But there are many entrepreneurs who treat Social Media as something “not worth their effort and time”. “They don’t work”, “I didn’t see anything despite all the Likes”, “with brochures or emails I achieve more” are some opinions that are heard. This article aims to describe the misconceptions and actions of companies that use social media for their promotion, while examining the goals that a business can achieve through them, so that the entrepreneur has realistic expectations from the use of Social Media.
Social Media is NOT free
“Social Media is a full-time job”
Gone are the days when Social Media was just Facebook, where you could create a group, a profile and post text and images. The platforms, but also the tools of each platform (pages, groups, contests, advertising, channels, albums, …) increase, change, remove, improve, at such rates that a trained full-time person is now required to monitor them, while at the same time creating the company’s strategy and implementing it (without the technical part of course).
Conclusion: the nephew who graduated from some school and “knows about computers” and “also does social media” will probably do more harm than good. No disrespect to any nephew, but handling social media isn’t all about posting. It’s communication, talking to the public, handling problems and crises, monitoring competition, advertising, AND quality, intelligent and original posts, which help build and strengthen the brand.
Businesses are slow to get into the game
“The early bird gets the worm”
The easiest way to convince an entrepreneur to use a new tool is to show them that their competitors are already using it. But it is wrong as a reasoning. As with anything new, in Social Media most businesses (and not just SMBs) get into the “game” late: when their competitors have built a decent presence, made mistakes and learned from them, and built a “voice” to the audience they want to attract.
Thus, those who look “from the outside” must “run” to establish their presence and voice. The good thing about Social Media is that if a business combines originality with strategy, useful content and dialogue (along with some reasonable budget), the time it takes to be “heard” and gain an audience and voice is not long. But how many software companies or how many travel agencies or bookstores will the prospect Like, Share, Follow, Repin and Retweet? And why let the competition become that benchmark for your customer and constantly compare you to them?
They want results here and now without much “investment”
“Content, Content, Content”
Especially skeptical entrepreneurs who, due to temperament and habits, “will not be convinced even if you convince them”, want to see results (that is, sales, sales and sales) here and now. Their mistake is twofold: on the one hand, they consider Social Media as a (direct) sales channel, and on the other hand, they believe that, because the number of users is large, any results must come quickly for the medium to prove its value.
The answer to why one should not expect immediate results is given by the definition of Social Media: they are “meeting places” on the internet where people – consumers share experiences (mainly personal and less consumer) with other people.
Following the example of salespeople in the ancient forums, companies have “entered” Social Media because their audience is there too. However, the public enters Social Media mainly for “socializing”, sharing, chatting, to put it simply, some to search for information (on specific platforms), and some also for shopping.
This means that the main objective of a business on Social Media should be to increase awareness and build its brand. And fortunately, social media gives enough tools and space for a company to make its brand known and convince the prospective customer of its value. Both, however, require time and effort (content) if done on the “terms” of social media (useful, original – and therefore shareable – content) and not just with advertising.
They are using Social Media the wrong way
“It’s not possible without preliminary”
The most common mistake made by businesses on Social Media is that they use it as a means of advertising and not as a means of influencing the opinion of their potential customers. The magic of social media is that they offer you plenty of space for texts, photos, videos, infographics, with which you can show who your company is, show your product and service in use, help the buyer understand , install, use your product, build your image by telling “stories” through the eyes of happy customers and generally convince of the value you offer.
Yes, you will advertise, contest, offer coupons, you will enable booking and purchase through all platforms, you will connect the photos of your products to your website. But with the “preliminaries” we mentioned above, you’ll not only get more people to jump in and buy, but – more importantly – you’ll create followers who will talk about you.
They copy the competition
«Other thing is copyright and other thing is clopyright»
If one had to pick ONE “tool” to “make it” in Social Media, it would be original content production. On the other hand, the hardest step in exploiting Social Media is producing original content! Why; Because, like reputation, it is not bought but must be created.
So the easy solution is to copy the competition, not only in the content it uploads but also in the actions it takes: advertising the competitor, advertising us too, photo contest the competitor, photo contest us too, supporting those who have been bullied o competitor, support us too.
The result; Lots of Likers and Followers who “follow” the brand on Social Media only for offers and giveaways, no engagement, comments, content retweets (unless they earn points in a contest).
What can I expect from Social Media?
“Recognizability and increased traffic to the site or eshop should be the main goals”
Social Media is great and you should use it to increase awareness and build your business brand by providing original content that helps the reader because it solves their problems, gives them useful information or is just plain fun.
Through appropriate posts on Social Media you can increase traffic to your site.
You can also build a database of names and e-mails through contests, sweepstakes and general promotions that ask for this information from the user in order to participate.
Also, with the creation of applications for the distribution of coupons, reservations or the creation of a store / product posting within your social media presence, you can also expect direct sales or partnerships if you use LinkedIn correctly.
Finally, social media has risen in consumer preference as a means of communication and support from businesses because they consider it more immediate (and they also expect immediate responses to their queries).
If you are taking your first steps with social media, I believe that the above article will help you avoid important mistakes that will cost you time and money. If you already use them, do a social media audit to improve your practices.
If you still want help, either for a social media audit or for a collaboration on a monthly basis, contact us
