Given the recent news about Facebook’s algorithm switch-ups — they now prioritize posts shared by friends and family over posts directly from news pages — my recommendation was to diversify social media platforms beyond focusing on the heavy-hitter, Facebook. But there’s another way to diversify: Adding more pages or accounts within a single platform.
By splitting up into multiple niche verticals, brands and companies can better connect with a picky audience who might not be interested in one aspect of a company even though they love another.
Niche Verticals Give You More Data to Play With
Buzzfeed publisher Dao Nguyen, in an interview with Fast Company, discussed Buzzfeed’s approach: They have 90 Facebook pages, on topics ranging from “Buzzfeed Geeky” to “Buzzfeed Weddings.” Plenty of pages point to existing Buzzfeed verticals, but others simply live on Facebook. The data comes in handy, Nguyen explains:
“We track all of the posts, the stats they generate. We can look at traditional things, like when is the best time to post? And how does using video for certain Facebook pages affect fan growth? And how the rates are different between pages. We can use that to optimize what pages we post videos on. And then how it gets re-shared by bigger pages. Like, how do you use a big page to grow a small page? What media do you want to use? Why do some fans on some pages seem to respond better to videos versus other pages? What is the breakdown? Is it a demo breakdown?”
Niche Verticals Get Better Engagement
The data was in even before Facebook tweaked its feed to focus on shareable content: Viewers engage better when they follow a more specific vertical from a brand. Here’s Digiday on the Huffington Posts’s 79 Facebook pages:
“A smaller page with a more engaged audience is more likely to land its content in more of its followers’ feeds. In other words, a smaller Facebook page can actually be a more effective one. This video about feminism got 1.5 million views on the main Huffington Post channel and 3.7 million views when posted to HuffPost Women, where the follower count is a fifth of the main page’s.”
It Works for Startups, too!
You’re not Buzzfeed or HuffPo, I know. But splitting up into niche verticals works well for a medium to large company, too: Different departments can get their own feeds, using them to better explore what their specific jobs within the company are. John White, brand ambassador for startup social media network and blogging platform beBee, offered the same advice at Inc.com recently:
“I am an advocate for opening up multiple Twitter accounts for your startup and tweeting from all of them. Having multiple distribution channels on Twitter expands the viewership of your company’s content and message.
Tweeting from more than one account makes your company more discoverable and boosts your SEO. Consider that each Twitter account for your business will be growing a unique set of followers. Having multiple accounts allows you to establish an online presence faster and close the gap between your more established competitors’ networks.”
You’ll need to have the scale to keep up on the data and posting duties, of course, but dividing might just be the path to conquering.
