You’ve gone through all the hard work of optimising your social media accounts, you’re expanding your network over LinkedIn and you’re even dabbling in TikTok, Pinterest and Instagram for business but, inexplicably, it’s not growing your business. It’s time to take a step back, assess the situation and revisit your social media strategy.
Even if you’ve been bashing your head against the (Facebook!) wall for months, you will still have learned one or two things about your brand and marketing tactics so it’s not all been a waste. Here’s our checklist to work through if your social media isn’t working.
So let’s start with the important thing:
1. What does ‘working’ look like?
Have you set yourself clear social media goals and do they relate to your overall marketing goals? Remember, the sheer numbers of fans and followers are means, not ends, and do not, in themselves, generate any return. Ultimately, how is social media helping to grow your business? Is it by driving traffic to your site? Is it by contacting collaborators? Is it by generating sales from your site?
Be absolutely clear on your goals before you create a strategy. Without goals, you won’t be able to measure your success and, therefore, return on investment.
2. Develop a medium and long term strategy.
Now you’ve identified your goals, think about how you’re going to achieve them. You might now start realising that great content isn’t going to cut it and you’ll need to dig a little deeper into things. Don’t expect things to happen overnight. Plan for 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. What events are occurring which might create some relevant activity and talking points? When is a good time for you to sell – can you allocate a budget for a promoted Facebook post?
3. Learn from your mistakes and successes.
Which were your most successful Tweets and Facebook posts – what did they have in common? Which of your posts haven't done well – is there a theme there? Perhaps they’re too self-promotional or not interesting enough. If your audience is simply saying “meh”, it’s not good enough! Have you been having more success on one platform than another? It’s very common for businesses to relate to their audience particularly well over a certain medium – focus on it! It’s far better to have a thriving Twitter presence and a small Facebook base than having two mediocre ones! An external social media audit can be incredibly helpful to get an un-biased view of what is and isn't working on your social media approach.
4. Be consistent.
How good are you at keeping the good stuff up? A dormant social media account can look really unprofessional, even if it’s just for a few days. If you’re not using a scheduling tool, we recommend getting your head around Hootsuite. If you are, and your accounts are still being left dormant for days on end, you’re simply not prioritising your social media management.
5. Learn more.
Whether it’s reading, listening or watching, just a little bit more information might go a long way in getting you back on track with your social endeavours. Make sure you’re taking advice from social media specialists rather than generic marketing or PR ‘gurus’ and you won’t go far wrong. There’s loads of free information on our blog which will help.
6. Get some help!
It might seem obvious and for some, maybe a last resort, but seriously consider it. You realise the importance of social media – that’s why you’re giving it a go. You’re putting time and effort into it when you could be doing other things and improving your bottom line. What about missing opportunities? You could be implementing one or two advanced tactics which might generate a constant flow of leads, can you afford to miss out?
Head of Social
