Social Media Marketing is a serious business.
Say it again with me: Social Media Marketing is a serious business.
It’s not just something you can set-up, step away from, and wait for the results.
If you do this, you won’t be getting any results at all.
Marketers make it look so easy because it is easy – to set up and disseminate at least. This doesn’t guarantee any conversions, though. The concept of releasing your content and waiting for results is so easy but really ask yourself: when was the last time you actually clicked an outbound while browsing social media?
Typical Digital Marketing Agencies post updates/ads – and ultimately leave it there without regards of their market competitions or how attractive their content might be.
But this is where we beg to differ. As a Conversion Optimisation Studio, 7&7 Digital recognizes the importance of Social Media Marketing and how to properly nurture it.
We understand the social media needs constant attention and polishing to produce its true potential. It’s a platform you nurture. Not just a dumpster for your brand content. Our clients otherwise would’ve been eaten by the aggressive competition and spiral into nothing long, long time ago.
The Biggest Mistake in Social Media Marketing
Here’s what nearly all marketers are guilty of.
The biggest mistake Social Media Marketers make is posting everything at the same time.
Writing one blog post and sharing it on all your social media channels at the same exact time isn’t helping anyone.
Think about it: You have clients who follow your Facebook. Chances are, those with a Twitter account are also following you on Twitter. And in LinkedIn or on all your channels at the same time.
I’ve encountered this with some brands that I personally follow – and I’m sure most of you have, as well.
Let’s say I’ve read an article about skin cosmetics posted on Facebook. 15 minutes later, I’m on Twitter and the same URL appeared on my feed…
I’m not going to read the same skin cosmetics article just because I’ve seen in on a different platform!
Your followers have already seen your blog article on Facebook and read it. What other good reason would motivate them in opening the same blog article on Twitter/LinkedIn/Instagram/etc?
This only creates redundancy. Your repetitive posts from the different platform would only make them feel bombarded and the higher chances of them unfollowing. It also makes your brand feel less personal.
Correcting this Social Media Marketing mistake…
1. Variations
I’ve noticed a big lack of variation from our clients’ social media posts.
Instead of publishing so much content almost 3x a week that barely anyone reads, minimize it to at least one per week and create variations out of it.
By variations, I mean making an audio/podcast version, image, top quotes, infographics, video versions out of it. As long as it’s fresh and interesting.
The goal is to create a massive interlinking web-based on ONE original blog content that would generate traffic.
Think of it as one major article with many teasers, snippets, and featured ads with one goal: to redirect traffic to the parent blog article.
2. Scheduling
Problem: your followers feel bombarded with your redundant blog articles.
Naturally, the answer is to ease your postings for easier consumption.
Alter your social media schedule strategically to reach different people on different time of the day in different networks with different headlines or images.
The best part? The traffic you’ll receive every day is, undoubtedly, different!
Experiment on which strategy works best with your audience by mixing your approach.
Here’s a great example of how you can distribute your content without bombarding customers:
Seems like an overwhelming calendar? See how Post Planner can help.
You can also use Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Buffer to schedule your content strategically.
3. Spark A Conversation
Start a personal engagement. Instead of establishing a one-way communication by constantly feeding your customers what you want to deliver, try to learn what the market is talking about and invite your audience to spark an intelligent conversation with your brand.
Create a fresh, original content afterwards based on your customers’ intelligent POV.
This hits two birds in one stone – being keyword optimised for SEO rankings and under the hottest-issue radar.
“Social Media Marketing is a failure!”
Over 160,000 long-form posts are being published on LinkedIn every week. There are more than 50 million business pages on Facebook alone while Twitter has 313M users.
Point being, everyone is already connected online. Both people and businesses.
How I see it, marketers use social media as a tool to tell users to buy their product. That’s it. There’s no means of standing out among the sea of businesses showcasing what they have to offer and waiting for results. Everything is saturated and all the same.
What you need to do is to dig deeper on how your customer thinks. Know what makes them tick and correlate it with your product.
Next time somebody tells you a tactic on social media, don’t give up hope all too soon! Be a little more user-friendly on your pages and each post will be sure to engage.
Remember that there is no such thing as insufficient traffic. You could only be barking at the wrong tree.
