5 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing (And How to Deal With Them)

10 Aug 5 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing (And How to Deal With Them)

By Sarah Dawley

It’s not healthy to eat stuffed crust pizza three times a day. Dogs get stressed out when we hug them. Beyoncé will never be your best friend.

Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just here to remind you that reality can be harsh. And the reality of working in social media is no exception. Every job has its challenges of course, but as we all continue to ride the rapidly-evolving rocket of social media there are a few harsh realities we need to face. The good news is that it’s not all bad news. Here are five harsh realities of social media along with ways to combat and overcome all of them.

Harsh Reality No. 1:
Success will probably take longer than you think

No matter how many different Instagram hashtags you use or Tweets you send, you’re not going to organically gain thousands of followers in a month. Many of the brands that were early adopters of social media quickly gained huge followings and are still reaping the benefits today. However, social media is now saturated with businesses competing for attention and users are becoming increasingly selective about which businesses they decide to invite into their personal networks.

It’s going to take more than a handful of clever posts over the course of six weeks to start seeing the fruits of your labor. In fact, it might take years of creating and executing your social strategy (then tweaking it and executing it again…) before you really hit your stride. Remember, social media is all about community, and few communities are created overnight.

How to deal with it:

Be patient and consistent

Good things come to those who wait, they say (and by “they” I mean “my mother”). Success on social requires a long-term investment of time and energy, combined with equal amounts of patience and tenacity. Make sure you have a social media strategy you regularly review and analyze. Most importantly—stick with it. Don’t just hop on social media to yell loudly about your latest campaign for a week straight and then disappear for a few more months. Be consistent and give your efforts time to take root and be ready to manage expectations about how fast things should be happening.

Harsh Reality No. 2:
A lot of people don’t care about what your brand has to say

Listen, we told you these would be “harsh” realities. But it’s important to face this fact head-on, because the sheer scale of social media can inflate expectations about the amount of engagement your brand should be pulling in. Once you stop naively believing that every single human on earth innately cares about what your brand has to say and should be liking your Facebook posts, you’ll be able to better focus on the people who actually do.

How to deal with it:

Find your fans and focus on them

Instead of trying to be all things to all people, focus on the people that actually matter to your business—your customers, prospects, and brand advocates. Look at the people who are already responding to your posts and come up with ways to strengthen those relationships and give them more of what they’re already enjoying.

Commit to better content

When people follow your business on social media they’re giving you the green light to participate in their carefully curated personal feed. So, picture what you post on social media showing up in between selfies of their best friend and thought-provoking quotes from people they admire. Is your post equally as valuable, engaging, or entertaining—or is it somewhat of a boring interlude? Worse, does it stand out as a blatant sales pitch? An easy way to constantly check for quality is to ask yourself: “would I follow our company on social if I didn’t work here?” View Full Article >>

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