One of the most persistent questions on the lips of entrepreneurs and small business owners today is; “Why is social media marketing not working for me?”. 

After putting much effort into creating content, taking amazing shots of their products, running ads, and even paying influencers to help boost their publicity, it all becomes frustrating when there is little or no conversion rate.

Why is this so?

Well, social media marketing doesn’t align with the expression “Simple as ABC”… Because it’s not. It goes way beyond posting pictures and videos. It requires consistent strategic planning, intentional actions, and adequate monitoring to generate the best results. 

Let’s talk about 5 possible reasons why social media marketing is not working for you…

#1. LACK OF STRATEGY

Social media marketing can either be a hit or a miss for your brand. However you want to approach it, it’s success is dependent on having a strategic or intentional action in place. 

Before you embark on social media marketing, you need to have a strategy, written objectives, and an actionable plan in place. It has to be unique to you and not a complete replication of an existing brand’s strategy. This is because what works for them might not necessarily work for you. 

Test your intended strategy and action plans. If they don’t work yet, tweak them again and again until you discover what works. This process might cost you some time, but just like other skills, social media marketing also requires time and deliberate efforts to master.

#2. LACK OF EXPERTISE

The way you manage and market your business offline shouldn’t be the same approach you give to your social media pages. Social media requires expertise for proper management. If you don’t take time to observe and learn how social media marketing works, it won’t work for you. Get coaching and training from experts before you dive into it.

#3. LACK OF TARGET AUDIENCE

Before you embark on social media marketing, you have to understand that not every social media user is your target audience nor a potential customer. Not knowing your target audience can be detrimental to your brand or business because marketing to the wrong demographics will yield no result no matter how hard you try or how impressive your marketing skills are. 

Do your homework. Identify the demographics and other details about your audience. This will guide your social media marketing strategy, and help record remarkable outcomes at the end of the day.

#4. UTILIZING THE WRONG OR TOO MANY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM.

Just like the fingers are not equal, so are various social media platforms unique in their own way. 

Each social media platform appeals to different demographics. So, identify the best social media platform that works for your products and services. Once again, what works for your friend might not work for you, so you need to be thorough in your research to find the right platform.

It is also important not to start with too many too quickly. Start with one platform at a time and be consistent with it, this will help make your social media marketing journey a lot easier as you’ll have the flexibility to expand to other platforms when a certain platform is already thriving… As opposed to running multiple social media platforms from scratch at a stretch, which might make it difficult to thrive in any.

#5. UNNECESSARY COMPARISON

Comparison can either help fill you with enough energy to get better, or break your spirit and make you want to quit.

This is why many small business owners are not making progress on social media; they compare themselves with big brands that are within and outside their niche. This is a common mistake.

To record remarkable outcomes in your social media marketing, you have to work smart and put great efforts into it without unnecessarily copying or comparing your brand with other brands. There are healthy comparisons though… where you look at other brands and you try to be better at what you do. But apart from that, Comparison can also bring about distractions and hinder progress in your social media marketing process. Don’t let it.