Are your social media marketing efforts being heard?

However, you may be guns to the wall, in the throws of your social media marketing campaign, but are your efforts actually being heard? While it’s important to post regularly, if your posts are irrelevant to your audience, no one is going to take notice of them and you’ll just find your brand getting lost amongst all the others vying for the same piece of real estate.

The situation is made even worse by spending money on boosting these posts. So, that begs the question, are you preaching to the right audience? Bottom line, if it’s not what your audience wants or needs, or you’re speaking to the wrong people, your social media content is going to be ignored.

So how do you know if you’re heading down this troubling path? And how can you rectify it before it’s too late?

MO has put together 5 possible reasons why your social media marketing plans may be going unheard as well as a few guidelines as to how can you rectify this:

1. Your content is just me, me, me and more me

You need to take some time out, a step back, and really take a good, hard look at the content you’ve been posting onto your social media channels. If you’re only sharing self-promotional content that doesn’t add any value to the customer, people will not want to follow you. In a virtual world heavily inundated by content, the content that stands out is that which gives something back to the reader – perhaps its entertainment, or education or a freebie, but that’s what counts and keeps your followers coming back for more.

You might find the release of a new product ‘’hot news’’, but a follower wants to know more. They want industry news, humorous videos, instructional blog posts and so much more. All of this will help to grow your follower base.

2. Consider having a "brand hero" for your social pages

Social media originated as a platform for individual profiles. It’s now evolved to include business and company profiles. But this often takes away the ‘’personalised’’ feeling that social media generates. People want to connect to other people, not just a random logo or corporate identity. By adding a ‘’face’’ to your social channels, it can encourage people to identity more with the brand. Yes, you still need your company logo and all the other corporate malarkey, but spice it up with videos of your staff, maybe a special brand ambassador and then your followers actually have someone they can connect with.

3. It takes two parties to create a conversation

Yes, you need to share content. But, it doesn’t stop there. The content you share should be so enticing, that it encourages people to interact with it. If they leave a comment, reply to it! But also, more and more customers are using social media as one of the main ways to get in touch with the company. Make sure you keep an eye on the private inboxes, or possible posts they leave, and respond to it timely. Social media is fast moving… responding to a follower more than 24 hours later is already old news and implies that you don’t care.

4. You’re not generating the content yourself

Writing and producing content may not come as easily to some as it does to others. However, you need to be careful who is writing the content for you. Many businesses either farm out content generation to an agency, or to a junior employee, and in a lot of cases, try as they might, they simply don’t have the expert or product knowledge that you may have. While you can get others to write the content for you, it’s important that the leader of the company is also part of the content generation process. You’ve got the inner insight from walking the halls of your office or talking to co-workers and social media doesn’t have to be all that time consuming. YOU and your employees are the experts, and YOU know what your audience is interested in.

5. Your non-social channels are not promoting your social channels

So, the basics of social media marketing is to get your social pages set up, and publish a few updates. However, it takes more than that. People are not necessarily going to find you, unless you help them find you. Your other marketing material should also sing of your social praises. For instance, your website should include all the ‘’Follow us on Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter’’ icons, and link through to your social pages. Your website is a great place to start promoting your social channels because visitors to your website are already interested in what you have to offer, and would be more inclined to follow your social media presence.  As for your print collateral, such as brochures and leaflets, these should also show your social page icons and URLs.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! However, it’s not as daunting as it sounds. Take a look at another one of recent blog posts, 4 of the biggest social media marketing mistakes you could be making. Perhaps your social media efforts aren’t being heard because you’re making one of these mistakes?

Or, if you’ve yet to set up your social media channels and need some help implementing a social media marketing strategy for your business, why not take a look at our recent 3-part blog series which focuses on this very topic.

If you feel like your social media marketing is well under way, and it’s time to refine your efforts, then our helpful blog on 5 ways to use social media channels for successful content distribution will probably be very useful to you.

If you’d like to read more about social media marketing and other digital marketing topics, then keep an eye on our social channels and check out our blog on responsive web design here.