Digital marketing relies heavily on social media usage to succeed. When social media packages fail to produce results, marketers are left wondering where they went wrong.
After all, it’s only social media. Everyone uses Facebook and Twitter. How hard can it be to get likes and comments on platforms that everyone is on?
It’s actually very hard.
Learn more below.
The Difficulty Of Social Media
It seems like everyone and their mother has a social media account these days.
Adults who do have an account are 95% likely to follow a brand they like. That number alone is enough reason to set up a business account and start reeling in consumers.
So what’s the problem?
The problem is just that: a lot of people are on social media — including businesses.
The competition is fierce.
Plus, many social media users don’t use social media for networking. They use it to keep in touch with friends or stay up-to-date with brands they already like.
Businesses have to work hard to get noticed by consumers on social media.
Why Social Media Packages Don’t Yield Results
There could be several reasons why certain social media packages don’t yield results.
One common problem is, of course, competition. Besides competition, many problems have to do with the businesses or social media firms themselves.
Let’s take a look below.
Not Looking At The Metrics
Social media packages require businesses or social media firms to track metrics.
Social media metrics are data. By looking at the data, businesses can gauge which content is the most popular among which consumers.
Social media metrics even reveal which day of the week and time are most effective for posting.
When metrics tell businesses so much, they shouldn’t be ignored.
They allow marketers to make informed decisions about content and posting preferences.
Ignoring them will result in poorer decisions as well as wasted time and resources.
Not Understanding The Target Audience
Every brand and product has a target audience.
Social media allows businesses to connect one-on-one with their audiences.
Knowing and understanding a target audience is key to any business’s success.
All content and messaging are targeted towards that audience. Since they are personalized, the audience members feel as though the business is talking directly to them.
If a business doesn’t understand its target audience, it can’t properly customize its content and messaging.
In return, the audience won’t connect with them.
Wasting Time On The Wrong Objective
Social media packages all have an objective.
Maybe that objective is to garner more views. Maybe it’s to farm more followers. Maybe it’s to increase engagement by a certain percentage.
Regardless, each package is designed to meet that objective.
Whether or not that objective works for the business is a different matter.
Consider a business that enjoys a large number of followers but little engagement from those followers. Its objective should be engaging the followers that it already has.
The business should not focus on getting more followers.
Sure, we can agree that a business should always be on the look-out for more followers. However, that objective is not the objective of the business’s current social media package.
Therefore, the business should focus on the more pressing objective — increasing engagement — before focusing on getting more followers.
Pushing Sales
Many businesses are too business-oriented on social media. They approach engagement with a salesperson mindset.
A common tactic that businesses take is randomly following a bunch of users. The idea is that the user will appreciate the follow and then follow the company back.
There are a few problems with this tactic.
First, there is no exchange between the user and the company. It’s a simple “follow for follow” ploy.
Second, “follow for follow” relationships tend not to last long on social media.
After a while, the user will see that the company has no interest in them or what they have to say. So they end up unfollowing the company.
Another common tactic is cold messaging.
Companies will send users private messages that are actually sales pitches. They usually read, “Hi, I see you enjoy this product. Please check out my site full of similar products!”
It’s aggressive. It’s pushy. And a lot of times, it doesn’t work.
Not Being Social
Social media is media created for the purpose of being social.
Many businesses struggle to understand this concept. They treat social media as a one-way street and choose not to engage with followers.
Likely, they choose this direction because they see big companies doing the same thing.
The difference in the two situations is big companies are guaranteed a following. It doesn’t matter if they engage with followers or not.
In fact, many followers don’t expect engagement from them.
The same tactic does not work for smaller companies. They have to engage to gain and keep followers.
All social media packages require socialization in order to work.
Using The Wrong Platform
Not all social media platforms operate the same.
The three most popular sites at the moment are arguably Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
While Facebook and Twitter operate much the same, Instagram is image-oriented. In fact, users can’t post on Instagram unless they upload at least one image per post.
Businesses whose products aren’t visual probably won’t benefit from having an Instagram.
Even Facebook and Twitter have their differences.
Twitter is much more open and immediate than Facebook. At the same time, Facebook concentrates paid content in user feeds so users see products that appeal to them.
Which social media platform works for a given business depends on the business.
Hiring An Inexperienced or Poor Firm
No two social media firms are alike. Quality varies from firm to firm based on staff, experience, specialty, and reliability.
The same goes for the social media packages they offer.
Prior to hiring a firm, businesses should thoroughly check that firm. They should read reviews as well as compare prices and social media packages that other firms offer.
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