The key to social media success isn’t dictated by the latest trend or technique. It’s dictated by skill, hard work, and dedication to a constant evolution of your strategies. You can’t just put social media on auto-pilot, because what people did nine months ago may no longer be true, and what everyone seems to be doing right now might not make sense for you. Social media marketing must keep morphing and adjusting depending on your audience and their needs, as well as based on quantitative analytics.
Counting on Your Message “Going Viral.”
Social media allows your message to spread quickly and can expose your brand to new audiences, but you can’t assume your offerings will achieve viral growth. It’s a rare phenomenon. Instead, you need to put in the proactive work to reach new people through identifying your target audience, developing and implementing plans to reach them, and analyzing the data to determine what parts of your plans are working and what needs to be revised. It’s an ongoing and highly strategic process.
Assuming There’s Only One Way To Succeed.
You may have to try several strategies but the key is to use solid marketing principles as your basis. If you put in the time for research, data analysis, and professional marketing communications, you will find a way to succeed; it just might not be the same way all the time or for every situation. So don’t focus on how many times you update your Facebook status or tweet per day; focus on using marketing expertise to adapt and generate results.
Believing that Constant Social Media Contact is the Same as Being Effective.
There are so many social media options available, with more tools and features appearing every day, that it might seem like you need to be posting or updating around the clock. But this isn’t necessarily time well-spent. Unprofessional, low quality social media efforts can do more harm than good to your brand’s reputation. Your efforts need to be strategic and designed to meet your specific goals. Any effective communications plan, including social media, requires marketing know-how. You need to find out what your customers want and learn what makes them take action. Then you can develop effective and efficient ways to promote your business and enhance your brand. This has been true lately as the focus has shifted from continual daily updates to a much more quality focused editorial plan that in some cases crossed marketing platforms.
The Zephoria team would love to chat with you about your social media efforts and what might make the most sense for you and your organization. For more information about how we develop and implement successful strategic social media plans, please contact us.