Top 3 Reasons for Social Media Marketing Failure. And Solutions!

Most businesses now understand that their online presence in social media is an important foundation of their integrated marketing strategy. 

 A global penetration rate of 30%, rising customer expectations for an omni-channel customer service experience, and increasing social commerce revenues indicate the indisputable business value of this media channel.

Having consulted, developed, and implemented on a number of integrated marketing strategies, I find that the recurring long-term social marketing challenges faced by organizations are:

1) Lack of consistency

After the initial excitement of setting up a new Twitter feed or Facebook page wears off, so do the activity levels on social channels.

Social media activity becomes an afterthought.

Without consistent and prospect relevant content and engagement, social media marketing is bound to fail.

Solution:

Create a posting schedule and stick to it.

I combed through some articles including basic jump-off guidelines and social posting industry bench marks, then interpreted the data through the lens of my own strategy successes to arrive at some posting frequency suggestions for various channels.

Note: These are basic guidelines. Your posting frequency and the channels you post on should be based on your own industry niche and audience research. Please contact me for a customized strategy.

2) Too predictable

While automated scheduling tools are good productivity hacks, they can lead to uninspired and monotonous content. This task list driven mentality only lowers retention rates.

It is important to keep the content varied and, once again, relevant to your target customer.

Solution:

Keep your social stream interesting by experimenting with a content mix. Find what works for you. Here are some guidelines to start with.

Contact me for the optimum content mix for your social media marketing.

3) Lack of leadership:

The best social marketing activities are leveraged from the top-down. 

I've heard every excuse from CEOs including 'I don't have the time' to 'Someone should do it for me'.

The bottom line is that employees as well as customers have a better impression of the business if the CEO has a social media presence.

Leadership is the second biggest barrier to social media success. The first barrier being lack of knowledge and understanding.

Solution:

The fix for this issue can also  go a long way in resolving the previous two.  

When leaders do not adopt social media activity it is due to the lack of the vision to see social media as a crucial element in data gathering, lead generation, customer acquisition and retention. 

Adoption at the top is often vital to secure collective buy-in across the organization verticals and to consolidate the drive towards business goals.

"No leader can afford to lead as they did in the Industrial Age. This is a new era with new rules. All around us, the entire world is flattening, democratizing, and  socializing. It’s quite possible that as the social age matures, there will be only two types of business leaders: social … and retired."
(The 7 Attributes of CEOs Who Get Social Media -  HBR)

CEOs need to find their social media comfort zone starting with just one channel if need be.

Luckily 2015 audits show that CEOs are rising up to the task.

How has your organization been doing on social media? What’s been your biggest success?

What are your greatest challenges with social media marketing?

Contact me if you need help with an integrated marketing strategy to leverage visibility, maximize revenues, and exceed your customer’s omni-channel expectations.

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Jacob is a Digital Marketing Consultant, Technologist & Strategist leading digital transformation and growth in the era of the hyper-digital customer. Jacob's expertise includes web & mobile app development, social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, PPC/CPM, project management, negotiations, partner channel marketing, creative direction, and marketing automation.

A content chef; words, images, some code and a healthy serving of web analytics.

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