In the early days of social media, a marketing strategy utilizing these platforms might have been “helpful” or “nice to have”. However, going forward, a social media strategy will be essential for any business owner that hopes to succeed.
But of course, there is a right way and a wrong way to conduct your campaign. Read on to discover some common social media marketing mistakes, and the best ways to conduct your campaign.
Myth One: Social Media, alone, will launch your business to success. Social media is indeed a powerful marketing tool. But keep in mind that just as no one builds a house with a single tool; social media marketing will be much more effective when used as part of a comprehensive digital marketing plan. Email marketing, blogging, and search engine optimization also fall under the digital marketing umbrella. Round out your strategy by using all of these methods together, and your campaign will hit the target.
Myth Two: All you have to do is post on social media once in a while, and customers will flock your way. If only it were that easy! Like any other type of marketing, social media marketing requires careful forethought and calculated strategy. Also, most social media platforms (like Facebook) include many marketing opportunities that are overlooked by business owners.
For example, due to the news feed algorithm, all of your posts won’t show up in every follower’s feed. So you could be posting regularly, but your followers might only see one out of ten posts. Utilizing the “boost post” option is a simple, but highly effective way to ensure that you are reaching your target audience. The back end of your business page also offers helpful metrics that, if you devote a little time to analyzing them, can really help you understand and maximize the potential of your social media strategy. You can even use Facebook demographics to ensure that a certain audience (for example, women over age 30) see your posts.
Myth Three: More exposure is better. Business owners often make the mistake of joining every social media platform available; it makes sense in theory, but in practice the result is that you’ve spread yourself too thinly. Think narrower focus and deeper impact. Choose one or two platforms and use them to their full potential. Quality of interactions trumps quantity of people reached.
Myth Four: You can’t measure social media success. It is true that because a large component of social media has to do with your brand recogintion and most clients won’t contact you directly via social media, it can be difficult to know exactly how effective your strategy really is. However, there are definitely ways to measure your impact.
How many of your clients or prospects follow you on social media? How many click your posts and are redirected to your website? How many people tell you that they read your social media posts when they see you in person or talk to you on the phone? How many likes, shares, and comments are your posts receiving? Are you receiving more local exposure, perhaps in magazines or newspapers? These are all indicators that your social media strategy is working, but as always, you should continue to examine its impact and make adjustments to your strategy as needed. The challenging thing about social media is that it’s always changing, and you will often need to change with it.
