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In Jenny Fowler's '6 Ms' framework, brands most often fail by skipping 'Medium'—thoughtful platform selection. The pressure to be everywhere leads them to post the same generic content across all channels. The correct approach is to dominate one platform where your audience lives before expanding elsewhere.

Related Insights

Spreading marketing efforts too thin is a common mistake. It is more strategic to focus resources on achieving excellence on a single, relevant platform where your audience is active. Once dominant there, you can recreate those wins on other platforms.

Contrary to popular advice from marketing gurus, small businesses shouldn't try to be on every platform. Success comes from deep focus. Find one or two channels where your audience is active, you can provide unique value, and you have genuine passion—then dominate those.

Your social media platform should be reverse-engineered based on where your target audience congregates. For example, selling to Gen X women points to Facebook, while targeting professionals for an accounting firm makes LinkedIn the obvious choice. Platform relevance changes over time, so constant re-evaluation is necessary.

Spreading a small team across multiple social platforms leads to mediocre, generic content. A more effective strategy is to focus intensely on a maximum of two channels, posting 2-3 times per week to maintain relevance without sacrificing quality or platform-specific nuance.

The old strategy of maintaining a presence on every social platform is impractical due to team consolidation and content saturation. A focused approach on 2-3 core channels allows for higher quality creative, better engagement, and stronger community building.

View platforms like Facebook and YouTube as modern equivalents of TV networks (ABC, NBC), not just channels to blast a single piece of content. Each platform requires its own native "show"—content formatted and styled specifically for that audience and algorithm—to succeed.

Brands cannot use a one-size-fits-all social media strategy. Communications must be adapted for each platform's demographic and algorithmic preferences, such as directness for X's older audience versus entertainment-driven content for TikTok's younger users.

The common advice to chop up a single video or blog post for every social platform is a myth. Each platform's algorithm and audience expectations demand native content. True growth comes from mastering one or two channels with tailored content, not from thinly spreading repurposed material across many.

Spreading efforts thinly across all platforms is a mistake. It is better to dominate one relevant platform. A minimal, inactive presence on multiple channels can be a negative signal to customers, suggesting your business is out of touch or struggling.

Instead of reactively trying to please algorithms, proactively identify the best 'doorways'—specific platforms and content formats—to reach your ideal audience. This shifts the focus from chasing reach to strategically choosing where you appear and how you present your brand.