I meet a lot of people experiencing a lot of different challenges using social media but often it boils down to one thing: their social media expectations vs reality just don’t add up.
Look at it this way; just because you have a driving licence, it doesn’t make you a Formula 1 champion.
Everyone claims to be an expert
Scroll through any social media feed and you’ll see sponsored content from all manner of “experts”. They’ll post videos, make bold claims, promising quick, easy wins.
Don’t be secured by the promise of quick fixes and easy wins. Organic growth takes time and effort, rapid growth costs money. You want to be able to slowly build an audience that appreciate your brand and fit your target audience. There are many accounts out there with millions of followers, but you’ll often find that they would’ve bought their followers through sites that promise you “100% genuine and instant followers”. Majority of the time these turn out to be bot accounts that will have no interest in your brand or have an appreciation for your content.
Grow your audience authentically, and you will have more chance of success.
Instant results, now!
Common phrases I tend to hear, include “Social Media is fast paced, I should see instant results!”
The lifespan (half-life) of an average organic Facebook post is about 5 hours. In this time a post will achieve 75% of its engagement. In the first 2.5 hours, the post will achieve 75% of its total impressions. After that, it pretty much gets lost in the great abyss of the social world.
For Twitter, the average life of a tweet can be as low as 18 minutes!
No need to over do it
Myth: The more you post, the more likely you are to gain engagement.
Let’s be real, no-one likes spam. That’s why we have email spam filters. Spamming your followers on social media is an excellent way to turn people off your brand and lose an audience, fast.
If you’ve spent time, effort, and money in creating a social community around your brand, it could all come to nothing without a proper social media marketing strategy.
The aim is for consistency and regularity over time: a consistent tone of voice and content that reflects your brand’s image and values; regular (daily) posts across all channels.
Too many posts in one go and the message will get lost. Too sporadic an approach and the messages will never be seen in the first place.
Maybe ask yourself questions such as;
- Who are you trying to reach?
- How would you classify your target audience?
- What are you hoping this campaign will achieve for your company and your audience?
- How can you create continued engagement with your followers throughout your campaign?
But also, can you write copy that sells? Or that targets the right audience? Or know when to adapt your strategy? There’s much more to getting it right than meets the eye.
It’s not all plain sailing
It’s easy to think “anyone can do this”. It’s like watching professional dancers or athletes.
Usain Bolt makes sprinting look effortless. But it isn’t.
Ballerinas make going en pointe look easy. But it isn’t.
Truth is, professionals have years of training and experience and teams working behind the scenes that have got them to the point where they are able to make it look easy.
The same goes for social media marketing.
There’s a lot more to social media marketing than maintaining a personal profile or setting up social media channels for your brand.
It’s a complex beast that requires regular feeding and nurturing. Without an effective social media marketing strategy, you’re not only limiting your brand’s potential, but you could also be harming your business’ chances of success and restricting growth.
Have you been disappointed by your social media expectations vs reality once you started looking at your results?
We’ve got the tea and biscuits at the ready, so why don’t you get in touch to learn how we can help you make your social media thrive today.
