Everyone is doing it, social media marketing that is. Some are better at it than others.
Having an effective social media strategy may be one of the most important determinates to the success of your business. The old debate whether your brand should participate in social media is long over. We all know that social media is an important component to communicating your brand message effectively.
Merely having social media accounts and having an expert running them isn’t enough. In fact, it is actually detrimental to your business to have someone who is anything less than exceptional running your social media and content marketing strategy and daily management.
1.You are thinking about it wrong
Social media is often conflated as something more than it actually is. Brands and people overcomplicate the subject to seem like a complex algorithm that is a riddle to figure out when it is really very simple. It can be confusing. In actuality social media is simply communication – that’s it!! It’s a form of communication that almost everyone has access to. The way to most effectively think about your social media program is to start by thinking about who you want to communicate with, why and how. From there it’s just the nuts and bolts. For example, if you are a travel brand who caters to budget millennial backpackers you aren’t going to want to post about traveling internationally first class, staying in luxury hotels and eating Michelin star restaurants. It just wouldn’t be effective communication to your target audience.
What you can do to fix this: Think about who your brand wants to reach and why. Create five profiles of different mock individuals who represent your target clients. Try to generate different personas that characterize your customers. When you write content or create a post make sure it appeals to at least one of your customer profiles. This will keep your brand’s voice relevant. This will not only engage the followers you currently have, but also help you build more followers and a stronger online community. Every time you create content or prepare a post, make sure it is effective at communicating to one of your mock personas.
2.Failing to target your audience
There are nearly two billion social media users in the world – and you do not need to reach them all. In fact, casting too wide a net can prevent you from achieving your key objectives. Start by asking this basic question: who are the people who will help you reach your goals? Employees? Prospective recruits and customers? Millennial women? Baby Boomer consumers with disposable income?
Conduct market research which encompasses your industry, trends, competition, etc. using secondary sources and primary interviews/surveys from current stakeholders, you can access the information you need to narrow your audience. Then, find out where they are.
The first commandment of social media: know thy audience. This informs every aspect of your strategy, from platform choice to content creation.
3.You are using social media as a primary sales tool
A problem which is very common is people are using (or attempting to use) social media as a primary sales channel. Imagine you met someone at a casual gathering, a friend of a friend, with whom you had a ton of common interests. You thought she or he would be the perfect customer for your business. Would you call them up the first time and pitch them on your product and service right away? That wouldn’t be tactful or effective. Social media similar: it’s a way to build your online community, not a market place. It’s much better used for communication than sales.
Use social media to sell products or services no more than 10% of the time. Preferably much less. There are much more effective sales and marketing tools out there. Make sure your social media platforms are being used primarily for communication, not sales.
4.You aren’t adding enough value
Instead of buying ads to promote content, create irresistible content that gets liked, shared and engaged with on its own. Make sure every Tweet, post and picture you put out there adds value. There is a time and a place for paid advertising. It can be a very effective strategy but to do it effectively there is a lot of trial and error to find a formula that works (if there is one at all). The trial and error is expensive. Instead of rushing to buy social media ads to boost your posts, consider adding value in each and every post and piece of content you put out so it gets shared organically.
Saoirse Blaney