I’m about to go on a bit of a rant, so I apologize in advance for any unwelcome sass or snark.
In the last two days, I’ve had two separate businesspeople tell me they’re giving up on social media because it’s “pointless” and “doesn’t work.” They told me they think investing in social was a waste of money.
I hear this all the time. Despite the fact that these people are basically telling me what I do for a living is BS, it usually doesn’t bother me too much.
Maybe this time was the straw the broke the camel’s back. Maybe my caffeine level was running low and I was feeling unusually irritable.
In any case, this time it struck a chord.
Social media works, and I have the conversion rates to prove it. When used correctly, it can drive traffic, leads and sales at a lower cost than nearly any other medium, and sometimes at no cost whatsoever.
It’s not working for you because of user error. You’re not using it correctly, and you probably haven’t put in the effort to try to learn or made the investment in having someone show you.
If you think social media “doesn’t work” for businesses, I want you to take a long, hard, honest look at your behavior. I bet you’ll find at least one of these things to be true.
1. You’re trying to use social media to sell products.
But I thought you just said it works for selling products!
Right, but it’s like dating. You wouldn’t approach an attractive stranger and ask them to marry you.
Instead, you say hello. You make small talk. You go on a few dates. And months—or more likely, years later—you finally ask them to commit to tying the knot.
Social media works exactly the same way, but thankfully in most cases the sales cycle doesn’t take years.
If you want to sell your product using social media, build the relationship first. Make a friendly initial offer, drawing the visitor to your website. Engage with them. Offer them something for free. Build trust in your brand over time through remarketing campaigns or your email list.
THEN (and only then) will you make the sale.
Sound like a lot of work? It is. That’s why when you throw up a few posts on Facebook and proclaim that social media “doesn’t work,” I can’t take you seriously.
2. 90% of your posts are about you.
You’re approaching the game backwards. Your social media content should start with your audience in mind, always.
What do they like? What do they enjoy seeing and reading about? It’s up to you to find ways to insert your brand—in a non-spammy way—into the kind of content your audience wants to consume.
3. You’ve used shady shortcuts like buying followers to grow your account.
STOP THE MADNESS.
What kind of engagement did you expect to get from 10,000 fake followers?!
Oh wait, you weren’t thinking about engagement. You were thinking about that little follower number on your profile and how it makes you feel when you see it get bigger.
If that number is all you care about, great. But I’m willing to bet you’re actually looking for likes, clicks, replies, signups and purchases resulting from your posts.
The only way to get those real results from social media is to put in the time and effort to grow a real following.
4. You’re not engaging with other users, just posting, posting, posting.
Cranking out a series of 10 scheduled Tweets is easy. It’s mindless.
Know what actually takes energy? Reading the posts of others and coming up with thoughtful replies.
Guess which one of the two wins followers and engagement? Hint: not the mindless one.
5. You don’t follow best practices.
Everyone knows you should use your car’s blinker when you’re about to make a turn. Do you have to? Well, no, but if you don’t, other people won’t like you very much.
The same goes for following best practices on social media. Here are a few common offenders:
Your Tweets are getting cut off halfway through because you’re cross-posting posts from other platforms that are too long.
Your Facebook posts don’t include compelling visuals, and use blacklisted phrases like “please share!”
Your Pinterest images are the wrong size and as a result, get buried in the feed.
Need to brush up on best practices? Moz has a great intro here.
6. You treat social media as optional, rather than a critical piece of your business plan.
Posting at random whenever you think of it isn’t going to cut it.
If you want to see results from social media, you need to attack it like you would any other part of your business: with a strategic game plan.
The grass is green where you water it—isn’t that how the saying goes? Nurture your social media platforms by investing time (and, if needed, budget), and they’ll pay you back tenfold.
Need a hand figuring out this whole social media thing? Get in touch. I’d love to help you out.
Tami Brehse
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I like that analogy with dating. That’s a really good way of thinking about it, and something I hadn’t heard before. Lots of good info here… thanks! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Nicole! 🙂
You totally know what you are talking about. The most common problem? The business owners are men and they don’t understand the concept of building and nurturing a “relationship.” Haha.
Patricia I think you might be right! Both people that said this to me were men XD