Do you spend any time thinking about (and investing energy in) what will be the next “it” platform when Instagram dies?

Ha! Who has time for that… I hear you.

BUT I want to talk about it because it’s important… hear me out here.

Just 20 years ago we found out about brands and bought things from catalogs received in the post. And then the internet came along and we started being able to Google things. And then we started paying attention to magazines, and then blogs. And then there was email marketing, and Twitter, and Facebook, and Instagram and so on.

My point? Our habits as consumers are always changing – and nothing lasts forever.

If you sink 100% of your marketing energy into Instagram, what are you going to do when the app loses its shine? (It’s happening already: Instagram’s growth dropped to 13% in 2018 and is projected to drop to growth of 8% in 2019.)

If you wait until the death to “jump ship” to the next popular platform, you’re going to be doing so alongside the masses which means any chance of having a competitive advantage is limited.

But imagine if you start investing a small amount of energy in alternate platforms now… by the time the next shift comes—be it in 18 months, 2 years or more—you’ll have such an advantage over your competitors. Not only will you have started to grow a following already, but you’ll have surpassed the learning curve everyone else is going to go through!

We can’t predict what will come next. But we can be ready for it.

Now I’m not suggesting you magically find 5 extra hours in your week to manage a Snapchat account, and start posting to LinkedIn, and YouTube, and TikTok, and start a Podcast, and create your own TV series.

Just be mindful of not having “all your eggs in one basket”. We may be ageing (gracefully, of course) but our ideal client may not be, particularly if you’re in the wedding industry! Where are they spending their time these days? And how can you be there too?