Not all social media sites and platforms are created equal, and each social channel won’t always work the same way in helping users reach their goals. In looking across the online environment, it helps to organize your social options into categories. Our social media managers can help identify channels with common themes. We then can develop strategies that are easier to frame your decisions about when, where, who, and how best to engage with your community online.
The easiest way to break up the categories is to think of them as owned, rented, and occupied.
Owned properties may include blogs, forums, or homegrown social networks, and they can be internal or external. The main difference with this category is that you literally own the channel rather than occupying a page on a platform that is owned by someone else. It may be on your primary site or on another domain, but it is fully under your control.
Rented properties are much like renting an apartment. The user occupies a portion of a channel with the permission of the owner. Sometimes there is a cost involved, but in the world of social media, that doesn’t happen often. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr fall into this category. Facebook owns its site, and you’re simply managing a presence on it. You may have official claim to the page, but you have no claim to the platform itself or a say in how it may change.
Occupied properties is the most removed from your control. Your company might have an official representative who interacts and engages in an occupied property, but there is no ownership of any kind, and these channels can be changed at any time. Reddit is probably the most popular example. Employees of a company will frequently participate in forums or community sites in either an official or unofficial capacity, but always on behalf of the company.