The Social Media Marketer

Why Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Isn't Working

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So you've got your Facebook page in place and your Twitter account opened, and you're waiting for the traffic to come rolling into your site, day after day.

But like a girl who's all dressed up for the prom, only to be stood up by her dream date, your site is getting pretty lonely without regular visitors, isn't it?

And you're probably thinking that while your site looks good, this social media marketing strategy you've thought about just isn't working for you, and it's all a big waste of time.

But is it?

Chances are, it's not the social media marketing strategy that isn't working – it's likely that how you're maintaining it is what's not working.

So what's going wrong?

1. Are you just throwing bits of your content onto Twitter and Facebook, rather than items that are specially created for social media? For example, newspapers frequently tweet their headlines, along with a link, rather than actually creating tweets that will show up in a search. Here's an example from a newspaper: "City honors those who served: Sam Jones sat in the sun, granddaughter at his side and listened." Followed by the link to the story. That's um, interesting. But who is running a search on Twitter for anything in that tweet? Where's the hashtags? That tweet will never turn up on a search, let alone be retweeted.
2. Is anyone working on your social media marketing strategy, or is it just one more thing someone is getting stuck with? Or even worse, are your items being auto-tweeted with no human intervention at all? Part of using social media is being social, and that takes human intervention. Perhaps you either need to have an employee take care of interacting with people who are clicking onto your links, or hire a service who will do this for you.
3. Have you built a community? Believe it or not, the world isn't out there just waiting for you to show up and do business with them. It's like your mom used to say – it takes being a friend to have friends. If you want your social media marketing strategy to work, you need to work on connecting it with the kind of customers you want. This means you have to seek out relationships with other people and make visiting your sites or businesses where they want to be.Try talking, chatting, responding to posts on Twitter or Facebook, and even following potential customers on the social media networks.
4. Is your social media marketing strategy really part of your marketing efforts, or is it something you dabble in now and then because someone told you you needed to? Try adding your social media marketing plan in with your other marketing work, and you'll find that it will expand as your other marketing efforts do. For example, consider adding the links to your Facebook or Twitter pages in your advertising, along with a link to your company's websites. Offer potential customers a service or something free for joining up. Woo your customers and they'll respond with service.
5. Are you spending any money on it? Yes, joining Facebook and Twitter and other social media sites is free. However, to really keep up with them, you'll need to consider spending some money, whether it's for professionals who will keep your sites running, or employees who will help build your social media presence. If you want professional results, you should make a professional effort.
6. What are your goals for your social media marketing strategy? Are you just doing it because someone told you it might make you some money, or are you planning any expansions based on how your social media marketing works? Social media marketing is just like anything else; without goals and plans for the future, it probably won't grow.

A successful social media marketing strategy is just like anything else. It takes work to make it a success. If you just start your projects and leave them out there to stand all alone, it's likely they'll blend in with everybody else's social media marketing strategy plans that aren't working.

Take some time, if you're going out in the social media world, to make this vital part of your business. Consider your social media marketing just like you do any other part of your company – an important way to bring customers to you.

After all, if you don't care about your social media marketing strategy, why should anyone else?