Social media marketing is essential to the success of any business nowadays. Because so many people are on Facebook and Twitter, this is perhaps the most effective way to reach potential customers. However, there are a few roadblocks that are often not anticipated, such as:
- Cost of maintenance
- Self promotion
- Original content
- Interactive social media
- Return on investment (ROI)
Cost of Maintenance
People often assume that social media marketing will be free. However, maintaining a social media account for a business takes time and effort. If you have someone managing the accounts and writing posts and tweets, this will cost money. Additionally, you will likely have to pay recurring costs for the technology.
Self Promotion
Many companies also end up being overly self-promotional. It is a common misconception that this is beneficial and will garner business, but the truth is that this will often be a turn-off to potential customers. They want to see that you care about them and their best interests, not just the bottom line.
Original Content
Another roadblock is a lack of original content. If you are saying the exact same things as your competitors or just giving out the generic messages that would be expected from your type of company, this can cost you business. It may be challenging, but make your content as original as possible.
Interactive Social Media
It is important to make social media accounts interactive. Customer interaction is a major part of the goal, as these interactions will often lead to business. You should make an effort to keep customers interested in what you have to offer, and make an effort to answer their questions. Many companies fail in their online marketing strategy when they become lazy in responding to their customers' questions; customers tend to lose interest in the business and the campaign when that happens.
Return On Investment (ROI)
One of the most important roadblocks involves ROI, or return of investment. It is important to know just how effective your online marketing strategy is. Many companies will just look at the number of followers on a Facebook or Twitter page, but these numbers do not always tell the whole story. It is important to know not only the number of followers, but also how many people are actually being reached by your content marketing strategy. From here, you can see the truly important number – how many of these individuals are actually becoming customers.
As you can see, there is a great deal to consider when formulating a social media marketing strategy. This is a very important part of any marketing campaign, due to the ubiquitous nature of social media these days. It is important to keep all of the potential roadblocks in mind, so that you can avoid or get past them. This way, you can maximize the success of your business.
“Let's Plan Your Content Marketing.” Contact me, Darren Tunstall, Marketing Media Planner, to create your content marketing plan, write your content, and schedule it to post to your WordPress site.
