Are you planting trees?
What is Short Tail Social Media Marketing?
Short tail marketing is like planting a flower, it will last for a season, but will wither and die in a short space of time leaving your potential clients with a fading memory of what you did yesterday.
It can be of value if you want to drive short term business objectives, in the form of announcements, stock clearances, sales etc, but not much use beyond that...
So what is Long Tail Social Media Marketing?
Long tail marketing however, is like planting a tree, it has an increasing presence and value over time and often the rewards at the beginning do not look that promising, but one day it will burst forth with blossom and please you year in year out.
The more it is engaged with by potential clients, the longer it is there, the larger it has the opportunity to grow, so it suits long term growth and sustainability.
How do I recognise which type of marketing I use?
Short tail Social Media Marketing, typically takes the form of "outbound marketing", or "broadcast marketing" as I like to call it. It is usually a form of marketing that is targetted at as many people as possible, hoping that some will take notice.
Long Tail Social Media Marketing, often takes the form "inbound marketing" or "magnetic marketing". It often comes in the form of instructional videos, educational blog posts, problem solving posts etc, it is what is known as "evergreen" content.
For a full discussion on these principles have a read of our previous blog here:
Ever felt like the invisible man?
So which Social Platform suits which type of marketing?
Facebook and Twitter is like a field that sits behind a very high wall. You are planting there, but nobody outside that wall can see it.
This means that much of what you do there, does not get indexed in Google Search, in other words, it cannot be seen outside of those platforms.
With approximately 89% of all search traffic in the UK alone going through Google, all that marketing effort that is going into those social media platforms has no long term viability in Google Search.
Yet many are trying to create a long tail marketing presence there, unaware that the fields are just not suitable for that type of planting.
Which leads us to Google+, which is a totally different field in which to plant your marketing.
Why is Google+ different?
Google+ has no walls around its field, everyone can see what you are doing there.
Everything on Google+ is measured, tracked and indexed so that content shared there can be shown in Google Search results immediately and also be retained for long term use, it is unique in that it can be used for short tail as well as long tail marketing.
Plant there and your marketing presence has the chance to grow and grow and grow.
Creating a presence on Google+ with outbound or magnetic marketing is the near perfect way of creating a long tail social media marketing strategy.
So is it time to move to a different Social Media Platform?
I think that you should continue your short tail marketing, but build your foundation on Google+, prioritise that if you want long term growth as well as short term presence.
Develop your long tail marketing strategy on Google+ is our advice.
However you do it, now is the time to start planting trees in a field where people can actually see them...
Do you need help with this?
If you need help with this, we are happy to help you develop your strategy through our training and support, see here for details on our Google+ Business Package:
Link to our Google+ Business Package
Thank you for your valuable time. :-)