I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to someone who says “I’m not getting results with social media. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.” Sound familiar? Well, read on.
9 Reasons Why You Aren’t Getting Social Media Results
1. You haven’t defined your goals
Without the right goals in place it is going to be hard to measure your results. Many people take a look at social media and say they are successful if they are growing their fan base. Others might say that they are successful with social media if they are increasing sales. Others might say social media success relies on the amount of leads it brings. The results will vary based on what you aim to get from social media. In my opinion you should focus on using social media to increase your leads. And you should be using my CLEAT method for reporting.
Here’s a great post from Jason about Social Media ROI
2. You bought fans
This is the most common reason that you aren’t getting engagement with your fans and followers. When you buy fans you dilute your fan base. They aren’t real fans. They aren’t targeted. They don’t know who you are. They just clicked a button and boom, now they are your fan. You didn’t earn their trust and that’s why they don’t engage with you. In fact, they probably don’t even know how they got on your page. Don’t buy fans. This goes for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Pinterest, G+ or anywhere else. Seriously. Just don’t!
3. You don’t post often enough
Social media is something you have to do consistently in order to break through the noise. If you are only posting a few times a week this is probably not enough. With Facebook’s decreasing organic reach you need to post more often to be seen. As long as you are posting the right content and have the right audience following you (see #2) you should be able to get through to your audience and connect with them.
4. You are posting the wrong content
Content is king right? Right. This means you have to make sure your content is solid and appropriate for what you are selling. If you aren’t posting content that your fans and followers enjoy consuming you are going to lose them. When you lose them you have to work harder to get them back.
5. Your tone doesn’t resonate
You may be posting content that works for your audience but your tone may be off. On social media people prefer to connect with happy and funny content. Perhaps you are too serious and need to lighten it up again. Most likely your audience will tell you what they like. This comes in the form of comments, shares and likes. Switch up your content and measure what works. When you find something good, stick with it.
6. You are posting at the wrong time
You want to reach the most people as possible. There are tons of studies out there that measure what times are best to post during. Facebook also gives you the data in your Insights tab on your fan page. Take a look and start posting when people are online.
7. You don’t have a lead page to drive people back to
As I mentioned above, the most important thing when it comes to social media for me is generating leads. If you don’t have a place to send people you are missing out on a ton of leads that could be yours to market to in the future. Set up a lead page. Here is the one we use for my outreach on LinkedIn – www.convertwithcontent.com/socialreport. We also have opt-in forms at the bottom of each blog post. You want to do this too. Believe me, it works.
8. You have the wrong expectations
Think you are going to use social media and become a millionaire overnight? You are wrong. It takes time. Not only that, you have to realize that social media isn’t the only thing you should be doing on a regular basis. You need to have a strong social media strategy in place, email marketing, SEO and a content strategy. Without it, you aren’t going to dominate.
9. You are focusing on the wrong networks
People for some reason are obsessed with Facebook. I’m not sure it is the best network out there. In fact, I think you are better off focusing on niche networks where your audience hangs out. Yes, Facebook has a billion users, but the reach is super low. If you are just starting off with Facebook it is going to take a long time to organically build your audience (which is what you want). Think beyond Facebook. Think about using all the networks differently to your advantage.
What would you add to this list?
Still not sure on how to get the best results for your business? Talk to us. We can handle your social media for you.
