To people looking 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 sadly, it isn't.
In truth, social media marketing is a genuine challenge for local businesses – and can prove difficult even for those who invest a lot of time and energy managing their social media accounts. The reason for this? There are some widely held misconceptions about social media marketing, and some secrets that you simply won't know 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 equate to success, and this is often not the case. You can create an entertaining account that attracts new followers without seeing any change in your bottom line. If this is the case, you are basically whistling in the wind. The time and effort you put into managing your social media pages will not bring you any returns. It is 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 isn't a sprint. It's a marathon. It takes a lot of time, commitment, and dedication to build a following and see results from your social media marketing efforts. In many ways, this misconception ties into the first. A large following doesn't equate to success. You can spend a lot of money to boost your page and acquire many followers. However, if those followers aren't buying from you, the money was wasted. In other words, social media marketing requires a consistent commitment to excellence. You must work hard to create valuable and entertaining content – and you must be willing to optimise your methods to achieve the results you desire.
#3: Without analysis, you won't be successful
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 deeper to refine your strategy. Fortunately, most platforms offer basic analytics that you can use to get started. If you're paying for a social media management tool, you'll likely have access to additional reports and analyses. In any case, 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 need to commit to the sometimes painstaking, granular work that will help you find the right strategy for growing your business.
#4: Engagement is just as important as content
You can produce fantastic content regularly, but if you don't also take the time to engage with your followers, you might as well not bother. Many businesses 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 matter to you. Engagement can be time-consuming, and it's one of the reasons why many small businesses don't perform well on social media. You may need to hire someone to monitor your mentions, comments, DMs, and questions to ensure nothing slips 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 reaches millions of followers and sends their business into orbit. We'd love to give you a formula for creating the perfect post. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. The best you can do is create the most entertaining, valuable, and relevant content you can find – and hope your followers share it and it takes off. Of course, there are a few things that can improve your chances of going viral. Humorous content tends to do well, as does content that is useful to various groups of people. Instead of focusing on virality, you should spend your time getting creative – and the rest will hopefully follow.
#6: You need a creative team to help you
Your social media goals can be simple or ambitious, but either way, you should be aware that you cannot achieve everything you need to without help. Creativity is a plus when it comes to social media marketing. If you're just sharing content from others or tweeting 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 could mean hiring a creative team to work alongside them. Or, you can simply provide them with 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 the norm. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are constantly tweaking their algorithms – and you need to keep up with those changes if you want to succeed. Facebook, for example, recently changed its algorithm to favour posts from personal contacts over those from businesses. As a result, entrepreneurs have had to rethink their strategies, focus more on organic engagement, and increase their Facebook marketing budgets to ensure their posts reach their followers. Tracking your performance and engagement can help you with this. However, it’s important to be aware of the changes and adapt your strategy accordingly, so you don’t get left behind.
Social Media Marketing isn't as easy as it looks…
So much is clear. But if you keep in mind the seven points we've outlined here, 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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