10 Reasons Why Your Social Media Campaign Isn’t Working

Disappointed by traffic or sales figures? Been putting extra effort into your social media campaign and still not seeing any changes? Here are ten things that could be going wrong, and what you can do to resolve them:

1. Too much skepticism

If you’re approaching social media with the opinion that it doesn’t work, doesn’t sell, and doesn’t make a difference, you’re not going to have much luck. How can you put your heart into something you don’t believe in? A little open-mindedness can go a long way here.

2. Poor understanding of platforms

Many DIY social media marketers are aware that they need to have an online presence, but aren’t sure how their Twitter presence should differ from their Facebook or LinkedIn one. Learn your platforms, and find out what works best for each. For example, Twitter is best for growing awareness, but Facebook may be better for advertising products.

3.  Forgetting that communication is a two-way street

Talk to your customers, not at them. If you’re constantly advertising, customers will switch off. Open up dialogue, start conversations, and engage with what’s going on in the world. Make yourself relevant.

4. Inconsistency

If you start the week tweeting ten times a day and then trickle off into nothing, customers won’t see social media as a viable way of communicating with you. If finding time is a problem, spend a few hours scheduling posts at the beginning of the week, and then just spend a little while each day responding to customers.

5. Not using images

Image-based posts are shared far more than text-based ones. If you’re asking a question to your Facebook fans, just add a relevant image to the post to boost engagement.

6. Spreading yourself too thin

If you’re using every platform you’ve heard of, you’re doing it wrong. There’s no need to be everywhere at once — it’s far better to focus on the platforms that count. Find out where your customers are, and focus on that.

7. Too much self-promotion

On Twitter, only a third of your tweets should be promotional. The rest should be engaging in conversation and retweeting others. The same more-or-less applies to other platforms, too — keep the advertising to a minimum, and you won’t look like you’re spamming.

8. Lack of direction

Being present on social media is not the same as having a campaign. Believe it or not, you’ll actually make your life easier by planning your strategy — it might seem like more work, but it’s easier than bumbling along then panicking about what to post.

9. Not being flexible

If your social media campaign isn’t working, adjust it. In fact, even if it is working, you’ll still need to adjust it now and then – the internet moves extremely fast, and you’ll quickly find yourself outdated and overtaken if you don’t keep your eye on the ball.

10. Not enough patience

You need to be open to change, but on the other hand, you don’t want to be scrapping campaigns every five minutes. You need to stick with a campaign in order to tell if it’s working, and if you keep changing trajectory every five minutes, you’ll look disorganised and unprofessional. If you haven’t got any faith in what you’re doing, your customers won’t have faith in you, either.

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By Sam Wright

Sam Wright is a freelance writer specialising in small business. He’s currently working for Brand Republic.