"I've just launched a new service/collection/business idea/community project. Should I set up a new social media page for this part of my business?" This is a VERY common question among creative business owners. Their creative minds are constantly buzzing with ideas, so they often have multiple branches of their business or have two or three other companies running on the side.
While it can make sense in your mind to set up a different Facebook page for your new venture, it's worth pressing pause to consider if having multiple social media pages is right for you.
PLEASE NOTE: This article talks about having multiple social media profiles on a single platform for different branches of your business, e.g. having three Facebook business accounts, rather than having a single page for your brand across various platforms, e.g. an Instagram Page, a Twitter account…
Why having multiple social media accounts for your one business could be a good thing:
There are SOME benefits of having multiple social media accounts for all your creative projects and businesses:
Multiple accounts allow you to become more niche and target your content to make your page more specific to your dream audience.
You can use different social media accounts to network with other online audiences.
Having multiple profiles can make it easier to compartmentalise what you do and be specific for each area of your business.
The cons to having multiple social media accounts for your one business:
However, there are some significant cons to consider, too:
Successfully growing and managing two social media accounts can be overwhelming. It requires twice as much time and effort to achieve – something smaller business owners don't have in abundance.
The lines often blur between the two 'branches' of your business, and unless you're very strict about what you post to each page, your followers can become confused about what you do and which of your accounts they should follow.
If you struggle to think of enough content ideas for one page, imagine how challenging it can be to plan two sets of content ideas.
Often, one page becomes the more dominant account with a more engaged audience, while the other page gets more neglected – which makes the whole endeavour of setting up a new page a waste of time in the first place.
Both of your pages need to be maintained in terms of engagement and responding to followers/comments. How would you feel if you had two lots of notifications pinging up on your phone screen all day?
How to decide if having multiple social media accounts is the right option for you:
Although the choice is entirely up to you, here are some questions to ask yourself when determining if multiple social media pages are right for you and your business…
Do you have the time to create, grow and maintain multiple social media pages? If you run a small business, your answer is probably no. It's better to focus your time on developing and maintaining one page and doing it well instead of looking after two pages and doing a lousy job.
If you're the kind of person that gets bored quickly or doesn't finish projects, then it's worth being honest with yourself. Will you continue to grow and monitor multiple accounts once the excitement of setting up a new profile fades away?
How closely related are the two 'branches' of your business? It could be worth having separate pages if they have nothing in common, but if they are similar or have a similar audience, then it's better to stick with the one page.
What would you gain from having more than one social media page? Is something else at play here? On an emotional level, are you hoping to start fresh with a new page and do a better job the second time around? Do you feel unconnected to the followers on your original page?
Would it be helpful to showcase both businesses on the same profile? If a follower is looking through your content, could you get more sales if they knew about the other side of your business and everything you had to offer?
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