To people looking at it from the outside, social media marketing can seem deceptively simple. All you need is a good product or service and your audience will find you. Wouldn't it be great if that were true? But unfortunately, it's not.
In fact, marketing on social media is a real challenge for local businesses - and can prove difficult even for those who invest a lot of time and energy into managing their social media accounts. The reason for this? There are some common misconceptions about social media marketing and some secrets that you simply don't know about unless someone tells you. Here they are.
#1: The size of your following doesn't matter
One of the biggest misconceptions about social media marketing is that page likes equals success. This is often not the case. You can create an entertaining account that attracts new followers without changing your bottom line. If that's the case, you're basically whistling into the wind. The time and energy you spend managing your social media pages won't earn you anything. It's better to focus on attracting highly qualified and motivated followers who are likely to become customers and share your content with their friends.
#2: Success does not happen overnight
To quote a cliché: Social media marketing is not a sprint. It's a marathon. It takes a lot of time, commitment and dedication to gain a following and see results from your social media marketing efforts. In many ways, this misconception is related to the first one. A large following does not equate to success. You can spend a lot of money to improve your page and gain a lot of followers. However, if those followers don't buy from you, the money was wasted. In other words, social media marketing requires a continuous commitment to excellence. You need to work hard to create valuable and entertaining content - and you need to be willing to optimise your methods to get the results you want.
#3: You will not be successful without analysis
Analysing the results of your social media marketing is a must if you want to grow your business. It's not enough to just look at your likes and other obvious metrics. You need to dig deep to refine your strategy. Fortunately, most platforms offer basic analytics that you can use to get started. If you pay for a social media management tool, you'll likely have access to additional reports and analyses. Either way, it's important that you use the data to test, refine and retest your content and strategy. Even if you've done well on Facebook or Instagram, you'll need to dedicate yourself to the sometimes tedious legwork that will help you find the right strategy to grow your business.
#4: Engagement is just as important as content
You can create fantastic content on a regular basis, but if you don't also take the time to engage with your followers, you might as well not bother. Many companies make the mistake of forgetting the "social" in social media. It's your job to monitor your content, respond to comments, answer questions and generally make your followers feel like they're important to you. Engagement can be time consuming and is one of the reasons many small businesses don't do well on social media. You may need to hire someone to monitor your mentions, comments, DMs and questions to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
#5: Success is difficult to predict
The Holy Grail of social media marketing is the viral post. Whether it's a video, a meme, a photo or a blog post, every social media marketer dreams of creating "The One" - that special post that will reach millions of followers and send their business into orbit. We'd love to give you a formula to create the perfect post. Unfortunately, there is no such thing. The best you can do is create the most entertaining, valuable and relevant content you can find - and hope that your followers share it and that it resonates. Of course, there are some things that can improve your chances of going viral. Humorous content goes down well, as does content that is useful to different groups of people. Instead of focusing on virality, spend your time getting creative - and hopefully the rest will follow.
#6: You need a creative team to help you
Your social media goals can be simple or lofty, but either way you should realise that you can't achieve everything you need to do without help. Creativity is a plus when it comes to social media marketing. If you only share content from others or tweet information about your products, you won't gain the enthusiastic following you desire. The key is to give your social media manager the creative support they need. This may mean hiring a creative team to work with them. Or you can simply give them a creative budget to hire freelance writers, photographers and artists to give your social media marketing a boost.
#7: Everything can change in the blink of an eye
One of the most difficult aspects of social media marketing is that change is normal. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are constantly adjusting their algorithms - and you need to keep up with the changes if you want to be successful. Facebook, for example, recently changed its algorithm to favour posts from personal contacts over those from businesses. As a result, business owners have had to rethink their strategies, put more effort into organic engagement and increase their Facebook marketing budgets to ensure their posts reach their followers. Tracking your performance and engagement can help you do this. However, it's important to be aware of the changes and adjust your strategy accordingly so you don't get bogged down.
Social media marketing is not as easy as it seems...
That much is clear. But if you keep the seven points we've outlined here in mind, you can make the most of the time, creative energy and money you spend on promoting your business on social media.
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