Social media is currently the most popular tool for marketers. That is because of the wide reach and extreme versatility that this platform offers. At the same time, it is quite distressing to see the lack of awareness and finesse in professionals use social media to market their brands. For this reason, many businesses are unable to get the maximum benefit from their social media marketing efforts. Here, we talk about five common problems that people face when using social media for marketing, and how to solve these problems.
1. Impersonal Social Media Marketing
This attitude destroys the purpose of being on social media. One of the main reasons why users flock to social media is because of its direct and personal approach to communication. When marketers end up automating their social media interactions such as sharing and commenting on different posts and responses, their users feel detached from the entire experience and reduce their engagement with the brand. Avoid the excessive use of spam, chatbots, automated posts, etc., and see the quality of your social media interactions improve. All of these improvements will lead to a positive change in your returns from social media investment.
2. A Machine Gun Approach
For many social media marketers, simply creating a page on Facebook is enough. Most people flood the page with random posts. They do this in the hope that it will generate some kind of buzz that will lead to some kind of profit growth for the business. This kind of approach is destined to fail. One can use social media for a number of different purposes, including branding, creating awareness, customer service, or creating sales. For each of these purposes, you need to plan the content and deploy it differently. When social media marketers realize this, they will be better able to generate and measure returns from their social media efforts.
3. Too Much Curated Content
Because of the huge growth in social media users and content, these platforms now select what content is on display on their users’ timelines. This is simply a problem of competitiveness. The more relevant and engaging your content is, the more likely it will be on display on your audiences’ profile. Users do not have the time to scroll down and read each post, so your content has to be engaging as well. Video content is a good solution as well as Instagram content. These are engaging because of the visual nature of the content that overcomes other distractions online as well as offline.
Also read Why We Love Mobile Software (And You Should, Too!)
4. Neglecting Database Creation
Creating a data-driven strategy is vital for the success of social media marketing campaigns. Your social media activity is a treasure of information about user behaviors, preferences, and trends that can greatly inform your strategies and marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, marketers who prefer quick fixes to well-deliberated strategies neglect this area. The solution lies in investing in some robust CRM tools and integrating them with your social media platforms. This will help to make sense of the flood of data coming in from your social media pages. These tools can help you detect trends in audience behaviors, including things like what kind of content is shared and liked the most, how regularly is a post commented on, which of your platforms generate the greatest product inquiries and online purchases, and so on.
5. Lack of a Dedicated Team
This problem emerges because companies do not realize the extensive nature of social media marketing. As a result, companies randomly assign the task of social media marketing to any marketing executive by giving them Facebook and Instagram access. This kind of approach never works. It requires creating a team with knowledge of social media marketing and specific skills. Such as SEO, SMM, and familiarity with the platforms, generating and interpreting metrics, and so on. It has to be a separate team that works exclusively on social media marketing. Campaigns need planning at least a month in advance.
Marketing on social media has immense potential for increasing brand awareness, revenues, and profitability. However, the key is to treat it as a strategic resource rather than an ancillary activity. Adopting a strategic approach and leveraging the latest technological tools can turn your social media marketing strategy into a game-winner for your organization.