Thousands of internet marketers subscribe to a marketing theory — actually, a marketing phenomenon — known as the ‘Long Tail.’ This is a phenomenon caused by the incredible variety on offer online, whether it is books, movies or any other type of product. In Chris Anderson’s remarkable book, unsurprisingly titled “The Long Tail”, this economic idea is explained in greater detail. Thanks to the massive number of books available on Amazon, some of the most profitable books fall well outside the top 10, 20 or even 100 of any category.

This does not just apply to books, but to anything on offer online. Think about Google search results. While thousands of marketers compete for the most frequent results, thousands more are making a very lucrative, hassle-free income from focusing on the long tail of less frequent keywords. The best way to succeed, at least in online sales, is not to brand yourself as one of the few and powerful, but as an outlier covering thousands of bases at once.

While this idea has fueled sales for thousands of businesses, it is ultimately unusable for a social media presence. Whether commercial or not, applying long tail thinking to your social media presence can result in massively boosted workloads and terrible per-hour income, despite a potential boost in overall earnings.

Tim Ferriss, entrepreneur and productivity guru, describes the idea in his book “The Four Hour Workweek.” When we invest massive amounts of time in the 80% that brings in 20% of our income, we end up sacrificing our time and decreasing our per-hour worth. While we may bring in more money per week, we ultimately sacrifice our time so much that we are working for a significantly lower wage than before.

Think about the hundreds of different social media and social bookmarking services that are out there. You can dominate on Facebook, master Digg, and learn the ins and outs of Twitter, but you can’t ever dominate every single platform. Social media is a domain that does not favor the long tail framework, but instead rewards concentrated, optimized effort. When you are picking a social media strategy, aim for maximum penetration rather than a wide and ultimately shallow net.

Where should you start with this strategy? Perform an input-audit on your social media presences. If you are splitting your attention across ten different profiles, you are undoubtlessly missing the opportunity to tip in one and become truly influential. Start by eliminating 80% of your social media profiles. Spend the new time on improving your current ones, working towards more profitable projects, and further optimizing the most important 20%. Keep opportunity cost in mind, remember that it is better to build a tall connection than a thin connection. The best thing for you to do is simplify and focus.

The biggest Twitterers spend the vast majority of their social media efforts on Twitter alone. They do not spread their influence, they do not waste time, and they do not invest in half-completed profiles. Use the same strategy — focus on one form of social media, build your influence deep, and ignore the 80% that does not build direct influence. You will see bigger exposure, achieve higher sales, and build a greater marketing resource for you and your company.

Andrea Kalli
Certified Internet and Social Marketing VA

WishList – Wordpress Membership Sites and Retention Strategies

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that I, Andrea Kalli, have an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this page and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

Tags and Categories: 4 hour, business productivity, digg, facebook, four hour work week, long tail marketing, social marketing, social network, twitter

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