3 Reasons Your Social Media Efforts Are Failing
As a small business owner, the joy of working with Facebook, Google and Twitter is that there is always a bad guy when things don’t work out.
“It’s not my fault! Everything was fine and then Facebook changed its algorithm…” So your sales went from Premier league to Vanarama conference level (While there are some good players at Vanarama, we all aspire for more). Well, I have news for you. You as the business owner/entrepreneur are 100% responsible.
The Social media networks don’t change their systems purely so they can extract more money from you. They change to protect and serve their customers. Therefore if it’s difficult to reach your fans or find new followers it could mean you are not cutting the mustard with your efforts.
It’s not all bleak though. Having worked with hundreds of businesses over the years, here are a few things that could be holding you back.
Overwhelm
“Go as far as you can see. Then you’ll see further”. I love planning and it’s an essential part of running a business. However when you insist on knowing every single step before getting started you can start to feel overwhelmed.
I see the fear in people’s eyes when they have prepared their first “to-do” list with social media. Image sizes, account set-up, 28 facebook updates, 50 tweets, 30 Instagrams… aargh. It’s no wonder few ever really take the time to do it correctly. Who has time for all this when you are trying to generate sales and run a business?
Take a breath. Do the first thing first. Then, do the next. Sounds simple, but few do it this way. You kid yourself that when you have a spare hour or two, then you’ll get everything done. I have written in the past, but it’s worth repeating, start with 1 network and do it well. Then add a second and third if it fits your business.
Unrealistic expectations
I’m a big thinker and an optimist by nature, as a business owner I’m sure you are too (or were when you started)
Most owners do a crazy amount of activity in a short burst on social media and wonder why sales and enquiries aren’t flowing instantly. They cram 1 month worth of activity into 3 days. That’s like planting a seed in the garden and giving it 1 months rainfall in 3 days and wondering why the flower isn’t fully grown. Never gonna happen!
Social media users are savvy. They need to know, like and trust you, especially if they haven’t heard of you before. It doesn’t take a long time to do but does take some consistent efforts over a period of time.
Overnight Expert
For some reason, most owners think that they can be a social media expert overnight, or failing that their 13-year-old nephew or niece can probably do it on account of them being on Snapchat and having a smartphone. This is your life, your business and presumably your money we are talking about. You need to take a professional approach to either being self-taught or get some real expertise to coach you through the nuances of each network.
The effort is always worth it!
