When starting social media, people struggle most with where to start, but it doesn’t have to be hard. I say that as someone with over 25,000 followers across my platforms. So today, I’m going to go through two social media strategies for beginners from an acquisition.com course that I learned when I started my business. These two strategies are depth vs. width and width vs. depth. I’m going to take you through what these strategies are, how to pick a platform to start, which strategy I chose when beginning, and what I do now.
Depth vs. Width:
This content method is about going all in on one platform, getting as good as possible at it, and then expanding from there. The pros are your followers compound faster on one platform. The cons are you’re reliant on one platform, which can be bad. For example, you can guarantee a lot of TikTokers were freaking out when TikTok said they were going to shut down, especially if they hadn’t built an audience anywhere else.
Width vs. Depth
This content method is all about gaining a broad audience. Gary Vee suggests being on seven platforms and posting five times a day. The pros to this method may be the broad audience, but the cons are obvious. It takes a lot of extra time and effort to make this work. Why? Because diluted focus increases the risk of the things you do sucking.
How I Started and What I Do Now:
My biggest platform to date is TikTok. I grew my TikTok to 20K followers by posting 3-7X… a day. I’m serious. But now I approach content with a width vs. depth strategy. Why? Because I work in social media. I need to have an understanding of all platforms.
I’m currently on seven.
If you’re starting, I recommend starting with one unless you have a larger budget.
So of those seven, here is what I recommend for each.
LinkedIn -> Best for networking, recruiting, selling to freelancers, and getting seen by employers
Instagram-> Best for reaching people who are looking to buy relationship, mindset, or fitness content. Generally Gen-Z or millennials.
Facebook -> Similar to Instagram, but How-Tos go great here. Best for reaching Boomers.
Threads -> Best for building community with people in your industry and starting groups
YouTube -> Best for long-term content and building parasocial relationships. YouTube videos are also the easiest to repurpose because you can get a lot of content out of it using the diamond method (more on this next week). YouTube is also great for collaborating with other people in a meaningful way like a podcast.
Substack -> Similar to YouTube but best for if you have a research center, or existing platform and want to monetize your audience.
TikTok -> Best to build followers quickly or go viral (IG is the second best for virality). It’s mostly younger people on TikTok. They don’t have a lot of money on average. Sell less expensive products here and expect them to have a ‘moment’.
I hope this helped you decide where you want to start on your social media journey! If you still feel stuck, I have a free seven-day starter course, just click the link below.
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