Almost half of the world’s population (3.03 billion people) are active social media users. Social media marketing has emerged as one of the strongest strategies of today’s businesses as a result it is important to develop the right social media strategy. It is a very powerful tool and has done wonders for many companies.
However, when marketing your business on social media you need to use certain tactics and take specific steps, otherwise, you could go very wrong.
If you’re feeling frustrated because your social media campaigns are generating little or no results, then there must be something that you are not doing right.
Why Businesses Fail at Social Media Marketing
It is indeed more challenging than you ever thought but when you follow certain rules of thumb, you will be just fine!
Let’s list down a few reasons why your strategy might not be working.
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You’re trying to do it all!
If you’re already doing this – then you must stop. I mean, you must stop right now.
You don’t need to have a presence on every social network to make an impact. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of this fact!
You need to analyze your audience: where are they hanging out the most? What content are they consuming?
This is as simple as it sounds. Once you understand where your target audience exists and what they do – it will be much easier to figure out which social network you should choose.
Once you’ve gauged this, you can focus on building trust and gaining engagement. You will have to use the platform that will have the biggest impact on your business.
For instance, if your product is visual and related to retail, fashion, beauty or travel industries, you should leverage Instagram. If you are not yet there already, then you should seriously consider it.
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You’re over complicating it!
Social media is not a complex Google algorithm and it’s not rocket science.
If you have good communication skills and if you understand the intention of users on each social network, then it will be a piece of cake for you.
It’s important to understand how users interact with Facebook during their down time. Whereas on LinkedIn, you need to know how users are interacting with content in order to learn and grow professionally.
What most people are doing wrong is that they are over complicating things. They are analyzing everything too deeply, even where it is not needed.
Think of it like this, all you are doing is talking to people which is something you do all the time. The only difference is that now you are doing it digitally and the whole world can listen to you.
So just be natural, understand the users and keep it simple yet interesting. It’s not that hard to be interesting, is it?
See how simple Starbucks keeps it and yet they are the most popular brand in the world.
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You’re using social media only as a sales tool!
One thing to understand is that social media is not a tool for selling yourself. You need to give value —valuable content that is relevant and that resonates with the users’ needs.
How would you feel if a person only talked to you about his products and tried to sell you something every time you met? Weird right.
You might even categorize that person as a creep and tune him out. So, make sure that you don’t fall into that category on social media. Lots of businesses are failing to build an online connection with their customers because they are pitching products all the time.
Give valuable content for free, it’s the content that drives engagement! This is the first thing that needs to be done on social media. Then, build a connection with your viewers, not just a customer and seller relationship but a good friendly relationship. Trust me, it’s not that difficult. With just a little bit of time and effort you can save the day.
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Your content sucks!
If you don’t say what you do in a way that is appealing to your audience, then it sucks!
It would be like teaching a second grader the tenth-grade syllabus.
It’s all wrong. First, you need to understand your business and once you have done that you need to understand the content that will describe your business.
Don’t write about foreign policy when your business is about paper cups. It’s that simple.
See how the second-largest departmental store retailer Target says what it has to say and keeps it fresh.
This is the type of content that will make your target audience start a conversation with you. You should engage proactively with everyone that tries to make a point. That’s how you build relationships.
The content needs to be strategic and well planned.
What most people do wrong is that they want to be all over the place, but their content is of low quality and fails to impress the readers. Mostly the content is very unclear and does not explain the objective well or sometimes it is just too boring for the audience.
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You don’t have patience.
While working on social media marketing campaigns you need to be patient with the results. The good results will not come in just one day.
It might take months or even a few years to finally reach your ideal number of followers.
People think that once they have made an account on social media everyone will gather around them and appreciate them and buy everything from them. However, that is not the case, it takes time and you need to give, give, and give before you ask something from them.
You should also consider using a variety of social media tools to help you do things efficiently, but with much greater ease.
How to Get Your Social Media Strategy Right
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Get your content right
When creating your social media strategy, focus on producing high-quality, fresh and unique content for your business. Your content will be what makes your first impression on the readers. You don’t have that many chances due to the tough competition with millions of others. So, use this chance to the best of your abilities.
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The type of content
It depends on you what kind of content you want to use. It can either be text, images or videos. Mostly the new marketing trend has shifted towards videos. People are now more interested in watching a video or seeing a picture rather than reading some paragraphs. Videos are a better way to convey your point even in two or three minutes. If it’s interesting and appeals to the viewer’s interests, then congratulations – you are on the right track.
Alternatively, some brands need images or other visuals to convey their point, especially if their content works off the surreal. To bring out the best in your content, you should use tools like AI Replace and AI Background from Picsart to instantly remove objects, place them in another frame, or replace them with something else.
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Target the right kind of audience
This is the most critical part of your social media marketing strategy. What kind of audience are you targeting? It depends on what kind of service you provide. You can make good money only if you put the deal in front of the right person. Before you start making up your content, you must know what kind of audience you are making it for. Being on social media does not mean that you can just write about anything and you will gain a following. It is rather about saying the right thing, at the right place, at the right time.
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Don’t exhaust yourself
There are many social media platforms, but you do not need to be on all of them. If you pressure yourself by being on all the platforms, you will only exhaust yourself because maintaining a presence on so many platforms is not easy. So, decide beforehand which platform will be the best for your business and then put out all your focus in one place. Develop tactics in your social media strategy that is geared towards the platforms that you have chosen.
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Present yourself in a good way
So, how many times have you skipped some promotional ads because it was just too boring to read? The answer is probably many times. Think of your customers doing the same to you. Come up with some unique ideas to showcase your company such as hiring brand ambassadors. Present your organization as a place where people have fun working and where people enjoy their time there producing the best results ever seen.
On a final note:
Social media is incredibly effective. But even though it is just a simple tool for communication, a lot of businesses are still not getting it right and are failing badly on social media because of the reasons mentioned above. Now that you know why businesses are failing, you should avoid making the same mistakes.
Focus on creating killer content and target it to the right people on the right platform. Killer content is about telling stories, creating invaluable experiences and sharing useful information.
Author Bio:
Surya Maneesh is the Brand Strategist at SMSwarriors, a smart SMS marketing software that allows marketers and businesses to communicate faster and promote themselves better through SMS text messaging.
