When Should You Split Your Brand Presence on Social Media?

Showcasing your brand across social media has become a vital way for audiences to connect with your company on a more personal level. But, when your company has multiple buyer personas or products  how many different personalities do you have to develop? Should you have a profile for every persona?

Catering to Different Buyer Personas

Let’s take Kraft for example. Kraft has so many different brands underneath its parent company i.e.Capri-Sun, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Boca-Burger, Maxwell House...you get the point. Each of Kraft’s brands have a drastically different audience all with unique lifestyles, goals, and pain points you’re trying to solve for. As a company, Kraft needs to be able to speak and appeal to the followers of everyone of their brands.

Divide and Conquer

Imagine going onto Carpri-Sun’s twitter and seeing a tweet along the lines of “Looking for a coffee that’s good til the last drop? Maxwell House stays fresh up until the very end” Tell me you wouldn’t me confused? I know I would!

When your company carries brands that are so different from one another, like Kraft, you don’t want to confuse your followers with mixed or inconsistent messages.

If you do, your message is less likely to resonate or appeal to them. They won’t be getting the content and information they’re looking for and they may even end up turning to a competitor that has a clearer social stream, that gives them exactly what they’re looking for and want to hear.

When Shouldn’t You Divide Your Presence?

1. Similar Personas

What if your company doesn’t have a million different brands like Kraft?

If you’re targeting buyer personas that are only slightly different, keeping your social accounts unified is the better option. But how do you share unique messages to your different buyer personas?

Share a variety of content that will appeal to different audiences at different times.

For example, consider sharing one post to appeal to each persona, every day. Focusing on only one can make others feel excluded or underrepresented by your brand.

Make sure the language or imagery you’re using in your messaging doesn’t offend one of your audience types while appealing to another. You don’t want to end up with a bunch of angry Tweets or Facebook messages claiming your company pushed the wrong button.

2. Limited Resources

If your company doesn’t have the team or time to keep up with one social account, splitting into even more shouldn’t be something you’re considering. Focus on building one, strong  presence, instead of stretching yourself between multiple, mediocre accounts.

If you don’t have the resources at the moment to stay on top of your current social media, how will you stay up to date on another brand’s social postings?

Start by using what staff and little time you do have to build up a single account on the social network that make sense for your audience, so you start building a strong social presence.

3. Low or Inactive Audience

Your company may have the manpower to spare, but does your social account have the followers to spare?

When you start creating multiple accounts you risk cannibalizing yourself and losing followers from one account to another. This not only harms your original account, it leaves both accounts with a low amount of followers.

A low or decreasing follower count can make your online presence seem weak or seem uninteresting to potential followers, so keep this in mind before starting multiple presences.

Key Takeaway

Social Media is an important aspect to any brand’s marketing strategy.

If your company has multiple brands with big personalities, the manpower, and time to maintain each social account, go for it! If not start with one.

Even if you feel like you don’t have the time, pick one platform that makes sense for your audience and start posting! Once you develop a social media strategy and gain momentum it’s easier to grow multiple accounts from there. No matter how big or small your company is, it’s important to meet your personas where they’re already hanging out and start the conversation. Once you connect with your audience on a more personal level, there’s no limits to how you can improve your product or services.