Social Media Challenges to Overcome

Writing by Brick Marketing in Social Media

Social media is no longer “new media” and social media marketing is now simply “marketing”. Promoting a business via social media has become mainstream. NOT having a social media presence is what sets your business apart from the rest, and not in a good way. Millions of people check into social media accounts on a daily basis. Sometimes on an hourly basis. It’s where the people are and it’s Marketing 101 to be where your customers are in order to capture their attention. While it may be easy to use social media for personal use, there are challenges involved when it comes to using it for business.

Here are the top 4 challenges and how to overcome them:

Hesitation to get involved

While it may be hard to believe, there are still plenty of businesses out there of all sizes and from all industries that have no social media presence at all. There are different reasons for this but it typically comes down to one thing. The higher ups not understanding how it can improve the bottom line. The fact of the matter is that social media can absolutely be beneficial to a marketing program. It can help build visibility, establish a relationship with customers, and improve a search engine presence by boosting social signals. There is plenty of evidence out there that social media marketing does work. It’s just a matter of convincing the decision makers.

Feeling overwhelmed

The key to social media success is to go into it with a plan, like you would any other marketing strategy. The first step is to decide which social media outlets would make the most sense for your business and come up with a plan for how each will be utilized. Keep things organized and on track by sticking with the strategy over time and tweaking it as necessary as you gain more experience and see what’s working and what’s not.

Not knowing what to share

Social media is all about sharing and being social. Not knowing what to share can definitely set your campaign back. The key is to know what your followers want and expect from you. This of course is different for every business. For B2Bs, social media is typically used as an outlet to promote thought leadership and share content. B2B decision makers are conducting lots of research. If your content catches their eye you will be top of mind. For B2Cs it may make more sense to share promotions, special offers, etc. Watch what your competitors are doing in social media and see what is and isn’t working for them.

Not having the time

In order to use social media properly you need to dedicate time to it, which can be difficult. Social media tools like Hootsuite allow you to schedule posts ahead of time but you still need to be checking in on a regular basis. If you have the budget for it, outsourcing social media work is always an option.