Social media can be a boon or it can be the bane of a business’s or brand’s success. If yours is becoming a bane, if you are seeing stagnating or even dropping numbers, you might start to abandon the ideal of social media marketing altogether. Don’t give up that easily. When conducted properly, this campaign can bring massive amounts of traffic to your brand and it also boosts your search engine optimization. The first step to fixing the problem is to determine what, exactly, the problem is. Here are some of the most common reasons why your social media marketing might be failing:
You’re spending too much time promoting yourself.
But isn’t that what social media marketing is for? Isn’t it still marketing? The truth is that people are going to follow your accounts because they think what you post is interesting. While a little bit of self-promotion isn’t a bad thing, if it is all you do, you are not going to see a wholehearted response from your followers. They want news, informational blog posts, funny videos, insightful comments. Don’t sink all of your posts into talking about your new releases or offering discounts to the people that follow you. Keep in mind that it is social media first and foremost. Your followers are there to get to know your brand better.
Your channels have no personality.
One of the biggest reasons social media marketing fails is that brands forget that they have to be social on these outlets. In order to be social, you have to have a personality. Every brand has a personality, whether you realize it or not. It is how you are going to interact with your followers and customers and how you want them to see you. If your channels don’t have a very specific personality (that is consistent across all of your media) or your social media does not have a personality at all, your social media are going to feel heartless and people will not want to connect with them.
You aren’t talking to your audience.
When you post something, do you just hit “post” and then ignore any and all notifications you get about the post? Or do you respond to comments? Do you answer questions? Do you retweet and comment on what is being said about you? If you are not actively interacting with the people that interact with you, you are going to see that engagement slow to a trickle and then cease altogether. You should be using these accounts to talk to your audience. You should care about what they are saying to you and you should do your best to respond to it. It should be a conversation, not just you shouting messages at your audience and then ignoring their response.
Your accounts are difficult to find.
It should be very easy for the people who find your website to connect to your social media accounts. They should not have to go looking for you, you should have links to all of your accounts right on your website. It is vital that you use your website to promote your social media channels and that you use your social media channels to promote each other. The visitors to your website are already interested in you and are therefore the most likely to want to connect with you through your social media channels.
You don’t post often enough or you post too much.
Both posting too much and posting not enough can cause your social media marketing to fail. Of course, it can be difficult to know what is too much and what is not enough. Most brands find that once a day is plenty. On social media platforms like Twitter, it might be good to post two or three times a day. The goal is to not dominate your audience’s feed. If they see your name over and over again and if you are pushing out updates from other brands and, more importantly, their friends, they are more likely to unfollow you than to stick with you. In that same vein, if you do not post even once a day, they are going to forget that you even exist and when they are clearing out their follows and likes, you’ll be the first to go.
You’re creating all your own content.
Not everyone is great at social media. It takes a practice to know what is going to be well received and what is going to flop. If you are trying to take on all of your own content creation, you are taking on a full-time job that could be better done if it was outsourced to someone who really understands how to create a great social media post. It is imperative, however, that that individuals understands your business and the personality you want to create.
You offer nothing new.
You’re probably not the only brand in your niche that your audience follows. If all you are doing is recycling or regurgitating what they can find on other accounts, there is no reason for them to follow you, so they probably won’t. If you’re going to have a social media marketing campaign, it should be founded on a unique voice, a unique take, or, at the very least, unique content.
Social media can be a boon or it can be the bane of a business’s or brand’s success. If yours is becoming a bane, if you are seeing stagnating or even dropping numbers, you might start to abandon the ideal of social media marketing altogether. Don’t give up that easily. When conducted properly, this campaign can bring massive amounts of traffic to your brand and it also boosts your search engine optimization. The first step to fixing the problem is to determine what, exactly, the problem is. Here are some of the most common reasons why your social media marketing might be failing:
You’re spending too much time promoting yourself.
But isn’t that what social media marketing is for? Isn’t it still marketing? The truth is that people are going to follow your accounts because they think what you post is interesting. While a little bit of self-promotion isn’t a bad thing, if it is all you do, you are not going to see a wholehearted response from your followers. They want news, informational blog posts, funny videos, insightful comments. Don’t sink all of your posts into talking about your new releases or offering discounts to the people that follow you. Keep in mind that it is social media first and foremost. Your followers are there to get to know your brand better.
Your channels have no personality.
One of the biggest reasons social media marketing fails is that brands forget that they have to be social on these outlets. In order to be social, you have to have a personality. Every brand has a personality, whether you realize it or not. It is how you are going to interact with your followers and customers and how you want them to see you. If your channels don’t have a very specific personality (that is consistent across all of your media) or your social media does not have a personality at all, your social media are going to feel heartless and people will not want to connect with them.
You aren’t talking to your audience.
When you post something, do you just hit “post” and then ignore any and all notifications you get about the post? Or do you respond to comments? Do you answer questions? Do you retweet and comment on what is being said about you? If you are not actively interacting with the people that interact with you, you are going to see that engagement slow to a trickle and then cease altogether. You should be using these accounts to talk to your audience. You should care about what they are saying to you and you should do your best to respond to it. It should be a conversation, not just you shouting messages at your audience and then ignoring their response.
Your accounts are difficult to find.
It should be very easy for the people who find your website to connect to your social media accounts. They should not have to go looking for you, you should have links to all of your accounts right on your website. It is vital that you use your website to promote your social media channels and that you use your social media channels to promote each other. The visitors to your website are already interested in you and are therefore the most likely to want to connect with you through your social media channels.
You don’t post often enough or you post too much.
Both posting too much and posting not enough can cause your social media marketing to fail. Of course, it can be difficult to know what is too much and what is not enough. Most brands find that once a day is plenty. On social media platforms like Twitter, it might be good to post two or three times a day. The goal is to not dominate your audience’s feed. If they see your name over and over again and if you are pushing out updates from other brands and, more importantly, their friends, they are more likely to unfollow you than to stick with you. In that same vein, if you do not post even once a day, they are going to forget that you even exist and when they are clearing out their follows and likes, you’ll be the first to go.
You’re creating all your own content.
Not everyone is great at social media. It takes a practice to know what is going to be well received and what is going to flop. If you are trying to take on all of your own content creation, you are taking on a full-time job that could be better done if it was outsourced to someone who really understands how to create a great social media post. It is imperative, however, that that individuals understands your business and the personality you want to create.
You offer nothing new.
You’re probably not the only brand in your niche that your audience follows. If all you are doing is recycling or regurgitating what they can find on other accounts, there is no reason for them to follow you, so they probably won’t. If you’re going to have a social media marketing campaign, it should be founded on a unique voice, a unique take, or, at the very least, unique content.
Published on September 8, 2016
About the Author: Chris Williams
