"Leverage the unique psychology of each social platform" - Interview with John Smibert
Creating and sharing content is a critical part of educating and challenging our customers as they progress through their buying journey.
Our buyers soak up content that is relevant to what they currently have top of mind, and they will find content via different social platforms. 
So we must be sharing content on each specific platform on which our customer is active. Does this mean taking one piece of content and sharing it with identical words on each different platform.
According to social media expert Adam Fraser the answer is a resounding 'NO'.
In this discussion Adam makes it very clear that the expectations and psychology of every platform is significantly differently to others so we must tailor our content for each platform.
If you are working on a content strategy in order to educate and influence your clients I encourage you to watch the short video discussion or read the transcript to learn more.
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Adam Fraser is the founder of Echo Junction who help organisations and businesses leverage value from marketing and social media technology.
Interview
John: I am delighted to have Adam Fraser with me again, welcome back Adam.
Adam: Thanks a lot John.
John: Hey Adam, we offline had a nice discussion about social media platforms. And I know I sometimes have to coach people through which platform being used. Now obviously in the B2B environment LinkedIn's a big chunk of whatever you going to do, in terms of communicating out via a platform. What are some of the rules that you apply, and the thinking you apply, as to what platforms you choose and which platform would make sense in a B2B environment for people to consider?
Adam: Look John, I think take a step back to the topic we talked about earlier; step one is knowing where your audience is and that will dictate to a large extent where you you want focus your attention - both for your publishing and your listening. I think secondly it's really important, John, that people understand the differing psychology when people are on the different social media platforms. You can't just have one social media strategy.
John: The classic is Facebook and LinkedIn, isn't it?
Adam: And in the big debate debate we were chatting about offline that people are now saying to keep LinkedIn professional, keep your cat videos, and trivia quizzes, and what they had for lunch off LinkedIn. It's interesting to see the pushback. It's consistent with what I am saying.
John: They don't want to see it.
Adam: When people are in LinkedIn they are in a professional learning and networking frame of mind. When they jump onto Facebook most generally it's friends and family, it's cat videos that's entertainment clips. When is Twitter it's news, it's duration, it's the town hall. Instagram, it's more creative, take a step back, obviously visual phase. Pinterest again is a very different psychology. So I think it's important that people understand the differing psychology of the platforms.
John: You raise an interesting question. I obviously do a lot of publishing out across social media platforms. But I publish the same things across multiple platforms. You're saying I really should think differently for every platform.
Adam: I think so John. In B2B LinkedIn on Twitter are the obvious two that come to mind. But even for LinkedIn or Twitter I personally don't like seeing an update is very obviously just cut and paste from LinkedIn and vice versa. Yes, give some thought to the environment, the mindset - if you like the culture of the platform you're on and tailor your messaging accordingly.
John: OK. So you're really going to decide how those messages are going to be communicated based on the platform. So step back one step - you're saying think about your target audience, think about where they are and how they're behaving quite differently on different platforms?
Adam: Correct? Why are they there? And just be respectful of the reason they are on that platform concerned and tailor your messaging, whether it's engagement, whether it's listening, whether it's publishing, accordingly.
John: So, there's some interesting thoughts for salespeople and sales leaders out there who are starting to communicate, or put content out there for their target audience - their target customers. You really need to think about what the platform is based on, who your target audience is, and what sort of behaviour, and what sort of content, they would be expecting on that platform. And then have different types of content for different platforms.
Adam: Rules of the nighttime It's like spending time in a community. When you spend more time on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn - you get to know the rules of the club.
John: OK. Some interesting thoughts there. I think it's still only a relatively small percentage of business to business salespeople that are actually creating and publishing content yet I think there are some interesting thoughts for them there and how they they get that content out to different audiences and which channels that use. Really good advice. Thank you very much.
Adam: Thanks a lot John.
Go to @adamf2014 or echojunction.com.au to see and hear more of Adam.
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More TALKING SALES discussions with Adam Fraser:
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