Social media marketing has reached a plateau in the sense that it is no longer something new and exciting. Brands have embraced social marketing, for better or for worse. And there are countless self-proclaimed “social media gurus” worldwide. There are endless social media marketing resources that preach good practices, but not all of these apply universally to a company or brand’s social media campaigns. In addition, not every social media outlet needs to be utilized. To get the most out of social media marketing, take a moment to realize which outlets you should and should not use.

Many brands spread themselves too thin by trying to use every social outlet available without researching their industry’s presence. This type of blindness typically leads a brand’s page or profile to become a wasteland, due to inactivity and little to no engagement. Instead, search for competing brands’ presence and engagement for insight regarding whether the social media outlet would be beneficial. Make sure your target audience uses a desired social outlet and that you have all the necessary resources for a sustainable presence.

When a new social network rolls out, some marketers feel the need to hop onto the bandwagon right away. Ello is a relatively new example. It was created as a private social network and their manifesto clearly states that they do not want to subject users to advertisers. Shortly after the public introduction of Ello, marketers began coming up with bogus “Ello strategies.” In addition, they speculate on the ROI of Ello for marketers. The bottom line is that there will probably never be any support for marketing on Ello; its purpose and guidelines are completely against them. Kapost’s Senior Director of Content Marketing, Jesse Noyes, makes this point about Ello and new social outlet hype, “As digital marketers we need to tune out a lot of the noise around the next big thing, and focus on why our buyers would listen to us in the first place.”

Keep in mind, success of a social platform for one brand, does not indicate success for all. There are great differences in social strategies between business-to-business and business-to-consumer brands. Additionally, within each of those distinctions there’s a broad spectrum in terms of industries and prospects. Social engagement, the core focus of every social strategy, is not an easy task. With that being said, Stick with the social outlets which you can get your brand’s message across most effectively.