Nathan Yerian
Big brands make managing social media look easy—post fun articles, ask interesting questions, host some contests, and instantly build and engaged community.
So, you try what you see. You ask one of your employees to monitor your Facebook and Twitter pages and share fun status updates. You launch a blog, and you write some content a few times a month.
Despite your efforts, nothing has happened. You’re frustrated. You’ve invested hours of valuable time, and you’ve seen zero results. While your social community has grown, you haven’t seen a change in revenue. What’s going on?
Contrary to popular belief, social media marketing is tough, especially for small businesses that are trying to replicate the success of big brands with endless resources. It’s not as easy as maintaining your personal profile, and here’s why:
Social media is resource intensive
According to a recent Social Media Marketing Industry Report, “a significant 59% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more and 33% for 11 or more hours weekly.” For most brands, 15-minutes a day won’t be enough to plan schedules, craft compelling updates, curate content, network with PR channels, and respond to customer questions.
Some companies don’t have the bandwidth to engage with their audience and generate the content necessary to spark interest and keep people coming back for more. So, they move forward with half-effort and unrealistic expectations for results. Then, plans fail, and they give up.
Because social media is resource intensive, plans need dedicated budgets and well-refined strategies. Otherwise, the effort will more than likely be a waste of time.
Success is not spontaneous
Social media needs good content, and good content needs planning. Instead of sharing a fleeting thought, brands should devote time to creating editorial calendars with compelling content. From a user experience standpoint, people like quality content, and they can tell when brand messaging is sloppily slapped together. Put forethought into your plans, and the quality will shine.
Most importantly, you’ll add structure to your creative energy. Know what you hope to achieve, and know how you want to get there. Be sure to keep your marketing goals realistic, and balanced with fun.
Results take time and dedicated effort
Social marketing is hard work. It takes consistent effort over a dedicated period of time. While stories of viral videos swarm the Internet, the truth is that your success will take some time. Especially if you’re just starting out, your network will take time to grow. Overtime, your reach and marketing returns will grow proportionally to the size of your network and the quality of your message. In other words, expect growth to be slow at first – it’ll speed up later.
According to one marketer survey, long term yield comes in the form of improved business exposure, higher website traffic, and improvements in SEO performance. At first, however, you’re starting small, so be prepared for frustration. Don’t give up before you’ve given your efforts a fair chance to succeed.
It’s an all-hands effort
You can’t succeed alone. Involve your employees, professional network, and most loyal customers in your social media initiatives. Encourage your team to create interesting content that will be a strong match for your brand to share. Social media is all about networking and teamwork. Your in-person supporters will fuel your momentum.
For social media campaigns to be successful, they need to be ongoing initiatives. Don’t let roadblocks slow you down or hold you back. One failed campaign does not equate to failure, so fall down, recharge, and keep going. In the marketing world, success is about persistence and direction. Keep going, and you’ll see results from both.
Integrate your social media effort into a complete inbound marketing strategy:
