Oh yeah, this is one of the most common problems we hear from businesses. Very often, the owner or manager knows they need to “be on social media” but are not sure exactly what that endeavor looks like or where to start. One of the most common concerns we hear at Kruse Control is “I don’t know where to start with Social Media.”
With a lot of opportunities to grow come a lot of opportunities to fail.
The four bedrock reasons why businesses fail at social media:
1. Fear of Social Media
There’s an overriding, if misguided, pressure to get things “perfect” on social media. This sometimes expands into an excuse to avoid getting involved at all.
The permanent nature of anything that’s posted on the web tends to freak out the “control the message” crowd, who have their fingers poised over the delete button to instantly erase ill-advised comments or content.
We’re never far removed from the latest social snafu by a public figure, or the next one to come, and that fear can be paralyzing.
2. No Written Marketing Plan
- 39% of companies who have a documented content marketing strategy are more effective in nearly all aspects of content marketing than their peers who either have a verbal-only strategy or no strategy at all.
- Companies with a documented marketing plan are more than twice as likely to be successful at charting the ROI of their marketing efforts than those with only a verbal strategy.
Planning is tough. There are so many moving parts to social media that tie back to business processes like leadership and operational development. Many companies simply give up because they’re frustrated and aren’t able to answer the important marketing plan questions like:
- Why do people choose us over our competitors?
- Who exactly are our target customers?
- What are our competitors doing right and doing wrong?
- What social networks do our customer spend time on?
- What are our business goals for the next year, 3 years, 5 years?
- Who will handle our social media: in-house or outsourced?
- What resources do we have to create quality content?
- What topics can we focus on to educate and inspire our target customers?
- What does success look like for our company?
- How will we measure and analyze our results?
- How can we prepare for a social media crisis and/or negative customer reviews?
3. Distrust Employees, Don’t Empower Them
Many businesses are still blocking social media in the workplace. That’s tantamount to unplugging the phone and taking down your email server.
Are there a lot of horror stories out there? Sure. Could someone say something stupid? Of course. What if our perfect reputation is trashed by one Facebook post or tweet? There are so many what if’s.
4. Never Establish WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)
Some businesses do dip their toe into the social media stream. Some embrace it a little but then brazenly (often naively) ask their employees to share the company’s updates on their own personal profiles. Just this week I heard about a business who was making it mandatory to share company updates.
Asking employees to participate in the company’s marketing without establishing what’s in it for them, leads to nothing worthwhile. The result can often be harmful.
The Best Place to Start is at The Beginning
To attract, engage and sell to the modern, hyper-connected buyer, failure in social media and online marketing is not an option.
If you’re struggling with where to start with social media, contact us today.
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