So you want to launch a book, an album, promote a play, market a new movie or advertise your business. 
In traditional mass media marketing you will find that many different marketing channels are used as part of the marketing strategy to get the word out there, to ensure that the “Word Of Mouth” is happening and that vital buzz is generated as people share the latest news with their groups and networks about a great movie or music whether that be off line or online.
Movies like Avatar with large budgets leave no stone unturned as they go all out to ensure that they are using as many effective marketing channels as possible to drive “Buzz” and use
- Television
- Radio
- Billboards
- Newspapers
- Inflential bloggers
- YouTube
amongst many to ensure that the movie is a hit at the box office.
I was recently reading a book called “Buzz – Real Life Lessons In Word-Of-Mouth Marketing” by Emanuel Rosen and he mentions two terms that are vital for creating Buzz for your marketing and advertising campaigns.
- “Volume” of Buzz – this is the quantity of Buzz whether that be within one type of group or spread across many different groups
- “Dispersion” of Buzz – this where the “Buzz” is within many groups and networks and widely dispersed
He goes on to say that “Dispersion ” is vital as it stops “Buzz” being trapped within just a few groups or even one.
He mentions that the more successful marketing campaigns have the widest dispersion and it is better to have posts in four groups than to just have for example 201 posts or mentions within only one group
The strategy of implementing and engaging with as many traditional marketing channels as possible in your marketing campaign as your budget allows also applies to your use of social media channels in your marketing efforts.
I recently ran a poll titled “How Many Social Media Channels Do You Use For Your Brand?” and the results from the current 143 people who have participated and their comments were quite revealing.
The current results stand at
One Channel: 2
Two Channels: 12
Three Channels: 44
Four channels: 23
Five Channels: 22
Six Channels: 15
Seven Channels: 7
Eight Channels: 2
Nine Channels: 4
Ten Channels: 1
More Than Ten Channels: 11
The most commonly used number of social media channels is three but there are quite a few companies using more than ten (8%) which certainly surprised me.
One of the comments from Fujitsu the large Japanese Technology conglomerate shows an example of best practice with multiple social media channels (Fujitsu currently uses 15 social media accounts and channels)
The use of the multiple channels ensures that your news and content and marketing is not trapped within one insular group and has the best chance of spreading.
What are your experiences with multiple channel social media marketing?