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There has never been a better time to be a small business owner. The tools that are available to get your ideas and products to market is unrivaled. At a click of a button, your product can be shipped halfway around the world. It is amazing what man has been able to accomplish.

That being said the art of selling still requires some form of human interaction, and a lot of the interactions today are occurring in cyberspace, chiefly social media. Did you know there are roughly 3 billion social media users globally and 91 percent of them access social media via a mobile device?

That’s a lot of potential customers with money in their pockets to spend. The natural reaction would be to jump on every social media platform that you can find. I get it; you want to be where your customers might be. Social media gives you an opportunity to reach out and influence a potential customer’s purchase decision at all hours of the day.

My question to you is a two-fold. Should you strive to be on every single social media channel? Is there a way to choose which social media platform is going to be the most beneficial to your company?

Should You Strive To Be On Every Single Social Media Channel?

While it is tempting to be on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google + to maximize the exposure of your business but have you considered the time investment needed to master the ins and outs of each platform?

Each social media platform is radically different from each other and serves different demographics. For instance, if the average age of your customer is 50-65, you should not be wasting your time investing in youth-oriented social media platforms such as Snapchat. Your target audience simply does not use that platform.

In addition to learning the intricacies of each social media platform, the time and energy that is spent creating and posting social media updates take away your energy and creativity to run your business efficiently.

Of course, there are solutions out there that will help you manage all of your social media profiles in one place such as HootSuite, Buffer, Sprout Social. These are just a few examples of the numerous companies that offer these type of solutions.

My thing is if you need one of these solutions to manage your presence online, you are already spread too thin. Don’t let the fear of missing out (FOMO) take control of your business. This is a real issue that we all face in our personal and professional life.

It is a human instinct not to want to miss out on what is happening around us. We are wired to collect information all of the time, so it is tough to fight this urge. The internet has made it infinitely harder to turn off this instinct.

Taking a minimalist approach to choosing a social media platform will show you that you are not missing out on anything by focusing your energy on one social media platform. By selecting one social media platform to specialize in, you learn the platform intimately and leverage it to your advantage.

The saying “Jack of all trades. Master of none.” completely describes what every business owner is doing online right now. Don’t be like everyone else.

How Can A Minimalist Approach Help You Choose The Best Social Media Platform For Your Business?

Minimalism helps you decide the best social media platform for your business because it forces you to look at your business honestly and truly focus on who your audience is.

Here are a few questions that you can ask yourself to help discover the best social media platform for your business.

• Where does my core audience spend time on social media? (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
• How comfortable am I using the platform?
• What kind of content does my audience respond to? (Visual, Text, Video)
• Does social media platform generate significant traffic to my website?
• How fast can you grow a following on the platform?

Asking questions like these will give you a clear answer and make managing your social media presence less stressful and your social media marketing campaigns more successful. Minimalism is the key to success!

Robert Hall is an avid minimalist. Writer. Creative. Loves helping fellow freelancers.