7 Reasons Why Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Needs Help

Can you honestly say that you are completely satisfied with your social media marketing strategy? According to the highlights of the 2013 Social Media Marketing Report compiled by Social Media Examiner, the answer is most definitely “no” with only a third of the 3,000 businesses surveyed that feel good about the impact that their business is making on Facebook.

While there may be a number of areas where your current social media strategy is not getting the job done, here are 7 of the most common reasons why your social media plan for small business is not getting the job done:

1. Not having a clearly defined social media marketing strategy to begin with. All too often, brands hear that they need to be active on social media and just decide to hop online before developing a plan. According to a recent infographic shared by Brand Watch, only 38 percent of companies admitted to having a clearly defined social media plan.
2. Spreading yourself too thin by joining every social media network known to man. Having a clearly defined target audience and knowing where they spend their time online can help you to avoid this mistake. It’s much better to spend your time and resources perfecting your brand’s engagement strategy on three social media channels versus trying to handle nine.
3. Not factoring your audience into your social media plan for small business. Before getting on social media, find out where your audience likes to spend their time, the type of content that they find most appealing, and how they like to engage with content.
4. Assuming social media is just for teenagers, not your target audience. While this may have been true several years ago, this is certainly not the case anymore. We recently shared a breakdown of social media usage by demographic on our blog, and this information revealed some astonishing statistics about social media users. Hint: we’re not talking about teenagers here.
5. Having incomplete social media profiles. Part of building your brand’s image on social media is to increase credibility with your target audience. Neglecting to include a profile picture or share how your business has evolved on Facebook’s timeline feature can have a negative impact on how your audience perceives your brand online.
6. Using your personal profile instead of a business profile to connect with your audience on social media. This is just entirely unprofessional altogether and may make your business appear second rate to your audience. Always engage with your audience using a social media page for your business versus your personal account.
7. Allowing your young interns to handle all of your social media marketing efforts. Yes, young people tend to know more about social media these days than other generations; however, they likely don’t have a true understanding of what your brand stands for. Don’t let just anyone be your brand’s voice on the internet. If you can’t handle social media yourself, consider outsourcing it to a professional social media agency.

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