4 Reasons Your Social Strategy Sucks (and How to Fix It)

Over the last couple of decades, social media marketing has grown from being a tech curiosity to an indispensable part of business operations for entrepreneurs alike. In our ultra-connected world in which we’re all vying for the attention of consumers, the right approach to social media can help you cut through the noise. Unfortunately, it’s also very easy to get it wrong. 

Unlike other forms of marketing, social media marketing has an immediacy to it. Using newsletters or emails can be effective — there is a range of free email marketing services that can help you to design engaging, long-form content. On the other hand, social media requires certain brevity and tends to be more nuanced. The wrong post is immediately shareable across the planet and able to affect your reputation. 

So, let’s take a look at the likely reasons your social media strategy sucks right now. Where can you make improvements? What tools can help you along the way?  

1. Your Schedule Isn’t Effective

While social media certainly benefits from the image of spontaneity, that doesn’t mean to say that you need to take a freewheeling approach to it. Scheduling your posts allows you to map your marketing efforts in a way that works in conjunction with your overall business plan. If you’re just throwing up posts haphazardly, or just for special events, you’re likely to be missing your demographic’s attention. 

Check out the data from your account insights and consumer research, and identify the days and times that your target demographic tend to use social media. Plan to upload interesting and useful content at that time each week or every few days. If you haven’t already, create a social media content calendar, and produce your content in advance. 

This can be challenging when you don’t have a dedicated social media manager. However, there are tools that can help. Automated social media scheduler apps simplify the process by combining the content calendar, data analysis, and posting in one place. This means that you can upload your content to multiple accounts as per the schedule, and make agile changes, without having to do too much of the heavy lifting.  

2. You Don’t Understand the Platforms

There are a growing number of social media platforms. The mistake many businesses make is trying to simply treat them all in the same way. It can be tempting for the sake of time and resources to post exactly the same content across all of your channels. Taking this approach prevents you from capitalizing on the unique useful attributes of each.

It is better to understand how the specific design and intention of each platform differs and adjust your strategy to produce the most appropriate content for each. 

●      Twitter is designed for short, impactful messages. Make the most of the character limit with eye-catching, humorous language, and encourage interaction. Help followers to engage with your services by using a branded URL shortener — this keeps the content looking clean, on-voice, and less promotional.

●      Instagram is an image-based platform. While there is room for some text, it’s the artwork that is king here. Focus on telling the story of your content using just a single image that will draw the viewer to look at the text below rather than the other way around.

●      Facebook is best for longer-form content such as videos, blog posts, and even user-generated items. It’s still the most widely used social media platform, and as such there’s the opportunity for a reach across multiple generations.

●      Tik Tok is just starting to be utilized by businesses. Largely it’s useful to gain viral attention or to promote products via influencers. Think short content that creates an immediate emotional connection.  

3. You’re Prioritizing Metrics

We all know just how valuable data can be. It certainly has its uses in social media, and it can be tempting to shoot for impressive numbers when it comes to likes and follows. However, if you are strategizing just to meet these metrics, chances are you’re losing out on one of the most valuable things social media has to offer: meaningful relationships. 

Starting out, it can certainly be good to take a broad approach. By all means, use a bulk Twitter follow tool to make initial contact with your demographic. However, from there you have to start interacting with your customers in the way they appreciate via their social channels.

Don’t just post an image and hope for likes; ask a question that encourages feedback. Don’t make everything purely business-based, create content that shows you care about customers’  values. Most importantly, make certain that you engage in a dialogue with as many genuine commenters as possible. Retweet your customers’ posts about your services and give them a shout-out. This behavior helps you build a connection with customers that strengthens loyalty. 

4. Your Goals Are Too Generalized

A common problem when strategizing is failing to be specific enough. Many of us have fallen victim to starting our channels with very flimsy intentions — to get as many followers as possible, or to attract attention. Some of the most effective social media strategies are the result of being very targeted with our ambitions. 

A good example is a viral content. Most of us want our content to reach an audience of millions. Creating a video designed for brand exposure is relatively simple, but it needs to have a specific purpose beyond that. Once you get all those eyes on your content, what do you expect people to do? The accompanying text and follow-up posts need to lead your audience in the desired direction. Do you want them to interact with a specific service, or create a certain number of shares that improves customer acquisition?

Being specific about your goals and milestones, even down to a number of followers from a geographical area, helps you to design your approach more effectively. This also gives you better metrics to analyze, and adjust your tactics accordingly.   

Conclusion

Okay, chances are your social media strategy doesn’t suck entirely — but it could be better. Learn from these common mistakes, and make small but impactful changes. Don’t be afraid to try new things, and remember that social media is all about forging connections with your demographic.