Most businesses nowadays use social media for marketing their products or services. There are plenty of ways to advertise using social media, however when you’re doing it wrong, you’re pretty much wasting your time. In this article, we will tackle on the causes of social media marketing failures and how you can be successful in social media marketing for your business.
1. Take more than you give or only take and not give
Social media is not a one-way street. If you treat is as so and if you don’t give value to your followers and only advertise your products/service continuously, then you will not build deep and long-lasting relationships with them. A good impression would also not be established. You should note that in order to know what your customers want, you should reach out to them and get to know them personally by engaging with them through social media. Show that you’re listening and that you’re not only there for promotion.
2. Selling tone and not socializing
If your tone is much manipulative and indicative of only the selling part, then you’re social media page is only as good as a traditional static ad. If you miss the integral part of socializing, you might lose your customer faster than a constant sales pitch. Remember that to take into account to gain their trust first and become an active contributor in their community. As in a bank, deposit funds first—before you withdraw and take charge of “running your commercials.”
3. No means of measuring success
When you have a blog that’s actively visited by lots of viewers, you should monitor its performance. Does it get higher bouncer rates each month? Are your profits in Google Adsense directly in ratio with the increasing/decreasing number of returning visits? Always be in the lookout for potential problems by using measuring tools. For instance, you can utilize Google Alert to watch your brand’s mentions on the Internet. Google Alert can notify you if something negative pops up as well, and it is your duty to make amends as soon as possible. Doing improvements show your audience that you care, you’re listening and you’re responsible for your own reputation.
4. Don’t know how social media and business collide
If you think that you’re only using social media for business competition then you’re wrong. Social media is about building your online community of followers and there is much to gain if you intend to move beyond competition and into the community mindset. Don’t bash other companies and don’t put others down. Your ultimate participation in the social networking sites is to share what you have and not rival neck-to-neck with your competitors.
5. No personal touch
If they feel that it’s only a robot (auto-responder) that posts new and updates and other promotions, then you’re out of the game. (They might even think of the posts as spam.) As well as interacting in a professional level, you should also find ways to interact with customers on a personal level. Do comment on their blogs and social media statuses as nicely and appropriately. You can also mention them in your tweets (use “@” sign) in a friendly manner to build rapport.
If you don’t have a roadmap or a plan, then somewhere along the way, you’ll be lost. Before creating social media accounts, you should establish your main objective and purpose of joining the social web. Have an end in mind. Take time to plan for the best strategy or approach in reaching customers. Planning will certainly help you become organized and focused into achieving your goals and succeed in social media marketing.
6. No regular updates
If you are only active in the beginning and fail to update your followers on a regular basis in the succeeding weeks or days after, you will only lose their interest. There are still so many “fishes in the sea,” and they won’t wait for your bait to catch another one. When you commit to build your “fan base” online through social media, post an update on your page at least three times per week. Ideally, posts should be done once a day.
7. No engaging content
Your customers should be able to relate to your content. If you keep on producing only posters or pictures of your products/services, they will eventually get tired of seeing them until they unsubscribe from your feeds. If you feel that they are important to you, then take time to produce enriching content that has the same significance. If this is not your field, then maybe you can hire some expert to fulfill this task.
Social media is a powerful marketing tool for businesses. Marketing through this method is not something to fear. It does need to be done carefully and consciously, though, or you get to lose your good and clean slate reputation. Just make sure to take these guidelines in mind to make your social media marketing a success.
