How is your social media marketing working for you? Do you even know? The following are 5 telltale signs your social media marketing sucks – and what you can do to make sure it doesn’t continue to suck!
1. Your social media community isn’t growing.
First, let me be clear that numbers aren’t everything.
It’s better to have a small but engaged group of fans or followers than a large group that doesn’t care about your content or your business!
That said, if your community isn’t growing over time, this can definitely signal a problem. The most likely culprit is that you simply aren’t connecting and building relationships within your target market.
How to fix it: Ask yourself: Am I posting content that is relevant to my target market? Am I fostering a sense of community among my fans and followers? Am I providing information that my customers or clients actually need, or am I just posting stuff that’s interesting to me?
Bring the focus back on your customers, and I guarantee you will start to see your audience grow – both in terms of numbers and engagement!
2. No one is interacting with your content
If your content is consistently falling on deaf ears, there’s clearly a problem with the type of content you are creating or promoting. It may mean your content isn’t relevant to your audience, or there may be a problem with the way you are promoting your content.
How to fix it: Take a look at how your competitors are doing on social media: What type of content are they promoting? Are their fans or followers liking, sharing and commenting regularly? How responsive are they to customer questions or queries? Figure out what they’re doing differently than you, and ask yourself how you can incorporate those things into your own social media strategy.
A common culprit for lack of engagement is too much self-promotion. Ask yourself: Am I posting too much about what I care about, and not enough about what my customers care about? Do I post different types of content (questions, asking for feedback, stories, etc.) or do I only link to my most recent blog posts? Do I respond to questions or comments, or leave them unanswered?
3. You are not seeing any increase in sales or conversions (over the long term)
Measuring the ROI of your social media efforts can be tricky. But over the long term, you should be able to see that your efforts are resulting in increased revenues.
How to fix it: If you don’t see any increased revenues from your social media marketing, it could simply be that you are not properly measuring or tracking your efforts.
But if you are paying careful attention to your social media metrics and find you STILL aren’t seeing increased sales, it’s time to learn the RIGHT way to sell on social media. This includes focusing on building relationships and on truly serving your audience.
For more on this, see my post How to Sell Without Sounding Salesy on Social Media.
4. Your social media posts are a dead-end
This will often tie into #3 above. Your social media efforts should tie into your overall marketing goals…in other words, you need to know exactly how social media fits into your marketing funnel.
If you are posting to social media, but never giving your audience a chance to interact with you elsewhere (on your website or email list), you are missing out on HUGE opportunities.
How to fix it: Determine how social media fits into the ‘big picture’ of your business. How will you use it to generate leads, and ultimately, to increase sales? One possible marketing funnel could be:
5. You are not using social media with intentionality
If you have the attitude, “I’ll use social media because I have to, but I’m not going to like it!”, this will inevitably come across to your fans and followers. A lack of excitement and intentionality will often result in inconsistent posting and a lack of engagement with your audience.
How to fix it: If your audience has noticed your lack of excitement or passion, you may have a long road ahead.
Once you’ve made up your mind to be intentional and consistent in your use of social media, make sure you stick with it! Have a plan in place for how and when you’ll post, and make sure you respond to comments and questions in a timely manner.
In time, your customers will grow to trust you again, and you’ll begin to see your efforts pay off in the form of increased leads and sales. And there you have it – 5 telltale signs your social media marketing sucks!
Have you seen any of these signs in your own social media marketing? What steps are you going to take to remedy the situation? Share below!
About Author
Great points Kim. You have to look at your social media marketing like any “real life” relationship. If you really care, you have to make it about others, not yourself. If you focus 100% on people, the results will ultimately be in your favor.
Thanks for your post and your Social Media Examiner webinar…great content!
Glad you got value from it, Paula 🙂
Thanks, Christopher, for your thoughtful response!
Glad that part was helpful, Elizabeth 🙂