the past few years? Here’s what caught my eye. Obviously, the trending social platforms of the moment get attention. In the fast pace of our online world, whatever is catching people’s attention at the time is worth noting (see “trending topics” almost anywhere). So, Digg shows up on the ’11 and ’12 lists but is not to be found in 2014. Sphinn (has anyone ever heard of that?) apparently changed its name to “Marketing Land” in late 2011, but the name change may have signaled a course correction as well…the new incarnation didn’t make the later lists. Friendfeed and Del.icio.us are both still around, but apparently not as influential as they were a few short years ago.
So takeaway number one from this review is, pay attention to what’s new and hot, but realize that going from hero to zero can happen almost overnight. New social media tools and platforms will continuously appear, and should be checked out. Be careful however before you invest too much time and energy in a platform that may be short-lived. I’m pretty certain that Pinterest and Instagram have some staying power (picking on two list newcomers for example) but feel less comfortable about Vine, as hot as it may be at the moment. Advice: Proceed with caution when it comes to tools that have note proven to be durable yet.
What was more interesting was the inclusion, as well as the relative ranking (based solely on how early they are discussed in the reports) of the same platforms over all three of the reports. It probably won’t come as a big surprise that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and “blogging” were at the top of the list each year. Twitter got bumped from the “top four” in 2012 by the relatively new Google+ but has reclaimed the 4th position this year, while G+ drops to fifth. These are all time-tested tools and ways to gain and retain online connectivity over the long run. Advice: Build the foundation of your online social media planning on the platforms that have demonstrated durability. Based these reports and my own experience, I would definitely consider including Google+ and YouTube in any list of “must consider” social media environments for your business.
Here are the lists from the three reports. Again, the order was developed based on how early in the report each was mentioned, which in the context of the entire document, did in fact suggest preference if not recommendation.
2011 2012 2014
Facebook Blogs Blogs
LinkedIn Facebook Facebook
Twitter LinkedIn LinkedIn
Blogs Google+ Twitter
Podcasts Pinterest Google+
Flickr Twitter Pinterest
YouTube Reddit YouTube
Slideshare Digg Vimeo
Del.icio.us Stumbleupon Vine
Digg YouTube Instagram and Instagram Video
StumbleUpon Flickr Tumblr
Reddit Slideshare Flickr
Sphinn Snapchat
FriendFeed SlideShare
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Posted by DD | 0 comments