It’s not healthy to eat pizza three times a day. Dogs are stressed when we hold them in our arms. Beyoncé will never be your best friend.
Do not throw stones at us, we’re here to remind you how hard reality can be. And the reality of social media marketing is no exception. Every job has its challenges of course, but while we all continue to ride the changing social media rocket, there are some difficult realities we face.
The good news is that there is not only bad news. Here are five difficult realities of social media with the means to fight them and overcome them all.
Success will take longer than you think
No matter how many Instagram hashtags you use or the tweets you send, you’re not going to win thousands of followers organically in a month. Many brands that have been the first to adopt social media have quickly achieved very good results and still reap the benefits. However, social media is now saturated with companies vying for attention and users are increasingly selective about the companies they decide to invite into their networks.
It will take more than a handful of relevant messages over the next six weeks to start seeing the fruits of your work. It can take years to create and execute your digital strategy (then tweak and run it again …) before you reach your cruising speed. Remember, social media is based on communities, and few communities are created overnight.
Be patient and consistent
Good things come to those who wait for. Social media success requires long-term investment in time and energy, combined with equal amounts of patience and tenacity. Make sure you have a social media marketing strategy that you analyze and optimize regularly. More importantly, stick to it. Do not run on your Facebook page to swing your last marketing campaign for a week in a row and then disappear for a few more months. Be consistent and give your efforts time to take root and be ready to lower your demands on how fast things should go.
Most people do not care what you have to say
Listen, we told you that these are “hard” realities. But it’s important to deal with it right now because the sheer scale of social media can increase your expectations of what your brand should be doing. Once you stop believing naively that every human being on earth cares about your brand and should like all your Facebook posts, you will be able to better focus on the people who do it.
Find your fans and focus on them
Instead of trying to tell anything to please everyone, focus on the people who matter to your business – your customers, your prospects, and your brand advocates. Look at people who are already responding to your messages and find ways to strengthen those relationships by giving them more of what they already value.
Commit to improving your content
When people follow your company on social media, they give you the green light to participate in their carefully organized personal flow. So imagine what you post on social media between their best friend’s selfies and quotes from people they admire. Is your message equally valid, engaging or entertaining, or is it a rather boring interlude? Worse, does this seem like a flagrant attempt to sell? An easy way to constantly check the quality of your content is to ask yourself: Would I follow my company on social networks if I did not work there?
Your business will not easily make money on social media
It would be too good to be true, right? You post some photos on Facebook and chat with a few people on Twitter, then sit down and watch the euro start flowing. Unfortunately, social media does not work this way (any more than any other type of marketing or communication network) and yet many still seem to believe it. Social media can help your business achieve many things (it can even help generate prospects that could eventually turn into cash) but it’s not a standalone investment that generates a huge amount of revenue for the business.
Align your marketing goals with business goals
“How does social media help us improve customer satisfaction? Is a much simpler question than “How much money do we get from social media?” “. The use of the social for a strategic purpose, which corresponds to the real challenges and commercial objectives, will prove the real impact it has on your business model.
Here are some goals you could support through social networks:
- Increase traffic to your website
- Acquire and maintain prospects
- Improve the customer relationship
- Inform about research and product development
- Use collective intelligence
- Increase the visibility of your brand
Start measuring metrics that matter
If your social media goals are aligned with true business goals, measuring only the number of likes and comments received by your latest Instagram post will not prove much. The types of metrics that matter is the ones that help you demonstrate the real value of your social efforts.
For example, instead of just looking at the number of people who click on the links you share on social networks, you should compare your clickthrough rate with the bounce rate. This is the number of people who clicked on a link that you shared on social networks, on your website or blog, and then left without consuming others. Track this statistic against other sources of web traffic. If the social media bounce rate is lower than other sources, you can prove that you are targeting the right people on the social network and that the traffic you bring is more qualified for your business.
You will have to pay to play
Social media are no longer the virgin and wild territory they once were. The organic reach that companies have initially benefited from has decreased because of the amount of content that is created today and the way social networks like Facebook choose to organize the content of their users. Investing a few euros in sponsored content and targeted ads on social networks are the best way to ensure that your content will have the greatest impact possible.
Make a targeted ad attempt
There is a big misconception that paying for sponsored posts and social media ads are something reserved only for brands with the biggest portfolios. You would be surprised at how far a few euros can go, especially if you have done a good job in targeting your campaign to reach the right audience.
It’s more important work than you think
“So, are you paid to tweet all day? Is a question you should never ask someone who works on social media. Because the reality is that helping a company succeed in digital marketing takes a lot more work than many people believe. This requires strong writing skills, rigorous editorial oversight, short- and long-term strategic alignment with other business lines, and the ability to interpret and analyze data effectively. If you think it could be three different jobs for three different human beings, you’re right, but few companies are fortunate to have social media teams at their disposal. And even finding someone as creative as strategic can be difficult.
Invest in the right people
Have a clear idea of the social media skills that are most important to your business, and make sure your job offer communicates what you are looking for.
