Why Social Media Isn’t Working For Your Business

I was chatting to a small business owner the other day about their marketing, they were telling me how a particular marketing strategy didn’t work for their business. They were absolutely adamant, and yet, without too much digging I could see quite clearly that it would never have worked as they hadn’t implemented the strategy properly. It was a shame as this business owner had decided that another strategy was working but unfortunately it was one that was never going to help the business owner reach their goals. It was a classic case of being so far ‘in’ the business that it was difficult for him to see what was quite obvious. It made me think about how easy it is to make false assumptions about things (note to self: question everything!)

I see this quite a bit, business owners feeling despondent that social media ‘doesn’t work for their kind of business’. When I ask a few questions I discover they have only been posting the odd update as if it were their personal page. The thing with social media marketing, is that it’s still marketing. To do it effectively you need to understand the basis of traditional marketing, and it needs to be done as part of a congruent marketing strategy if you want it to work.

Posting the odd update here and there with no real plan or focus is just a Facebook update posted here and there. It’s never going to create the engagement or business growth that you desire. Neither is jumping in and just setting up a few ads to sell something. You need to consider the psychology of consumer purchasing and create a strategy that will help you meet your business goals. You also need to be consistent. It’s taken the big brands years to perfect their brand and marketing, you need to be prepared to stick with it for longer than a month or two if you want to see results. Consistent action towards a clear goal is what will create solid business growth, there is no quick fix, and I would ask you to question carefully anyone that is trying to sell you that quick fix.

If you want to use social media marketing to promote your business, and I highly recommend you do, here are the three key ingredients you need;

1. An understanding of basic marketing principles – letting your friend’s son loose on your social media accounts may be low cost, but it is highly unlikely to get you the results you are looking for.

2. An understanding of the business you are promoting, including the target market you are talking to – if you employ a professional, make sure they have a knowledge of your industry or are prepared to develop a decent knowledge over time. It’s very difficult for anyone to develop effective social media marketing if they do not understand who they are talking to and what their needs and desires are.

3. An overall marketing strategy that your social media is a congruent part of – it’s great having lots of Facebook followers, but what’s your purpose for these people? Your social media isn’t something separate from your other marketing activities, it forms an important part of it. Make sure whoever you employ to do your social media understands how social media will fit into your wider marketing plan, and what the goal is.

Hint: collecting followers is not the goal!

In the same way that turnover is vanity and profit is sanity, your follower number is pure vanity, it’s what you do with it that really counts.

If you haven’t implemented a social media marketing strategy with these three key ingredients, then you can never truly be sure if social media will work for your business.

Want a quick answer as to whether social media marketing can work for your business? Drop me an email and I will do a quick fifteen minute analysis and tell you honestly whether social media marketing has potential for your business, and what you are currently missing.