Secrets of the Social Media Advertising Greats
Social media advertising is the new way to market your business. If you’ve been running your business for any length of time, you’ve probably heard about it by now. The explosion of social media over the last few years has given small businesses a new marketing channel that’s accessible to a much larger audience than ever before. Not only have companies found new ways to connect with their target audience on social media, but they’ve also been able to reach people who are interested in what they have to offer rather than just those who are looking for a specific type of product or service. That being said, not every business is able to achieve success using social media as their primary marketing tool. In order to do so, an advertising strategy needs to be put in place that will help support and promote the content and services provided by the company being advertised against. This article will walk you through some of the common pitfalls that smaller businesses should avoid when working with social media advertising. If you’re ready, let’s get started!
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Lack of Quality Content
In order to succeed with social media advertising, you need to invest the time and effort into creating quality content. For example, if you are trying to sell hot drinks in California, you may want to create content focused on serving your audience in the state. However, since you are only targeting the population in California, your content may not be relevant to the large number of people who live in other states as well. Unfortunately, content is hard to come by when you are just starting out in social media marketing. As a new business, you don’t have the luxury of hiring staff to create content for you. Consequently, you will have to put in the time and effort into creating quality content on your own. It’s worth noting that content is king when it comes to social media marketing. The more content you create, the easier it will be for you to create more content and engage with your audience on a more frequent basis.
Pushing Your Business Too Far
Businesses that rely too heavily on social media advertising are at a risk of pushing themselves too far. By targeting a small select few in their community and focusing their efforts on promoting their business, a business risks appearing spammy or spammy-ish. It is easy to get carried away when it comes to the number of followers you have on social media channels. If you have 1,000 followers on Facebook and another 3,000 on Instagram and another 10,000 on Twitter, it may seem like you are doing well. However, the reality is that you are only doing well if most of your followers are on those channels too. If you have mainly followers on social media channels that are less popular, your growth will be much more limited. You can, of course, reach out to your followers and ask them to join you on social media channels they might not be following in an effort to grow your following. However, this approach will do more harm than good as it will only confuse your followers and cause them to become less engaged with your brand.
Thinking Too Small
If you’re thinking small when it comes to social media marketing, you are probably blind to what is around you. Small social media efforts may not seem like a big deal to you, but trust me – they are. If you only have a few hundred followers on Instagram, you are probably not causing many waves with your followers. If you have 10,000 followers on Facebook and 1,000 of them are following you on Instagram, you are doing much better than if you had only 1,000 followers on Instagram and 10,000 on Facebook. Again, reach out to your followers and let them know how they can grow their following. If they are not interested, don’t worry about it. However, if you have followers who you think would like to be joining you on social media platforms, but aren’t yet, there is an opportunity cost to not having them.
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Being Early to the Game
One of the best things about social media is that it is ever-changing. With new channels and technologies emerging every day, it is difficult to keep up with them all. As a result, many businesses make the mistake of being too late to the game when it comes to social media. By investing too little time in your social media strategy, you will have a much harder time surviving in the social media landscape. Whereas, if you are able to build a solid social media presence from the start, you will have an advantage over competitors that are late to the party.
Hiring the Wrong Person
As with any business venture, it is important to hire the right person for the job. In the case of social media, this means hiring an advertising or marketing manager who is skilled in the field. Unfortunately, a number of small businesses make the mistake of hiring an advertising or marketing manager without first considering who they should hire as their first-line of marketing activity. If you don’t have anyone in-house with experience in marketing, you will have to acquire that experience through outside employment. This, of course, leads to the classic mistake of hiring the wrong person.
Not Working With a Plan B
One of the most common mistakes small businesses make when it comes to social media is not planning for the long-term. As a business grows, it will need to implement a multi-channel strategy. If you have only recently begun to use social media, it’s likely that you have a limited number of channels you will be focusing on initially. Depending on your goals, this may not be a problem. However, if you are planning on growing your business over time, you will need to put more thought into your strategy. A solid social media plan requires identifying your ideal audience and then targeting people who are close to them. This is where a social media advertising strategy comes into play. By creating content that is relevant to your target audience, you will be able to capture a large portion of the audience without having to spend a large amount of money on advertising.
Summing up
In this article, we’ve discussed some of the common pitfalls that small businesses should avoid when it comes to social media advertising. If you are going to start using social media marketing, it’s worth putting some effort into creating a plan to support your efforts.