THE MOST COMMON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PROBLEMS AND HOW TO SOLVE THEM

THE MOST COMMON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PROBLEMS AND HOW TO SOLVE THEM

By Michael Griffiths – ‘The Business Relationship Marketing Guru’
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The most common mistake of businesses is that they dive into uncharted waters and expect to float despite their inability to swim. Translation in social media marketing language: most people plunk in their efforts and their capital yet fail to learn the ropes first.
In anything we do in life, knowledge and awareness is a must. If not, that’s the equivalent of going straight into college without passing through elementary. So, even if you are intelligent, you may not have acquired other skills necessary to survive.
Marketing via the social media channels is no exception – you must know what the most likely problems you will encounter in order to be ready. So what are these common hurdles?
Flying blind. A lot of businesses go into social media without full understanding of its power, reach, and influence. Many of them think that for as long as they mention their brand, and relay its features over Facebook, then they’re good to go. It would be wise to learn about the world wide web first. Are you employing all the resources available to you? Are you properly reaching your target market? Do you even know that Facebook has a separate type of account for businesses alone? Try to learn first before exerting all your efforts into social media marketing – you may be getting shortchanged…or worse, no one might be viewing your posts.
Inconsistent Participation. Taking a vacation from social media ia a no-no. You may have worked hard for brand recall through the internet, thinking that your efforts are good enough for the next six months. Wrong. The use of social media requires one thing – consistency. You have to barrage your target market with promotions in order to remain top of mind to your customers. A long absence will not make your clients search for you – it will be the death of your marketing strategy. Why must they insist on sticking with you, when you are inconsistent? Remember that there are dozens of other consistent businesses who will be more than willing to step into the social media position you vacated.
Your message doesn’t sound confident. Pay special attention to how you word your marketing material. If potential patrons detect some form of hesitation or too much humility in your promotional content, then they will get turned off. They would rather patronize the businesses with the glorious claims, because those claims will surely need to be backed up by product or service superiority.
Lack in virtual and digital expertise of the marketing team. If your business is going to use social media, then hire experts to help you achieve your goals. Sure, you may have a savvy offline advertising expert, and a witty writer, but if they are not well-versed in social media then their talents are useless. Get the proper people for the task at hand. 80% of expert online buyers read all the blogs, websites, facebook posts, twitter shouts they can get their eyes on. They know who the experts are. It’s like you, an expert in cartooning, facing up with the Computer Graphics experts. Comic book versus a digital 3D movie – no contest.
Lack of personalization. The social media platforms have magnified in popularity because they help encourage buyer/customers and sellers/business owners to interact – maybe through the blogs, discussion boards, shout outs and comments, etc. If you treat your ad content exactly the way you would treat your offline market, then you come off as impersonal and cold. Try to be as reachable as possible to your audience.
Lack of tracking. How do you know if your social media efforts are working if you do not employ measurable methods? Maybe you could try monitoring your number of fans (Facebook), followers (twitter), or the number of “likes” and “shares” on your posts. Or you could compare sales before and after social media marketing every few weeks? If you do not track you effectiveness, then you wouldn’t know if you need to re-align your strategies or reformat your material.
It’s not too difficult to learn, you just need to be determined. Remember, no real success comes from indolence. Try to work hard for the good of your business.