Social media marketing and social networking are excellent marketing tools IF they're used right.
If you are not utilizing them properly, they will be a major waste of your valuable time.
Below, you will reasons why your Social Media Campaign isn't providing the results you were expecting: 1.
You are in "sales mode" - If you are only sharing information about what product or service you have to offer, people will NOT find interest.
To be frank, it is quite annoying.
You MUST share valuable information to build relationships.
2.
You do not have a plan or an objective - Before starting on social Media, be sure that the sites you are investing your time match with your objectives.
For example, if you are selling real estate, you are not going to want to invest a lot of time on a gaming network site.
Take some time to plan out your business strategy.
3.
You don't have a target group in mind - In order to be successful, you must have a target group / audience in mind.
To go back to the "selling real estate" example, it wouldn't make sense to spend a lot of time promoting on MySpace when the age group is much younger than Facebook.
4.
You are not engaging - Social networking means that you should be interacting with others.
You do this by sharing valuable information, commenting on others status updates, re-tweeting and sharing articles or posts on blogs that you think people would find value or interest.
My motto is to go in thinking only about what you can give to others, not what you will receive.
5.
You are sharing worthless information - Keep your audience in mind when posting.
Don't post what YOU find interesting.
Post things that the average person would find interesting.
Want to mix it up a little? Throw in a little bit of humor! 6.
You post and tweet too much - Keep your posting minimal.
I recommend about 2-3 posts per day on Twitter and Facebook but no more than 6.
Make sure you space them out over time.
When someone constantly posts, it can become annoying.
7.
You are not investing the time to follow others - I personally follow most everyone that follows me.
If you want people to take interest in you, why shouldn't they be worthy enough to have your interest too? If you find that they are spamming you or wasting your time, it is easy to stop following.
8.
You are outsourcing social media to someone who doesn't understand what your company does and what you want to achieve - Make sure that if you choose to outsource your services, that the person or company spend time with you to understand your goals and objectives.
A good social media expert will invest time in learning what your company does as well as what the competition is doing in order to provide you with on-line leverage.
9.
You are not using keywords - One of the advantages to using Social Media sites, is that your content gets picked up by Google.
This not only gives you more visibility but moves your rankings up.
10.
You are inconsistent - Don't post and then disappear for a while.
If you want to be successful with social media, you must invest time into it each day (or hire someone to do it for you).
11.
You are not passionate - People can see through your words just as they can see through a fake smile.
Be sure to share your enthusiasm and excitement about the content you are sharing.
It will draw people in.
12.
You are not knowledgeable - Make sure that you are educated about the information that you are sharing.
If you learn a fact because you read it from somewhere and found it interesting, be prepared to have knowledge on that fact in the event someone wants to know more or even disagrees.
13.
You are not building relationships - This is crucial to have an effective marketing campaign.
Other than sharing valuable information and engaging in conversations, try to share something personal from time to time.
Create videos! They are very effective! 14.
You are not educated - If you are choosing to do your own social media campaign, make sure that you take the time to LEARN how to best utilize the different social media platforms.
There are TONS of free resources on-line.
Utilize them to learn as much as possible.
15.
You do not understand the media flow - There is a way to integrate social media platforms so that they all run together.
Be sure to learn about having a hub "a blog" and how to use that to intertwine with other social media sites.
There are many ways to demolish your social media campaign.
If you are unsure how it all works, take the time to learn from others, hire a consultant, or better yet hire someone who will manage and build your social media campaign.
With the right tools, information and time investment, you could easily take your business to the next level by growing your on-line presence.