New Social Platforms, Should Your Brand Invest?

Three burgeoning social platforms offer hope to content marketers, but are they worth your time?

Social media is expanding more and more every year, and marketing budgets are expanding right along with them to include online social campaigns.

We all know the potential benefits to Facebook marketing, Twitter accounts and Pinterest boards, but it's difficult to gauge the potential of a new social platform in its early days (see also: How to Measure ROI from Social Media Marketing). Poshmark, Wanelo and Medium are three examples. Wondering if you should invest now? Well, it depends on your product and your customer.

Poshmark

Poshmark is a network through which women in the United States can buy and sell used or never-worn clothing. Advertised as a way to "shop the closets of women across America," the network allows you do exactly that. Each user builds her own page as part of the Poshmark network, and using their unique account they can either buy, sell, or do both. Earnings from sales can be directly used on new purchases.

Is Poshmark Worth the Investment?

Poshmark is like a streamlined eBay, with an emphasis on women's clothing -- it has potential, but only to the right people. Right now, the women using this network are genuinely interested and engaged in both selling clothes and buying them, so most of the accounts are valuable to Poshmark and interested marketers. Is your business largely based on used clothing sales, or are you an independent clothing line? If the answer is yes, you should definitely consider investing your time and efforts here.

Wanelo

Wanelo is a unique network that allows clothing and other retail products to be personally selected and streamlined into a regular news feed. The user creates an account, follows certain favorite stores and brands and items, and then Wanelo uses this information to provide a constant news feed full of products that user is likely to want. A direct link takes you to the online retail location where you can purchase the item.

Is Wanelo Worth the Investment?

The value of Wanelo to the consumer comes from the continuous feed of products from their favorite stores and brands. Registering your own store on the Wanelo network can give you a lot more publicity and reach, but that really depends on how much your products are shared, tagged and searched - as well as how many people are really using the network. If you're in retail, it's probably a good idea to get involved with this site.

Medium

While the top social media networks today are focused on user content, they are largely only searchable by key words or user names themselves. Medium is a little different. Instead of making friends and then reading what they post, Medium users read posts and then decide who to follow based on what they like the best. This is, at its core, a free, online printing press available to anyone. The written content is the most important thing.

Is Medium Worth the Investment?

Medium has a direct connection to Twitter, since its creator was previously CEO of the latter. This link means that any content creations you publish via Medium can be shared with your existing Twitter followers, and cross-posted to other networks in which you have an established presence. As for marketing investments? The proven track record of Medium's founder, Ev Williams, as well as the social sharing possibilities means that this company should be headed for great success. Content marketers may have to rethink their format to make use of Medium, but it will most likely be worth the tweaked planning. This is an ideal platform for thought-leaders in any industry.

As social media becomes an even larger part of business marketing, we are bound to see even more varied social platforms in which our investments may or may not be worthwhile (see also: Marketing Strategy 101: Business Social Media Pages). How can content marketers judge for themselves which to invest in? Each platform should always be assessed individually, in terms of its own potential and in terms of its potential for your own industry. Always do your homework before jumping in with both feet.

How do you decide on which social platforms to invest your time and resources? Share your thoughts with us below.