Rifle vs. Shotgun Social Media Strategy

I was of course intrigued. Jay Baer primarily discusses two very different approaches to social media strategy: Rifle vs. Shotgun.

To give you some background on each:

The Rifle approach is defined by Baer as: “To build a great community on the back of outstanding content and sharp engagement.” He also adds, “The Rifle approach is to invest in excellence.” Think of it as less is more because the more is much higher quality. In addition as part of the Rifle approach, you develop unique platform specific content for each social channel. Therefore, your content on Facebook is different from your content on Twitter.

The Shotgun approach is defined by Baer as: “The Shotgun approach seeks to build a touch-point corral, connecting with each customer or prospect in as many places as possible.” The more social channels the merrier for this approach! Baer adds, “You want to reach that person as many different ways as you possibly can.” You want to blast the same content across every social channel.

So which approach do you think Baer is in favor of? The answer may surprise you, but Baer is in favor of the Shotgun approach. He hinted that a majority of his articles may contradict his new opinion, “Don’t do anything until you can do it well. But I am going back on that advice.” According to Baer, the Shotgun approach can help you combat organic reach because you’re now reaching more people on more channels.

Well Mr. Baer, I am going to have to disagree with you.  Really, really, really disagree with you. Most importantly, I’m going to advise other digital and social media marketers to not take your advice. 

I understand the allure of the Shotgun approach. The more eyes, the better because it allows you to spread your brand or message to a greater number of people. However, imagine this scenario: Your target market is “Baby Boomers” and you’re selling a CPG product. Do you want to be on Snapchat? (If anyone recommends this, run away fast!) What’s the point of developing content and sharing it on a particular platform if your target market is not there? Impressions are only valuable coming from potential interested customers.

In terms of content development, my motto is quality over quantity. 100 likes on one Facebook post is more valuable than 100 likes spread across five different posts. In the long run, higher quality will yield better results and make more of a lasting impression on a consumer. You never want your brand to blend in with the rest on social media. As you may know, competition within the News Feed is extremely tough. Brands not only have to compete with organic reach and algorithms, they also have to compete with content from a user’s friends.

Perhaps this video is already very much outdated and I’m late to the party. (It was published on YouTube on July 29, 2014). Regardless, even a year ago, the Shotgun social strategy would not have been a valuable and effective approach for a majority of brands.

In my experience: The more creative, the better. At the end of the day you’ll see more engagement and make a longer lasting impression on the consumer, which if strong enough, will lead to increased sales!

Which approach do you think is more valuable and/or will work for your brand? Shoot me a tweet at @iamsolberg and let’s chat!