5 Uncomfortable Truths About Social Media Marketing
Social media. Love it or hate it, you have to embrace it.
As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you’ve probably at least started to work on your social media marketing. After all, everyone’s on social, and it’s the fastest and easiest way to connect with new prospects and customers, right?
Well, yes and no. Let’s talk about five uncomfortable truths about social media marketing, why they matter, and how you can thrive on social despite (or because of) them.
- Social Media Marketing is not Free
- You Can Automate it all — But You Shouldn’t
- You’re Going to Get Negative Feedback
- Quality Matters More than Quantity
- But Consistency is Still Key
1. Social Media Marketing Is Free — Except it’s Not
Yes, you can set up and run social accounts for your business without spending a single dime. You can post all day long if you want. If you aren’t hiring someone to post for you, you won’t spend any money on that, either. But social media marketing really isn’t free, and it isn’t free in a couple of ways.
First, how much time are you spending on those posts? Consider how much you charge for your services. When you spend your time on social media marketing efforts, you’re taking away from time you could be billing to clients or using in other ways to grow your business.
On top of that, while you may get some engagement from the organic (unpaid) posts you create, you won’t get the results you want. Like Google, social platforms are always reworking their algorithms to help people see what they want to see most. And to improve their own profits.
That means limiting visibility on posts from businesses and/or posts that link to external websites. Your post links back to your business page? Expect to see fewer engagements.
The deck is stacked against you, and you need to know how, when, and where to spend money on pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. With a little strategic spending, you can significantly increase your reach across social channels.
2. You can Automate Everything — But Don’t
Okay, so some things really should be automated. You don’t want to take time out of your day, every day or every other day, to post on Instagram or Facebook — especially when you’re posting essentially the same thing.
For regular daily posts and posts about hashtag holidays, go ahead and automate it all. Get the ball rolling and keep it going with your favorite automation SaaS (I prefer Hootsuite, but Buffer and others are great too). Then, even when you don’t have time to check in, you’ll still have some good content going out.
But sometimes you really DON’T want to automate your social media marketing. First, if you’re considering an automated campaign to comment on people’s Instagram posts … don’t. Automated comments are cheesy, and everyone sees through them. They show up shortly after a user publishes a pic or video, and they usually read something like “Wow! You’re exactly what we’re looking for! DM us to be an ambassador.”
Guess what. People know that you didn’t just see — and get blown away by — that new post. In fact, a lot of these comments end up posting on completely unrelated and inappropriate posts. Don’t be that guy. That guy gets blocked.
On the other hand, brands that actually take the time to interact with other pages, accounts, and people tend to see a lot of good feedback. Do follow people in your industry and potential prospects who post related content. Do like, share, and comment on their posts. Just do it authentically. Don’t automate it.
3. You’re Going to Get Negative Feedback
Speaking of feedback, let’s talk about negative feedback on social media.
No matter how wonderful you are, you’re going to get bad reviews. You’re also going to get negative comments. Some of them will be legit, and a lot of them won’t.
Don’t delete negative comments. Doing so will only make your commenter angry, and angry commenters like nothing more than to get really mad all over your page. And they’ll get their friends involved, too. Before you know it, you have a serious incident on your hands.
Instead, respond to negative comments in a diplomatic and appeasing way. Ask what you can do to make it better. You may turn an angry customer into a loyal fan. You also may not be able to appease them. And that’s okay. Let it go and move on. In most cases, they will too.
4. Quality Matters More than Quantity
Don’t just post to post.
If you haven’t posted anything in months, you might want to address that and figure out how to schedule and automate some ongoing posts. But, if you don’t have anything passable to post, don’t post anything at all.
Published is better than perfect, but quality matters more than quantity. If you can only come up with a few compelling and high-quality posts per week, go with that. It’s far better than spamming your followers’ timelines and pages.
5. But Consistency is Key
I kind of hinted at this just now, but I really can’t overstate the importance of consistency. The more consistent you are, the more you’ll stay top of mind with your prospects and customers.
Get involved — and stay involved — in their social media lives. Make a small effort consistently throughout the year, and you’ll get a lot further than you will with a few big pushes at random times when you feel inspired to work on your branding and social media marketing.
And there you go. Five uncomfortable truths about social media marketing, and a little advice to navigate them. These should help you up your game, and — as always — if you have questions about social media and content marketing, I’m here for you. Drop me a line any time!
