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Social media is the most prominent digital communication medium today. The estimated number of social media users is over four billion, distributed over various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
This vast market size makes it ideal for business owners to market their products and promote their brands. A study conducted by Statista found that 90 percent of American companies today use social media to some extent to market their products effectively.
With the increase of e-commerce, the need for effective social media marketing that directs consumers to a brand’s website and compels them to make a purchase is stronger than ever. However, increased competition and rapidly changing social trends have become obstacles for marketers in executing their social media marketing plans.
Here are some common issues with social media marketing plans faced by businesses across the globe:
1. Lack of Strategy
Many business owners often overlook social media or assume it has the same rules as general advertisements. However, social media strategy is a lot more than just posting a certain number of posts daily.
A well-curated plan should include the format that needs to be used, along with pictures, messages, visuals, and hashtags that align with the core values of a business. Without a proper outline, your content will likely be generic, scattered, and not interesting enough to generate leads.
2. Not Tracking Results
Most companies fail to follow up on their marketing campaigns by not tracking results. This hinders their growth as they can not troubleshoot problems, observe consumer preferences, and identify opportunities. As a result, their marketing efforts remain unspecific and scattered.
This problem can be remedied easily as most social media networks have built-in features that enable marketers to monitor the progress of each post and check the engagement rate closely. Tracking social media analytics also allows businesses to identify their peak hours and develop content to gain maximum engagement and traffic.
3. Assuming All Social Media Networks Work the Same
A common mistake among marketers in social media marketing is assuming that all social media networks have the same audience and work similarly. This makes brands publish the same content across all social media platforms, despite their differences.
It is vital to remember that all social media platforms have different audiences in terms of age, preferences, and behaviors. Every forum requires a unique marketing approach tailored to its users. You should make different plans and content for every platform your brand uses to maximize your chances of capturing the interests of various viewers.
Related Read: TikTok vs. Instagram for Business. Which One is Better?
Content time duration and format should also vary with different social media platforms. Long-format visual content, like videos or podcasts, is ideal for YouTube, while short videos like Reels work best for Instagram.
Facebook is a perfect place to post any text or visual content and make necessary announcements about your brand. In contrast, platforms like TikTok demand catchy videos as the attention spans of viewers on that platform are very short. It’s crucial to format your content so that it connects easily with the audience of each forum and effectively draws attention to your product or service.
4. Poor Market Segmentation
Social media platforms also enable you to identify your target demographics and alter your content to cater to their interests. Marketers can sometimes fail to segment their recipients, and this results in generic content being uploaded on every other social media platform of the brand. This content serves no purpose to the business, as it cannot generate sales effectively.
Your product or service needs to attract your target audience, and the target audience can be segmented based on age, income, interests, previous purchase history, and engagement with your brand. This way, you’ll know that the right content is reaching the right people.
5. Hashtag Hijacking
Hashtags can be a great tool to generate traffic and an audience for your social media content as they help a brand become more visible to relevant audiences on saturated media platforms. Most businesses use hashtags to promote a particular marketing campaign, an upcoming event, or their product or service. Audiences can easily find your posts through hashtags and keywords on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Facebook.
A common mistake with hashtag usage is leaving a space that allows hashtag hijacking by other brands. Irrelevant social media users may start using your trending hashtag on posts that are not related to your brand, making your product disappear among a sea of numerous unrelated posts. To combat this problem, you need to keep your hashtags short and unique for your brand’s needs.
You can make your hashtags exclusive by adding the name of your brand or your campaign alongside the commonly used hashtags. This will ensure that your posts appear among potential customers’ newsfeeds and search results. You can also use your uniquely curated hashtags in your marketing campaigns to ensure that your potential customers can look up the right hashtag on their social media if they intend to know more about your product.
In a Nutshell
For every business in the world, regardless of their size or their industry’s vastness, social media can create a massive impact on their sales. However, their marketing plan needs to be effective, and they require a proactive approach to avoid common issues like poor target audience segmentation, lack of data-driven decision-making, and lack of strategy.
Using unique hashtags to avoid hashtag hijacking is also essential to ensure the desired results from your social media marketing campaigns. Overcoming these challenges will enable businesses to market their products effectively and expand their client base in the longer run.
It is also advisable to hire a social media manager for your business if you do not hold any experience in the area. These individuals have expertise in devising unique strategies tailored to different social media platforms to help you enhance your brand’s awareness and visibility.
Hiring a social media manager or investing in sophisticated software to create content for your handles can help your staff work on the core aspects of the business. If you hire different social media managers for different social media platforms, collaboration might be difficult for them. You can automate your team collaboration through Gain to ensure cohesion in the context of all your marketing content.
Start a free trial of Gain and save your team precious time with an automated social media workflow!
