Ping! Ping! Ping!
That’s the sound of updates and changes flooding your inbox. Just when you thought you knew about all the apps to be on, another one breaks into the market. Is it going to catch on? (And most importantly, will it prove to be useful and special to you and your audience?)
Social media is exciting, in part because of these changes and developments. As digital marketer Jonathan Jeffery acknowledges in Entrepreneur’s updated list of the 10 tools to help manage posting on social media, the “social media landscape shifts on a regular basis.” (Are Adespresso, Snaplytics, or Promo in your 2020 toolbox?)
But even if you are someone who thrives in fast-paced environments and loves to discover new platforms, you may still feel a little lost or confused from time to time.
You don’t need to learn everything at once, but you do need to have a strategy.
We appreciated this quote from Benton Crane, CEO of Harmon Brothers, in Digital Marketer’s How Digital Marketing Will Change: 17 Predictions for 2020:
We predict the winning strategy will be to play marketing chess, not checkers. In chess your pieces have different strengths and weaknesses, whereas all checkers pieces are the same. When you build your marketing strategy use a mix of short, medium, and long-form content. Use the short-form content to appease Facebook’s algorithms, but don’t stop building your brand character, voice, and universe with longer-form content.
As savvy marketing professionals who understand the hard work happening behind the scenes, that concept of thinking about “marketing chess, not checkers” resonated with us.
To your friends and followers, touchpoints may appear quick and seamless. But in the marketing kitchen, that work is the result of content calendars, SWOT analysis, audience research, and discussion.
We’re in it for the long game. Don’t be afraid to step back and plot your next move, perhaps by brainstorming with colleagues, chatting with clients, or sharing marketing news. Strategically planning ahead can significantly help you sort through the noise—and the new apps—to find the winning method for you.
