What if you think of the array of social media platforms as a matrix? I don’t mean the movie, I mean as a network of pathways to your audience or community that are distinct but can work together.

This is not a new idea, but it is one that’s easy to forget in the jostle of everyday life and work.

For example, it’s easy to think: “I talk to people through LinkedIn so I can forget about Twitter.” But this approach does not take account of the possibility, or probability, that the exclusive LinkedIn user may well want to talk to people who also use Twitter, and may well use Twitter a good deal more than they use LinkedIn. Are they engaging in conversations and sharing ideas and passing thoughts on Twitter that they haven’t mentioned on LinkedIn? Could those Twitter ideas trigger conversations that the LinkedIn user could continue on LinkedIn? Could those Twitter topics suggest and open up whole new trends and opportunities that the LinkedIn user would have missed entirely, or only come to much later, if she or he had stuck to the one preferred platform?

As healthy people need varied food diets, so healthy businesses need varied social media diets.

The enduring popularity of those old sayings on choice testify to the importance of diversity: “Variety is the spice of life” and “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”.

Don’t get stuck in a one-track social media rut. It can pay, sometimes literally, to watch what’s going on elsewhere, on platforms other than your preferred one.