Social media have grown immensely in recent years and, therefore, not thinking about a social media strategy is wrong. Every day, all the time, people use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc.
As many people think that using social media is a waste of time, the truth is that they work, but if used correctly, just like any marketing strategy.
Let’s talk about the main reasons why social media strategy is not working as intended.
Wrong followers
The strategy in social media and marketing in general only works when we communicate to a target audience, that is, an audience that will really be interested in our products and/or services. Friends, family and co-workers can follow the pages on the networks, but that’s not much help. You need to have appropriate followers, but this takes time. One suggestion will be to see who follows the competition, the suppliers, etc., and start following and creating engagement with these people.
Community construction
It is very common to think that having thousands of followers is positive. In fact, it is not negative, as long as these people are really interested in the brand. The company has to think well about the type of community it wants to build and so the strategy on social networks will have good results. Remember: quantity is not the same as quality.
Wrong direction
In many social media we see posts that send followers to content created by people outside the company. The right thing to do is to invest time to create and share your own content and build a community around the brand.
Irrelevant content
It is important to create content that is relevant to your readers, that is content that is useful for solving the problems of customers and potential customers. If the content is not useful, how will you create a relationship with the customers? For example, if your company sells food products of biological origin, create content related to this topic: about nutrition, the benefits of organic food, etc.
Wrong timing
It should be published regularly to make an impact and to assess what times of the day people interact more with the publications, in order to, in the future, start publishing at those times.
Not creating ads
Advertising on social media is one of the best ways to follow when it comes to paid ads. Even if the company does not have a big budget, it can always invest something in social networks. If you choose not to advertise on networks, then the results will be disappointing.
Do not analyze the data
Using tools like Facebook Analytics or Google Analytics is important for evaluating user behaviour.
Promotional Content
People want to follow pages with interesting content and updates; they are not interested in promotional publications, focused on the product or service. Interesting updates include news about the industry, blog articles, videos, etc. This content can be created by creating a blog, whose articles should be shared on the networks.
Presence in all social media
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Youtube, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Vimeo … We do not need a presence in all the social media that are known. The important thing is to focus on the networks that are most relevant to your business. If it’s a B2B technology company, maybe it’s better to invest in Twitter, LinkedIn and Slideshare. A B2C company may find Facebook and Youtube better for their social media strategy.
Waiting for immediate results
Promotion on social networks takes time to achieve good results. It is therefore best to keep networks up to date with frequent content publishing. Build your network, update content, interact with the audience and give time to time. Do not give up!