Have you ever wondered if you’re too close to your business to really be able to effectively market it to your audience?
One of the biggest challenges that businesses face is not knowing their audience well enough to anticipate their needs – instead leaning heavily on what they believe to be the selling points of their products or services, without creating a strategy to connect with their customers.
The problem, in short, is that you create content that’s too close to the business.
And when it comes to social media marketing and managing your social channels, this creates a problem.
Why Social Media is So Difficult for Business Owners to Manage
The fact is that when you create social media content from your position of complete immersion in the business, your content ceases to introduce and excite users. Instead, it speaks to them from a position that’s too close, without taking that step back to consider what they will find valuable.
For example, if you share a post that highlights the detailed features of a product, but never identify what that product is designed to do overall, you alienate a huge portion of users who might be looking to simply find out what you do and how it can benefit them.
The mistake is assuming that the audience are on the same level as you – when really, the social media landscape should focus on consistently reaching new users and introducing your brand and product concept in new ways, over and over again.
To help you identify the sticking points in your own social media strategy, and to help you recognise the benefits of working with a third party agency, we thought we’d share 5 mistakes we consistently see businesses making. See if you can spot any of these in your own social strategy…
1. You Don’t Post Consistently
Are you guilty of suddenly remembering the importance of social media and posting loads for a week or so, only to let it tail off again when something else comes up?
A lack of consistency doesn’t just impact your visibility on social media, it also impacts your reliability in the eyes of users and consumers. Brands that sporadically interact with their social channels do not come across as reputable or reliable.
2. Failing to Create a Strategy
We’re not saying you have to plan every single post and piece of content you put out there. In fact, some posts are best when shared organically and wholly authentically.
However, if you don’t have some sort of strategy behind the scenes, matching your content with your goals and the actions that you want your audience to take, then your posts will fall flat and won’t have any form of tangible impact on your visibility or conversion.
3. Ignoring Negative Feedback
It’s never nice to see negative comments on a post or in your DMs. However, ignoring these comments (or even worse, deleting them), is a recipe for disaster and distrust.
When you ignore negative feedback, you create distrust and let users know that you don’t know how to handle issues and refuse to accept responsibility. A much better approach is to respond constructively, acknowledging the comment and the issue and either outlining a strategy to repair the issue or letting the user know you will contact them directly.
4. Ignoring Metrics
Yes, the different metrics available across different social media channels and platforms can make it difficult to truly identify and pinpoint the best strategy. It’s a lot of information to take in.
But if you ignore it, you also ignore the information that can help you to identify what’s working and what isn’t working in your social media plan. Without this understanding of what content your audience is responding to, you have no hope of improving your content and driving better conversion and engagement.
5. Posting Poor Quality Content
The only thing worse than inconsistent content is bad quality content. If you’re going to share a post, make sure that the copy makes sense and is reflective of your messaging on other platforms; that the imagery and videos are clear and concise, and that all CTAs and links you share are 100% working.
The Power of Agency Support
Amid all of these mistakes and challenges, an opportunity rises from the ashes… the chance to partner with an agency.
When you work with a social media agency, they take your business and generate a strategy that connects you with the audience that needs you. They position your products or services as a solution, with content that is designed to capture the interest of the audience that is most likely to engage with you.
Finally, they help you to track the metrics and data so that you keep improving the content you put out there. For more advice on how to make social media agency support work for you, get in touch with Mitchell & Stones today.
