More and more brands are realising the success that can be found through social media campaigns.
A successful campaign can increase revenue, raise awareness and improve customer engagement – just to name a few.
But, there are also many challenges that present itself when using social media for your brand. With the pace at which social media quickly changes, we’ve all been met with some challenges during our social media endeavours.
Whether you’ve struggled to improve organic reach during a time of universal decline, or having difficulty finding new ways to connect with your audience – these things shouldn’t deter you from your success.
We have developed a list of common social media challenges your brand must overcome to achieve success.
Developing a Social Media Strategy
Developing a social media strategy should always be high on your to-do-list. It’s important to have a clear understanding of what your objectives are and how you will achieve them.
Some important things to consider when developing a social media strategy are:
- Defining SMART goals
- Researching your audience (“The way we strategise is predicated on listening†– Gary Vee)
- Establishing key metrics
- Creating a content calendar
The more specific you can be when developing your objectives, the greater chance you will have of achieving them. Make sure these goals are attainable and something that you can realistically work towards.
Understanding Which Social Media Platform to Use
Did you know that 15 million Australians use Facebook? It’s important to know if you’re using the right platform to achieve your objectives? To better understand this you must have a defined target audience.
Each social media platform is engaged with differently by different demographics. For example, Facebook is favoured by females aged 18 – 39, whereas YouTube is favoured by men aged 18-29.
For a detailed explanation about what social media platforms to use check out our two-part blog post: Part One covers Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat and Part Two covers LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+.
Creating a Consistent and High Level of Content
Having regular content to post is one of the biggest challenges brands may face. You’ve just made an awesome video that is ready to upload – great! But, that took you 3 weeks to make and you have nothing else scheduled – uh oh! Your customers need to rely on you to provide valuable content on a regular basis.
A content calendar can help you achieve this. Once you have a clear understanding of when and what you need to post, you can plan in advance to make sure it gets done. Below are some tips for developing a content calendar:
Determine your posting frequency
- How often will you post to each platform
- Are you currentley posting enough, or do you need to change things up
Figure out your content ratio
- Categorize your posts (video, image, blog posts or curated, UGC, or promotional)
- Keep track of what type of post performs best and what post performs poorly
Develop a content library
- Keep track of content you may want to share at a later date
- Create google doc for YouTube videos, blog links, images – everything you can think of
Fill your content calendar
- Stick to your plan
- Schedule all content to post automatically
- Analyse and adjust accordingly
Combat a Decline in Organic Reach
Organic reach is something we all chase – who doesn’t want posts to perform well without any money behind them? No one, that’s who!
Organic reach on Facebook has been declining for some time and it’s expected to continue to drop since the new Facebook algorithm was rolled out that will prioritise ‘meaningful interactions’. This means more posts from your Mum and Dad and less paid advertisements.
Below are some ways you can combat a decline in organic reach:
- Develop unique content – don’t repost the same content on different platforms
- Use UGC – sharing relevant content that isn’t yours is a great way to provide value to your target audience. You don’t always need to be shoving your product in your customers face.
- Keep up-to-date with the algorithms. Check out this handy infographic for some basic information.
- Work with Influencers (49% of consumers now rely on influencer recommendation)
- Use Stories – a great way to skip the regular algorithm
- Publish high-quality content on a regular basis
Measuring Social Media ROI
Measuring Social Media ROI can sometimes be a little tricky. It’s sometimes hard to assess the value a post can have compared to an advertisement so it’s important to have clearly defined goals in place such as:
- Email list signups
- Contact form inquiries
- Purchases
- Downloads
It’s important to remember ‘why’ you are on social media in the first place.
If your goal is to raise awareness and increase engagement with your customers then you want to be tracking:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Followers
In order to know if you’re getting a successful ROI for your social media efforts, you must track all your expenses.
Keep note of:
- The amount of time you are spending
- How much money are you spending on content
- Record how much you’re paying in subscriptions to social media tools
- How much are your advertisements costing you
Be sure to check out the video version of this post!
Having a strong social media strategy in place will help you overcome any challenges that are thrown your way. What challenges have you overcome on social media?
