Social media is a great tool for building your brand and for retaining and attracting customers. In a time when almost
#1. You aren’t sharing content regularly
The more often you post on social media, the more chances you have to encourage people to visit your website. One tweet every few days isn’t going to cut it because that one tweet will just get lost in a vast sea of tweets.
You’re probably wondering how often you need to post on social media. For the answer to that question, you could look at the data. Studies have found that three tweets per day and one or two Facebook posts per day is the best target for businesses. That’s the point at which business social media accounts reach peak engagement. Remember, though, that social media is not one-size-fits-all. Sharing more often could be beneficial for your business. You need to find what works for you.
#2. Your content is not interesting
Posting regularly is just one piece of the puzzle. You have to share interesting content as well. If every one of your Tweets just explains your product and tells people to go to your website, you’re doing it wrong. You need to share content that people actually want to read or watch.
For example, if you own a company that sells beauty products, share an article called “Five Beauty Hacks to Save You Time and Money.” If you sell artisanal hot sauce, share a recipe video of how to make enchiladas. Create content or find content that relates to your product but will make social media users want to see more updates from your account.
#3. You aren’t sharing other people’s content
You need to strike a good balance between sharing your own content and sharing other people’s content. Sharing other people’s content allows you to form connections. The author of the article you shared might follow you and become a customer, or might share some of your content in return.
Sharing other people’s content also convinces your audience that your social media account is not all about promoting yourself; it’s about giving them the best information/entertainment/whatever they get from following you.
#4. You aren’t engaging with users
One big mistake businesses make is they simply write posts and then neglect the replies and comments. Users often ask questions about your product or service, and if you never answer them, they will probably never buy it. Responding to comments can also make social media users feel like you care about them, which will make them more inclined to do business with you.
You should also engage with other people’s social media posts. Look for individuals who could be potential customers, and reply to one of their tweets. This type of engagement will help you gain new followers and introduce your brand to more people.
Some businesses make the mistake of spreading themselves too thin. If you have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google Plus, and none of them are succeeding, you should probably cut down to just two or three accounts. Twitter and Facebook are essential, so try focusing on those two and making sure they have enough daily updates, as we discussed in number 1. Take the time to develop a successful strategy on those accounts before you move on to others.
You should also think about whether a particular social media network is even beneficial for your business. Instagram, for instance, is a platform where you can only share photos and you cannot insert links, so unless you sell many different products that look very good on camera, Instagram may not be worth your time.
As for Google Plus, it’s very debatable if there’s any benefit to the service at all at this point. What once was seen as crucial to doing well in your Google rankings is now little more than an afterthought. So in my opinion, there’s little to gain from attempting to build a Google Plus following.
On the other hand, YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world at this point. So if you have a means of making videos easiliy, you might want to grow your YouTube channel as a secondary means of traffic to your businesses website.
Most of the above problems occur because businesses don’t devote enough resources to social media. They think a social media account is basically just a free advertisement that will attract customers on its own. But when businesses fall into that mentality, they run into the issues we discussed above.
In order to be successful in social media, you must take the time to develop a strategy, and devote the necessary resources to implement that strategy on a day-to-day basis. You may want to consider hiring a full-time or freelance social media manager, to ensure that social media isn’t something that falls by the wayside when you don’t have time to do it.
Now, don’t confuse investing time in social media with throwing money at boosting your Facebook posts and promoting Tweets. I highly recommend you have a firm social media plan in place before spending any money on ads. Too many businesses spend money on ads with no real goal. They just hope the promotion brings them clicks. However, since there is no plan, there’s not a good way to measure ROI. So you never really know if the money was well-spent.
Many businesses underestimate the amount of time and effort that social media actually requires. Once you recognize it for the huge undertaking that it is, you can devote the proper resources to social media, and tweet your way to success.
Has your business been successful in social media? Share your tips in the comments below!
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