Troubleshooting — I’m not seeing results from social media marketing

Running a business and standing out from the crowd is tough. Chances are you’ve hit a few roadblocks along the way when it comes to showcasing your brand in a positive light and increasing awareness. With this in mind, our all-new Contentworks Medium series is all about troubleshooting issues.

Today’s topic: Help! I’m not seeing results from social media marketing! Here are our top tips.

Why is Social Media Marketing Important?

You’re already dabbling in social media, and that’s a great start. But it’s important to stay focused and come up with a structured plan that will take your business to new heights.

Indeed, 71% of those who have a good social media experience with your brand will recommend you to friends and relatives. So, with this in mind, here are some helpful stats that should encourage you to power forward and not give up.

• There are over 3.4 billion social media users in 2019 — that’s 42% of the entire population that is regularly being exposed to marketing material. Putting your business in front of the right people can therefore boost ROI.
• 90.4% of US millennials use social media, 77.5% are from gen X and 48.2% are baby boomers. Having an online presence is therefore a must, especially if you’re trying to tap into the life and interests of millennials.

• 500 million Instagram stories are watched every single day. Brands are now using the story functionality to offer essential advice and information to consumers helping to improve authenticity and creativity.
• 54% of social browsers are using social media to research products

Inspired to continue? Great! So how can you improve your social strategy?

#1 Hang Out with Your Consumers

If you’re not seeing results from your social campaigns, you may be hanging out in all the wrong places. Let’s use millennial marketing as an example. This group loves Facebook. The below graph shows the share of Facebook’s global advertising audience by age and gender.

YouTube has also been voted the most trusted brand among millennials ahead of Apple and Netflix with 14.8 percent of Millennials aged 26 to 35 years watching between 10 and 20 hours of online video per week. Instagram is a top choice for this demographic too with 53% of online adults aged 18–29 having a presence on this social platform. Indeed, over 34% of Instagram’s entire user base is Millennials.

So, if you’re chilling on Pinterest which is preferred by baby boomers or totally ignoring leading social sites which also includes messaging service SnapChat, you’re not going to get the brand attention you need. For a social campaign to be successful it’s absolutely essential to.

• Know your target market and which social platforms they prefer.
• Have a cross-channel social marketing approach as this will widen your appeal and get more eyes on your brand.
• Know when and for how long your demographic usually stays online.

#2 Be Interesting and Relevant

Content creation is essential and should be specifically tailored for each social account. If you’re in anyway dull, boring or unoriginal, you’re likely to lose followers. Here are some dos and don’ts to help you out.

Don’t:

• Copy and paste from other brands.
• Be over salesy. Consumers prefer natural, authentic content that’s useful and takes them on a journey.
• Post anything out of date if you want to be considered a thought leader as this can damage the reputation of your brand.

Do:

• Ask questions and run polls — this is a great way to engage your followers. If you’re clever you can also use the insights to shape your marketing activity.

• Provide access that’s insightful, education and will set your brand apart as a go-to source for the latest information.
• Humanise your brand by introducing and featuring key team members. By putting a face to your company name you instantly form a deeper, more memorable connection with consumers.

• Why not also start your own Meet the Team style series like the crew at Revolut as this provides a regular source of on-point content?

#3 Go Wild for Video

Video content is awesome for many reasons and will account for 80% of all internet traffic by 2020. So, if you’re not using video marketing across social platforms, you’re missing an opportunity to get better results. A whopping 54% of people want to see more video content from a brand or business they support making video scripts and creative visuals a must.

Top tips:

• Stay on brand and use your business tone of voice throughout
• Feature CEOs and specific team members to humanise your brand
• Have a clear call to action
• Make sure each video has a clear purpose — be it to improve retention or to introduce a new product.
• Track performance across each channel

#4 Use the Right Hashtags

If you’re finding it hard to get your social content seen. Or your interaction rates are poor. You might need to rethink the hashtags you’re using. Hashtags are designed to make your content easy to search. Branded hashtags also encourage conversation and spread brand awareness, so it’s a good idea to think carefully about what you post.

#5 Maximise Images

Visual content marketing should form a large part of your social strategy. This is because social images are among the most popular types of content consumers want to see following hot in the heels of video and emails.

Infographics can increase web traffic by up to 12% too and as tweets with photos get a 34% boost in retweets, it’s really important to bring your content to life with visual stimuli.

#6 Make the Most of Tools

If you’re trying to keep multiple social sites updated with fresh content, making the most of tools will help you schedule content! If you’re not using tools such as Agorapulse then you’re likely to fall behind your social posts or get in a muddle which can impact interaction.Other tools like Crowdfire can help you find influencers. Whilst tools like Canva, Powtoon and Biteable help you to create quick images and videos on the go.

Want to improve your social media marketing? Contact the Contentworks team today to get Socially Sorted.