Don’t Give Up on Social Media Before Doing This by @MorganCarrie

by Carrie Morgan

Fantastic business success doesn’t always translate into marketing success – especially when it comes to social media. If your efforts on Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn or Twitter aren’t driving results… don’t roll over and play dead.

Enter the social media audit.

An audit simply involves taking a mindful approach to your social media, and connecting your activity with specific goals and the right target audience.

Here are a few things to consider:
• Who do you want to reach? Why?
• Are you using the right social platform(s) to reach them?
• What motivates them?
• Are you publishing content that speaks to those motivators?
• What is your end goal – sales? reach? leads?
• Are you accomplishing that goal?
• Why or why not?
• What can you change or enhance to be more successful?

By evaluating your strategy and activity on a consistent basis, you ensure it is headed in the right direction.

You can do this quarterly, or tied to a major company milestone, such as before a new product launch, after an acquisition, or when someone joins the marketing team or you hire a new agency. I recommend NOT doing it annually, however, as that is simply not often enough to catch problems.

TOP BLUNDERS TO AVOID

Most companies (and even agencies) are consistently making blunders in these specific areas. So if you aren’t sure about doing an audit, start here by comparing your activity to these top mistakes:

1. TOO PROMOTIONAL. Remember it’s about them – not you.

2. LACK OF CONVERSATION. Are you posting too much or not enough? Are you being social by tagging other people, and posting/commenting/liking on other pages?

3. LACK OF MONITORING. Are you watching what is being said about your brand?
Responding quickly enough? Don’t let dialog about your company or product happen without you.

4. THINKING EVERYONE CARES. Do you understand your audience, and are you giving them what they want? Or are you feeding them what you want them to see… Nobody cares about your company, brand or product unless you give them A REASON to care.

5. NO INCENTIVE TO LIKE. On Facebook, for example, most people only like a handful of brand pages. Are you giving them a reason to follow you, or are you just regurgitating boring content that can be found all over the internet. How are you different? Fresh? Engaging? How is your company page different than most?

6. LACK OF CREATIVITY. Just because you are using social media for business doesn’t mean it has to be boring. People crave content that is fun, that sparks controversy or opens the door to conversation. They don’t want a news feed, an advertisement, or being told what to think. Ask what they think! Are you not seeing any likes, comments or shares? No engagement is a red flag that screams, “BORING!”

Success with social media comes down to understanding your strategy, understanding your audience, and creating something that fits both while accomplishing your end goal. Regular audits should measure against all of these things, and help you drive change.

Don’t be afraid to make major changes, if what you are doing doesn’t work for you. CHANGE IS GOOD.

—————————————————————–

Carrie Morgan: Digital PR, content marketing and social media consultant. Author. Blogger for Convince & Convert, MarketingProfs & Social Media Today. Founder of the #PhxPR Twitter chat, which consistently reaches approx. 1.5 million impressions per chat. 22+ yrs of agency/corporate insanity. Seattle Chocolates addict.

Find Carrie at http://rockthestatusquo.com, @morgancarrie on Twitter, or @RockTheStatusQuo on Facebook.

Guest Post

She Owns It accepts guest post submissions at https://sheownsit.com/guest-post-submissions/. If you have an article that would be of value to our community, please submit for approval.

All posts will be screened, links checked (limited to 3 and must be relevant), and author must be verifiable through a website and social media accounts.