3 social media challenges and how to overcome them

By Felicia Guthrie

As a small business owner, it’s inevitable that you will face challenges. If you’re considering social media as part of your marketing strategy, you’ll face challenges unique to each social platform and the process it takes to grow your community.

Let’s take a look at a 3 of the most common challenges that you may face and how you can overcome them.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE 1: CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Many small business owners find creating a social media strategy to be one of the biggest challenges... you may not even have a strategy! Don’t worry because you aren’t alone. We speak to so many small business owners that figure you can just get started and that’s it.

When we think about social media and where to start (and how to do so successfully), we’ve said before that you should always consider your overall strategy.“Any marketing strategy you have should integrate with your overall business strategy and goals, including your social media strategy. Your marketing should help you work towards successfully achieving your business goals.”

Try thinking about your overall goals and how might these translate to social media. Be sure to write down the goals that come to mind.

Research your target audience and competitors. As a small business owner, it is important to know who your target audience is and who your competitors are, especially when it comes to any marketing. You can look at competitors’ touch points (website, social media, etc), do social listening (what people are saying about you on social media), and you can even find ways to connect directly with your audience such as surveys and focus groups.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE 2: CONTENT CREATION

Content creation is a common social media challenge for many small business owners for a variety of reasons. You may feel like you’re short on ideas or have a lack of resources such as time and money.

There are some things you can do to help, such as...

• Repurpose content you already have: Did you invest in product images for your website or other forms of marketing (I.e direct mail)? Use those images on your social media accounts to promote your products or services. Did you write a killer blog? Use content from your blog to create social media content such as creating a shortened version of your blog for social media (paired with a relevant image) or use tips, stats, or quotes from the blog to create new images or infographics.

• Get your followers involved: Everyday consumers and small influencers are great ambassadors for your brand because they feel authentic. This is because they’re seen as trustworthy and relatable. If you encourage your community of followers and customers to share content related to your brand (such as videos or images using your products), you can use this in several ways. You can share that content on social media or on your website...some brands may even share this content in their advertising. GoPro, for example, is one of the brands using User Generated Content in a major way. They use videos created by consumers in much, if not all, of their advertising, which also fuels brand loyalty for them.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE 3: BRAND AWARENESS & FOLLOWERS

People can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist, so when you’re trying to grow your platform on social media, it can be worrisome if people a) don’t know you exist or b) you don’t have many followers.

So, what can you do? Here are a couple things you can do to help boost awareness...

• Make sure people KNOW you have a social media account... Whether you’re present on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or elsewhere, be sure you’re somehow showcasing that. Include social media buttons on the header or footer of your website or include a section of recent posts at the bottom of your website. Use other marketing tools such as email newsletters to invite people to follow you on social media. Incorporate social media hashtags into your product launches and events.

• Create buzz: Brands use traditional and non-traditional influencers to create buzz all the time, and it can take the form of television segments, sponsored content, and more. If your business is struggling with awareness (and likely followers) on social media, try connecting your PR with your social media marketing. For example, you may offer your product to a select group of influencers so that they can direct their audience to your brand which in turn helps in creating awareness for you.

Are you currently facing social media challenges that we didn’t cover? Do you feel like you’ve tried everything?

If you’re having some trouble and you need a little help getting back on track, book your FREE 20-minute consultation to find out how we can help!