You’ve read all the blog posts, you’ve heard all the buzz and you’ve seen your competitor has started tweeting all over the place like a coked up robin. So your mind is made up – it’s time you started getting serious about social.
Jumping straight in at the deep end you get set up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Google+, Tumblr and just for good measure MySpace and start posting away. This stuff’s too easy, time to get ready for the flood of new customers coming your way.
Only the flood never arrives. Your last LOL Cat picture only got 2 likes, one from your mum and one from yourself and your tweet telling everyone about your hot 5% off sale didn’t even get a favourite. Massive sad emoji face.
That’s it, game over. Social media is shite – time to go back to massive colourful adverts in the local newspaper.
But hold on, here’s a thought. If you’re not getting the results you hoped for from social media, maybe you’re doing it wrong? Before you decide to delete all your profiles, have a quick check to see if any of these five things might need a little work.
Your Website Is Rubbish
Social media can only do so much to help your business. Likes on a post are all well and good, but that’s not going to give you a direct link to customers spending money.
You need a base on the internet that hosts all the information about what you do and how people can give you money so you can do things for them.
If you put up a killer post on Facebook and get all the link clicks ever, if a user lands on a web page that isn’t optimised for their device, doesn’t have a clear call to action, or isn’t exactly what they thought they’d land on – they’re just going to go somewhere else.
Your Social Content Is Not Relevant
If you were advertising in the press, would you print a motivational quotation asking people to show their friends if they agree? Of course you wouldn’t so don’t do it on social media.
Make sure what you post is relevant to your company or product, as well as to your customers. Leave the super lolz and charity pleas to your personal profile.
You wouldn't run a press ad of a motivational quote so don't post that on your company's Facebook Share on X
You’re Trying To Get Results For Nothing
You get what you pay for. If you’re putting out content you’re proud of, that promotes your business and would make people want to give you their money – you’re going to have pay to make sure they see it.
Social media is not the free ride people have made out. With things like Facebook’s Edge Rank, the attention span of Twitter users and YouTube’s skip happy viewers, you need to put money behind your online activities to make sure people see it.
Yes, you can get views for nothing – but you can get a hell of a lot more by just putting a bit of budget behind your content.
And social media advertising is still a hell of a lot cheaper, and more targeted than traditional media.
Nothing's free anymore - to increase ROI you need to promote your social content Share on X
Your Campaign Budget Is Too Low
If you’ve started promoting your posts and running social adverts, make sure you’re putting enough money behind the campaign.
Say your cost per click is £1.50 and your daily budget is £10, you’re not even going to get 6 people through the door before you’re done for the day.
Keep on top of all the data and insights provided by social advertising platforms to make sure the right amount of money is going to the best performing adverts.
You’re Not Optimising Your Campaigns
Most social media advertising platforms offer the chance to optimise your campaign by an objective. This is an easy way to make sure you pay the right price for the right kind of action.
Read through all the options available when you’re setting up a campaign, and choose the best option for the action you want the user to make.
If you want people to visit your website, don’t go running a “Likes” campaign on Facebook. It’s not going to drive much traffic.
If you want to build up a mailing list of potential customers, maybe try Twitter’s “Leads” objective rather than promoting tweets about your business.
Need Help?
If these tips have got you re-thinking your social media strategy but you’re not sure where to start, get in touch. I’m here to help with all your social media strategy and content creation needs.
And don’t forget, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
