Social media is a powerful tool. It can be easy to see the difficulties in adapting to new trends.
Failure can mean a lot of things in the business world. A business could fail at having customers, fail at retaining customers, or even fail to grow. If you are a business owner and you want to avoid failure, you should stop neglecting your social media. In this article, I will explain four ways how your social media may be fueling your failure.
Whether you like it or not, everything is being done digitally these days. How often do you look at paper ads at the grocery store or in the newspaper? How often is your consumer base looking at paper ads or the newspaper? Hardly if at all. “A study at the Jaume I University in Castellón has verified the decrease in press consumption among young people between the ages of 16 and 30 years, which now stands at 28.8%. What is more, three out of every four individuals within this age bracket use social networking sites more than the television to get up to date” (ScienceDaily.com). Social media is the main source of information, news, and business awareness. By not putting your business on social media, you are missing out on a majority of consumers and most likely your target audience. “54% of Gen Z and 49% of Millenials say social media is their preferred channel for ad influence” (Pitney Bowes). The sooner you switch to digital, the sooner your business will stop failing.
If you already have a social media account, what platforms are they on? If you are a professional software company aiming to sell to big businesses, I hope you are not putting all your effort into Instagram or Tiktok. It would make sense that if big businesses were your target demographic that you would be marketing the most on Linkedin. It’s true that the more presence you have across all social media is best, but if your target market is not prevalent on a certain social media platform, do not waste precious ad budget there.
Consistency is the key to so many things in life, and social media is one of them. Create a consistent posting schedule that is realistic and often. One big mistake a lot of business owners make is posting quantity over quality. Quality content is what inspires organic growth, conversions, and success. Posting something that is just filler content to post once a day doesn’t do anything for your business, in fact, it may hurt it. A potential customer may see one bad post and never want to buy from your business.
Are you being social on social media? Social media is meant to be engaging and a majority of customers go to social media to engage with brands. Customers will share their own content using your products (user-generated content) and they will either boast or complain about your brand. “79% of people say that user-generated content on social media significantly impacts their purchasing decisions (Stackla)”. When customers comment or call you out on social media, it is always in the best interest of the business to respond. Being responsive and offering a human quality helps build your brand and trust for your target audience.
Social media is yesterday’s billboards, except you get to be a lot more interactive with potential customers. Stop failing and start investing in your social media.