Lindsay Ball Marketing   Building relationships through effective communication.

Shakespeare had it right when he said, “To thine own self be true.”

Why choose one social platform over another? Why Facebook instead of Twitter or LinkedIn instead of Google+? It all depends on two things: your needs and how well each one addresses those needs.

Sarah Kessler and Emily Caufield have created an interesting infographic  (hot items these days) that essentially charts the top five social networks and how each one stacks up on certain criteria. View the infographic here. It is not without its flaws, but it highlights a key factor in choosing a social network: we join social networks that give us what we need.

For example:

On paper (or screen) Google+ really does kick arse. The only thing that it seems to lack is a built-in ability to do event planning. However, in the last several weeks I have been on Facebook and LinkedIn multiple times per day and Twitter every couple of days.

Google+? At  best once a week.

Right now Google+ doesn’t give me what I need. I need support and interaction with friends and family and out of the social networks Facebook is the one that best meets those needs.

What else do I need? Professional development. So I go to Twitter and LinkedIn to see what my colleagues are talking about and read articles on topics pertinent to my business. I could do that on Google+ as there is a flourishing community of my peers on there. However, that brings me to another need: time. I need something that is quick and easy and LinkedIn and Twitter provide me with that since I’ve already done the hard work to set up the networks. Google+ does not meet my needs because I don’t have time to set it up properly yet.

This all boils down to one quick reminder that goes for all the things we do: know what you want to get out of something before you start putting something (time, effort, money) into it.