Digital and social media marketing is no longer a “new” marketing tool in the business world. It has never been easier to reach target audiences and build communities; but an effective marketing strategy is required to succeed.
While social media has become a standard in marketing, it is still treated as a brand new idea by too many businesses, meaning that it doesn’t deliver the benefits that it could.
Far too often, I’ve visited the Facebook or Twitter account of a local business, only to see that they’ve managed to do everything wrong with their online presence. You can almost see how the marketing manager gave what can only be described as a “stab at it” having done next to no research; before giving up because it didn’t produce instant online fame comparable to big brands that have invested time, money and research into crafting their social media presence. Unfortunately, this is not how it works at all.
What goes wrong?
The first thing they tend to do wrong is treating social media as if it were an advertising billboard. It’s nice to see their products, services or offers promoted; but there needs to be so much more than that. There’s no interaction, there’s no interesting content. There’s no thoughts or views. It’s all just advertising. This is normally coupled with completely sporadic updates. There will be five posts in March (normally when they’ve suddenly remembered they have a social media account); and then nothing until August. That’s no way to cultivate a following of people who want to see your posts.
Remember, for most businesses, there will be a following of people who are genuinely inte
rested in what you do. Even if those people are just other industry professionals, they love to keep up to date with the latest developments. If you are consistently getting your social media wrong, then they’re not going to follow you. They’ll follow your competitors, and you can bet your bottom dollar that your competitor has taken the time to get their social media right.
