[Tweet “Why Social Media is NOT a Complete Waste of time by @BeDigitalGiants http://goo.gl/H4M41S”]Many a marketer has tried his or her hand at social media and reached the same conclusion: social media is a waste of time. Yet, most haven’t taken the time to understand why their efforts failed. Our advice: don’t blame the media (or the messenger!).
Social media was never really the problem
Some of the ways social media programs can be blamed for wasting time and money include:
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No strategy…all social media hype. You need a strategy. Don’t leap into social media “feet-first” without clear business objectives, without a strategy, without a plan.
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Failing to invest the necessary time and money in understanding how social media marketing actually works. It doesn’t work well in a vacuum. If you want to use social media to generate sales ready leads for your business, you need to map and create a conversion path for prospects and customers to follow. Successful social media marketing is part of your web presence strategy.
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Lack of consistency. Many marketers have failed by not allocating the resources required to remain consistent. This isn’t about blindly following rules like “Be awesome. Tweet every day”. This is about planning content in an editorial calendar, building trust with an audience, building community, listening to your market, measuring, analyzing and managing your way to results.
When done right, social media will contribute to your bottom line
Learn from the mistakes above, and create manageable and measurable social media goals to effectively implement your digital strategies. Identify areas of opportunity for promotion, lead generation and online conversion, develop strategies and plans to achieve your objectives, and consistently manage campaigns to successful results. It’s also important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, emerging technologies and best practices.
