“I don’t get anything from social media. I post every day, but I don’t get anything from Social Media”

Does that sound familiar?

Because I hear that a lot from people who’ve been posting daily on social media for years

And yet years go by and nothing really changes for them

The ever revolving hamster wheel of being on social media, but not actually achieving anything

They do say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results

In order to help people get off that hamster wheel I’m highlighting 7 Guaranteed Ways That You Won’t Improve Your Social Media Marketing (and coming in the next blog will be 7 Guaranteed Ways To Improve Your Social Media)

1. Not putting in the hours

Simply put – if you’re not putting the hours in on social media you’re never going to get results

Turning up just once a week

Liking 4 posts a month

Comment, well, never

What do you think is going to happen if you’re not spending time on social media?

It’s the equivalent of attending 1 networking meeting a year and saying networking doesn’t work for you

Takeaway: Think About The Return On Effort – you may be getting the results (or lack of) that you deserve

2. Putting In The Hours Without Strategy
The flipside to not putting the hours in … is putting hours in without a strategy

It’s very very easy on Social Media to get addicted to wasting time scrolling, engaging without purpose and posting content for the sake of posting

You can get results with 30-60 mins a day on social media if you know what you’re doing, but so many businesses spend so much more time and don’t see so much as a hint of interest

You’ve probably heard this many times before – but understand your why?

Takeaway: Just because there are 12 different platforms you could be using – doesn’t mean you should be using them. Before you post anything else on social media write down in 4 lines why you’re using each platform and what you want to achieve from it

3. Doing The Same Things That Haven’t Worked
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results

There is a difference in the following 2 methods

– Doing something for weeks / couple of months knowing it’s a good habit to get into and understanding why it will pay off
– Doing something for years without a why and not changing it when you know it’s never going to work

As social media managers and trainers we are ultra critical of our own work – we rip it apart and tear it apart on a regular basis to improve

From 20+ years marketing experience we often have a gut feeling of what is the right move to take and understand just because something has worked, doesn’t mean it will do in the future .

Takeaway: 80% of your time should be spent doing things that work. 20% of your time should be experimenting and trying out new ideas. Have idea generation sessions on a regular basis for this

4. Piece Meal Learning At Networking Events
This is a true tale

There is someone I know that has attended over a dozen of our talks at networking events and not improved one thing on social media in the past 8 or 9 years

It’s not that the content wasn’t great or actionable. Every single one of these talks I saw numerous people book onto our 121 training or actioned at least one of the points from the talk and improve their social media

So why didn’t this person improve their social media after attending a dozen of our talks
1. They were using it to chalk up CPD hours
2. They had no intention of implementing anything
3. They were piece meal learning i.e trying to up bite size chunks of info rather than the full package
4. They see social media for friends and family rather than business

Takeaway: Piece Meal learning can see bitesize improvements, but it will never replace full indepth training

5. Trying To Pick Up Snippets In Facebook Groups
If you ask a question about social media in a Facebook Group you’ll probably get 50 different answers

And you won’t just get answers from actual social media experts. You’ll get answers from
– Business Coaches
– Networking Group Organisers
– Visibility Coaches
– Personal Branding Coaches
– Marketing Companies (who do a bit of social media)
– Web Designers
– And every person who spends a bit of time on social media

It’s like walking into a pub and asking can anyone recommend a plumber

You’ll get 50 different answers; you haven’t got a clue who’s good or not and the plumbers themselves will all give you different solutions

You’ll end up more confused than if you hadn’t asked in the 1st place

Takeaway: Choose a few specialists you know and trust based on their content / reviews rather than fishing for snippets of advice on Facebook that will confuse you

6. Chasing Vanity Metrics
“I want more reach” “I’d love more visibility” “I need to be better at social media”

The thing with all of those statements, and I hear them regularly, is none of them are specific goals and none of them actually mention sales

Likes, comments, shares and reach can mean everything and can mean absolutely nothing

If they never ever lead to sales – they mean nothing

You’re running a business, not taking part in a popularity contest, and likes comments and shares don’t pay the bills – but actual business does

And many of you will also know it’s often the lurkers that end up buying from you – not the people who engage with your posts

Takeaway: Write down how many sales you’ve got from social media in the last 7 days / 30 days / 3 months / 6 months. That is the reality of how well social media is working for you

7. Ignoring The Data / Audience
You don’t get to decide what is a good social media post

The Audience decide

It doesn’t matter if the post is in your brand colours or your photos are from your personal branding photoshoot

If the audience doesn’t act on what you’re posting on social media then it isn’t working

I’ve had stories from so many businesses who spent weeks agonising over their content on social media, stunted over perfection, rarely posting. Changing everything up because of one webinar and finding out their new “On brand” content is resonating less with people than when they were authentically themselves

Takeaway: Always look at the insights / analytics on your platform of choice to see how people are reacting to the content (but also whether that drives enquiries / leads / sales)

NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation

We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you

Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services

We offer Social Media Training on
* LinkedIn
* Instagram
* Facebook
* Twitter
* Blogging

We can do this
* 121
* Corporate Workshops
* Group Workshops
* Face to Face or Via Zoom / Skype

Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk

Alex

Alex McCann is owner of Altrincham HQ – a social media management and training company based in Altrincham, Cheshire that has worked with 100s of local business developing their social media strategy. Alex has 500+ LinkedIn testimonials and is Ranked Number 1 for Social Media Marketing in the UK via independent customer reviews on Freeindex.