What if I told you that you’re wasting time (and money) with social media? That’d be pretty hypocritical of me, wouldn’t it? Especially considering just a couple of weeks ago I published a blog that explained why everyone needs to be utilizing social media.
Sorry, but you’re wasting time (and money) with social media.
Probably. Now let me explain.
The realm of social media is huge, to say the least. With over 2 billion accounts created just among the most popular channels (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Google+) it’s safe to say that your target audience is somewhere on them. And if they’re on there, they can be found.
So, as the marketing manager for your company, you start sending out relatively generic tweets and status updates hoping that they will find you, gain (or add) interest in your company, and eventually become a customer. You may even have a “strategy” behind all of that on what exactly you’re going to do. Let's call it what it is, though: for lack of a better phrase, you're throwing sh*t at a wall and seeing what sticks.
A Social Media Strategy Needs to Be Defined
Imagine this scenario. Your boss comes into your office next week and says, "we need 10,000 Facebook likes by the end of the year. I don't care what you do to get there, just get it done." Awesome! It's kind of a SMART goal (you can read about the importance of those here) and it's easily measured. But let me tell you something: simply generating page likes probably won't do a lot for your company.
Have you ever heard the old saying, "I'd rather have 4 quarters than 100 pennies?" It typically refers to friends in your life, with the point being it is better to have four great friends than one-hundred acquaintances. That same analogy can be used with your business strategy on social media. I'd rather have 4 qualified leads like my page than 100 people who will never buy something from my company.
Thus, you need to have a narrow and targeted focus with your social media strategy.
Before jumping into posting on social media platforms, you first need to take a step back and ask yourself who you are really trying to target and--most importantly--why. From there, you can determine what platforms you should use and what kind of posting and engagement strategy to implement.
Maybe your audience is only on Twitter, so why waste time posting on Google+ if who you're looking to connect with isn't there? Or maybe you realize that your audience doesn't like to hear from you more than a few times per week, so posting on the social channels every day could actually be a bad thing to do (meaning they'll un-follow you).
The key to stop wasting time and money on social media is to simply take the time and truly analyze your audience. Figure out what they like and how they are doing things. Depending on who you are targeting, this could be a quick process or it could take a few months. However, once you truly know the people you are going after and what their tendencies are, it will make it much easier to develop a digital marketing strategy to attract them to your website and convert them into leads and then (eventually) into customers.
Not sure where to start when it comes to a social media strategy, or even digital marketing as a whole? No worries, Marketing Essentials can take care of everything with proven inbound marketing solutions. Call us today at 419.629.0080 to speak to one of our Digital Strategists!
