Every great idea or concept involves lots of ambition, & a lot of reality. And making social media work for your business is absolutely no exception. Every aspect of running a business has challenges, & so it is super important to face facts when dealing with the roller-coaster that is Social Media.
Don’t give up hope! Here are some of the toughest truths to come to terms with, and how to work around them.
1. Being successful takes time, LOTS of time.
You can break the internet using every hashtag in existence or jump on every trend that comes around, but it’s just a cold hard fact that you won’t organically grow thousands of followers or fans in a week or even a month. If you’re new to the game, it means you missed the boom that some brands capitalised on in the early days. Now, this might come as a shock, but everyone else is trying to get noticed on Social Media too. The market is saturated, your competition is fierce & your desired customers have a huge selection, which allows them to be picky. It’s going to take a lot more than a few rushed, sporadic posts over a couple of weeks to make an impact, let alone reach your market.
This part will hurt; it could take years of careful planning, execution, review, re-planning & re-execution before your account takes off.
How to deal; be consistent, be patient
Social success needs commitment, planning, time & energy. Don’t wing it! Going hard on your accounts for a month and then disappearing for two does not a successful channel make. Invest in a social media strategy, & understand that strategies will need to change as frequently as Social Media does. What worked yesterday might not work tomorrow.
Understand what success looks like on Social Media, & be realistic about outcomes.
But above all, stick with it. Quality takes time, so plant the seeds and let them grow.
2. Some people aren’t going to pick up, what you’re putting down.
Soz. But, it’s true.
Social media connects us so intimately to customers in a way traditional marketing never could, that we get this false expectation about how just how many people are going to respond & interact. Once we take the rose-coloured glasses off and realise that not everyone cares about your product, your brand or what you have to say, we can start to zero in on the people who genuinely do.
How to deal; find your fans, focus on them & up your content game, permanently.
When you market yourself to everyone, you market yourself to no one in particular.
Focus your efforts on the people that matter; your current customers, future customers & brand ambassadors. Watch who responds to your posts, and give those people more of what they want. Don’t be afraid to target a smaller audience, to build stronger relationships.
If you’ve been allowed into someone’s newsfeed, then you better work to stay there. When someone follows your business, you’re being granted entry into a gallery of selfies, weddings pics & vacay shots from friends and family. Is your post-worthy, or does it just get scrolled passed? Are you just making a cringe-worthy sales pitch?
3. Social media isn’t going to make your business a sh*t tonne of cash while you sleep
I mean, we can dream about posting a few photos, nailing some #HashTags & seeing the cash money start to pile up in our accounts. But, here’s where that reality stuff I was talking about kicks in; Social Media does not work like that. It can generate greater brand awareness & valuable leads which you can turn into some cash, but a one-stop-easy-to-track-revenue-producing stop? Dreamin’.
How to deal; get your Social Media goals & your Business goals in sync.
Instead of making cash your target, use it to take on real & tangible challenges in your business. Doing this will allow you to see the genuine impact Social Media can have on your bottom line.
Some common business objectives Social is great for supporting are:
· Increasing brand awareness
· Increasing web traffic
· Generating and nurturing leads
· Driving competitions or signups
· Improving customer satisfaction
· Product research
· Competitor analysis
Here’s a pro tip though; start measuring the metrics that matter. If you’ve married up your business goals with your social media strategy, compiling data on how many likes a photo got isn’t going to show you anything real. Don’t just track your comments, track your conversions.
4. Social Media; oh, she’s a gold digger
Gone are the good old days of free, seemingly unlimited organic reach. Why? There is more content than ever, being created & posted in record time. What this means, is that platforms have to come up with a way of organising this content in order of priority just to deal with the sheer volume.
How to deal; pay to play
Social ads are not thy enemy, in fact, they are there to help you reach the audience most valuable to you. You don’t need to drop serious cash either, target well and you’d be surprised just how far your dollars can go.
5. It is a much, much bigger job than you realise
Growing a business using social media is so much more than just posting on Facebook. Being successful takes a lot more work than many of us are given credit for and requires more skill than we are recognised for. It takes creative writing flair, copywriting & editing experience, business acumen, data interpretation & analysis & quick thinking & problem-solving abilities. And while that list could easily be one of multiple jobs for multiple people, most businesses don’t have the luxury of being able to afford an entire team to handle their social media. And often trying to find one person who is both creative & strategic whilst understanding your brand can be tough.
How to deal; Invest in the right people
Understand (and respect) the skill set the job requires both in general and in particular for your business, and be clear when communicating this to anyone you are considering giving the reigns to.
And never, ever ask a professional; “So, you get paid to post on Facebook all day?”. They cannot be held responsible for their actions.
