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As the use of social media continues to rise, businesses finally understand the value and the importance of social media marketing. While it’s a constantly changing platform, there is no doubt that it’s here to stay.
Now, 70% of the US population has at least one social networking profile and 52% use two or more social media sites. However, because of the constantly shifting landscape, the need for social media engagement, and the relevance of technology, some businesses are struggling to adapt.
Because of that, sometimes it’s better for businesses to hire an agency to take care of your social media marketing strategy. This is especially true for smaller and medium sized businesses, as the owners and management team are more than likely wearing many different hats as is. Adding social media marketing to their plates means it may not get the attention it needs.
Whether an agency or an in-house social media marketing professional, there are many challenges when it comes to creating and maintaining a social media marketing strategy.
Biggest Challenges Facing Social Media Marketers
- Measuring ROI
Measuring the ROI is important to track and show results. However, this can be difficult because of all the different costs associated, such as labor, technology, and training. The different goals make it even harder. That’s why setting specific goals beforehand is so important. This keeps your team focused only on relevant KPIs. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, then your ROI will be based on the number of followers. If your goal is to increase sales, then your ROI will be based on the amount of sales. Create your goals before you begin and to make it easier to track your success.
- Tying Social Activities to Business Outcomes
While there is plenty of data out there to support using social media marketing, it can still be an intimidating endeavor. The upfront costs and time required before seeing positive results can vary depending on the industry, target audiences, and objectives. Social media marketing shouldn’t be a weekly goal always on the verge of being axed. It needs to be integrated into your business philosophy at every level.
- Developing Social Media Marketing Strategies
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media marketing. There are many different platforms, many different demographics to each, and different strategies that each platform requires. Staying up to date on the latest trends on each platform, as well as optimizing posts for each site, requires research and time. Develop your strategy based on this research and support your objectives with data.
- Securing Enough Internal Resources
Businesses are run by people, which means they have the same flaws. It’s easy for businesses to continue operating as they have for years, even as the landscape is shifting. This mindset can make it difficult for some businesses to get on board with social media marketing. Listening to concerns and offering data-driven solutions is the only way to change that mindset.
- Tracking Results in a Centralized Dashboard
Social media management tools are the best way to keep track of your business’s many different social media profiles. It’s entirely too time-consuming to go from one site to the next. With a centralized dashboard, you can view all of your networks, while also tracking mentions, hashtags, and competitors. With Monitoring, you can also stay up to date on all notifications and messages across your different networks.
- Aligning Social Media Strategies Throughout Different Departments
Bigger organizations have more trouble organizing themselves to achieve common goals. Each department wants to ensure individual success. The growth of the company as a whole depends on the senior members coming together and creating a strategy that will please the different departments, and using the resources of each to create a coherent, long-term social media marketing strategy.
- Knowing When to Take Action with Social Media Data
All online activities can be tracked, providing the data you need. Tracking the analytics of your social media marketing strategy shows you what’s working and which aspects need to be changed. This is why your social media marketing strategy requires proper planning, a target audience, and specific KPIs. This allows you to track the data important to your strategy and ignore unrelated metrics.
- Targeting Right Audience
Creating a successful strategy is all about your target audience. Clearly defined buyer personas are the foundation for your entire strategy. The best way to develop your buyer personas is to survey current clients and to monitor the success or shortcomings of your competitors.
- Targeting Right Platform
Your customers are using social media, you just have to figure out which platform they’re using. When creating your social media marketing strategy, you need to ask: Who is our target audience? Which social media platforms are they using? What times are they using it? By understanding your target audience and how they use social media, you’ll increase your odds of success.
- Finding Right Social Media Management Tool
Your social media marketing strategy is almost completely reliant on finding the right social media management tool. There are so many different options though, that it can be overwhelming. It’s important to make sure that the tool you decide on has the functions you need to achieve your goals, such as a Social Media Dashboard, where you can track all of your accounts easily, Monitoring, so that you can have all of your notifications and messages in one location, and Analytics, so you track your engagements and views. Scheduling and Auto Post are also important features to ensure your accounts remain active.
Overcoming Challenges Facing Social Media Marketers
While there may be no one-size fits all approach, there are aspects of creating a social media marketing strategy that need to be completed to achieve success. First, you need to spend time planning, finding your target audience, learning the different platforms, and creating the KPIs important to your objectives.
Once you’ve created your objectives and target audience, and after you’ve implemented your strategy, you need to be adaptive. Rarely will your first attempt be successful. This is an ever-changing landscape and you need to be able to track your results and restructure your strategy as needed.
The easiest way to achieve success with your social media marketing strategy is to be active. You need to focus on engaging with your followers and those that engage with you. Social media is social, and you need to be social to continue to grow your audience.
Continue reading to learn the Five Goals of Social Media Marketing.
