Have you ever for a moment thought how vulnerable you are?
Have you thought that something could crush you in a moment?
It’s not a phrase we hear often as we’re wired to think positive thoughts, talk about our success stories and be optimistic
And I believe that’s the right thing to do the majority of the time. A positive attitude with hard work and action do bring the right results
But occasionally we must look at areas of vulnerability, so that we don’t become unstuck. It’s a thought that goes way back to when I was studying business at university over 20 years ago (in the pre-social media age) of looking at SWOT Analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
So for just a few minutes I’d like you to think about How to spot vulnerabilities in your Social Media Marketing?
Your Competitors Aren’t On Social Media
You might think that your competitors not being on Social Media is a strength not a weakness
But I often see businesses becoming complacent about social media when they’re the only ones in their industry on social media in their town
It’s a vulnerable place to be where at any moment your competitors could see the light about social media and blow you out of the water in a moment
Always have the mind-set with social media that you must have your A Game on regardless of whether the competition are on social media
Take a look at your account now and ask yourself the question – if a direct competitor opened business 2 doors down and they signed up to social media would they be able to out manoeuvre you
Lone Wolf
You can’t do social media alone – you need your network around you to help you grow and support you
For us as a social media company being the only one who use social media well in a networking group is an advantage – it’s a perfect opportunity for sales
For any other business you want a strong network around you that can help with amplification, engagement and referrals
Focus on businesses you have shared beliefs with and be seen as someone who cares and supports for others
Similarly watch who you spend most time engaging with – you become most the like the 5 people you spend time with on social media – make sure they’re not a negative influence
Only One Person In the Business With The Strategy / Logins
Imagine for a second if the one person in the organisation with the social media strategy / logins leaves the organisation
Or imagine a worst case scenario that that person gets hit by a bus today
As an organisation you’ve spent years and years building up the social media presence and then what
No logins. No strategy. No clue
At the very least make sure more than one person in the organisation that you trust has the social media logins for your social media accounts
And as an ideal have a written down social media strategy of what the organisation is trying to achieve and the day to day activities that are implemented
No Employee Buy In
Your biggest failure is 90% of your staff don’t understand social media
Social Media has become something that sits in a marketing department or that one person is responsible for as “one of many tasks”
It needs to be bigger than that
The fact that your staff don’t understand social media is the very reason there are content droughts, why poor customer service ends up as a viral horror story and why brilliant staff aren’t able to contribute to the success of your social media
Most employees view social media as something they do in their social time – they need to understand that social media is important for the businesses goals
We’ve written a whole blog on this here
Your biggest failure is 90% of your staff don’t understand social media
Your Competitors Stand Out On Social Media Than Your Business
Imagine for a second what impact on your business it has if your competitors are better at social media than you are
A Non-League business cannot compete with a Premier League business on social media
Every single day your ideal customers will be calling / emailing / engaging with your competitors rather than yourself and the sales will show that
A great quote Bethany Alexander of Focus7 International Ltd said on LinkedIn was
“Social media is like Santa. It has no power if you don’t believe in it. You have to be prepared to take a punt and invest a bit of time and effort into it, start doing it properly and creating genuinely valuable and engaging content, and it’ll start showing results.
Growth Is Stagnant
#growingnotdying is a hashtag used by @thewindowco on Twitter
If you’re not growing, you’re going backwards
Social Media should be a process that grows and grows by the month and although there is a point where you will reach saturation in the local market place – more often than not growth goes stagnant because that initial enthusiasm drops off
Measure your stats each month based on the KPI’s for your business
Impression, Followers, Engagements can be vanity metrics
But they can also be signs you’re hitting the right people and they are converting to sales
Relying On One Platform
This last one is probably the most common area of vulnerability
We’ve moved on from the days where Myspace was the only social network
We live in a world where there are many platforms to build your business and whilst you don’t need to be on all of them – you can’t put all your eggs in one basket
It’s something we’ve seen where businesses have only been on Facebook and then have struggled to operate a business because of changes in the algorithm
Spread the risk and maximise the opportunity of multiple social media platforms
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
Or
Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
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 400+ LinkedIn testimonials and is ranked number 1 for Social Media Marketing in the UK via independent customer reviews on Freeindex.
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