Honesty time!
I wish I could sit down with every business and tell them all the things in this blog.
It would solve a lot of marketing and financial headaches for business.
It would create a deeper understanding of marketing.
It would help businesses launch with a bang.
It would help business correct their trajectory when it’s careering down the wrong path.
It would lead to less business failure.
Social Media & Social Media Marketing Are 2 Different Things
I log on to social media every day.
And I do social media marketing every day.
And both of those are entirely different things.
Just because someone uses social media a lot, does not make them a social media marketer.
Moaning on Facebook Groups about Green Bins, Sending Memes to Friends, Sharing Their Top 10 Films Of All Time on Facebook makes the person about as qualified to be a marketer as having a microwave makes them qualified to be a chef.
Please stop confusing someone who is “the age” to use social media or someone who spends a lot of time on social media as a marketer.
Social Media Is Not Free
With Social Media you’re either paying with your time or you’re paying for content.
Work out your hourly rate and x 208 = How much it costs you to it inhouse
Paying for photographers = How much for 365 images *
Paying for Social Media Management = 12 x monthly management fee
I always approach social media with a business head.
It isn’t free – but it should be delivering some form of ROI.
Start tracking actual sales and do the maths – is social media driving sales?
Note: Don’t attribute your photography cost entirely to social media – photos can be used on websites, press, leaflets and more so split the cost
Boosting Rubbish Content Just Means More People See Rubbish Content
“Alex – I don’t need a professional social media marketer because I can just boost posts on Facebook and reach thousands”
Me: Sure go for it. Go and pay Facebook to boost that post that was so poor that nobody reacted to it in the 1st place. And now you think that by spending money with Facebook, your post will reach more and people will buy from you.
A little hint here
If you can’t convert sales from your content when reaching 100 people. You won’t make more sales on the same piece of content reaching 5000 people on a boosted post.
You might as well just burn the money now.
It’s Not The Algorithms Fault
Sorry to tell you
In 9/10 cases, it’s not the algorithms fault your content isn’t being seen.
It’s actually your fault.
You don’t know what you’re posting, why you’re posting, who your ideal customers are, what content works well. Your content simply isn’t good enough to stand out amongst the huge volume of content each day.
You Shouldn’t Rely On Facebook Groups
If you’re marketing on Facebook – the groups shouldn’t be your only source of marketing.
In fact, they should only be about 10% of your total Facebook output.
Why would you consider groups to be your prime source of Facebook marketing when the most active engaged groups only allow businesses to post once per week?
Are you really telling me that one post per week is more important than what you do on your own Facebook page?
A Social Media Manager Isn’t A Graphic Designer / Photographer / Videographer
If you want a social media manager, graphic designer, photographer, videographer – pay 4 salaries for those skills
Whilst the social media manager may have a level of skill in these fields, they are not specialists.
A good social media manager will always recommend you work with specialists to produce the content.
And the reverse is true – the graphic designer, photographer, videographer aren’t social media managers.
Try and do everything on the cheap and you won’t get the results you’re expecting.
Social Media is a key role – not an additional role
I want to tell you a story here from 5 years ago.
Wetherspoons deleted 900 social media accounts for all of their pubs and hotels across the UK.
You could argue that nobody goes to Spoons because of their social media content.
But the truth is a little more complex than that.
It’s a clearcut example of why giving social media to untrained staff with very little spare time is a recipe for failure.
I’m a big advocate of encouraging team members to be active and involved with social media, but they need both the training and time to make it work. And when encouraging team members to be active on social media or managing your social media, it needs to be in their job description, contract and annual reviews.
Not all social media managers are the same
Every social media manager is different
Different levels of experience
Different approaches
Different skillsets
You can pick the manager that you feel suits your business the best.
If you’ve outsourced social media once before and it hasn’t worked out, that isn’t a reflection on the whole industry.
If you’ve outsourced social media to several different companies and it hasn’t worked out. Then honestly, the problem probably is you.
Social Media is not an optional extra
86% of the UK Population uses social media
93% of purchasing decisions are influenced by social media.
Oh and Facebook is now over 20 years old.
Despite all of this there are businesses out there that see social media as an optional extra.
It’s as essential in 2024 as phone number, email address and website are.
Imagine saying “We only answer emails or phone calls once every 2 weeks” – you’d be out of business by the end of the month.
Likes, Comments and Shares Don’t Pay The Bills
I love likes, comments and shares because they make me feel like people are listening.
But
I truly love business enquiries and sales because I know they’re understanding.
The hard truth for a lot of businesses is likes, comments and shares don’t pay the bills.
When we work worth a business, we’re looking to take people from Awareness > Consideration > Sales
The actual real world business results are what matters.
Everything else is a vanity metric.
Social Media Works Better With Networking
And that applies to B2C businesses as well as B2B
If people meet you on a regular basis, they’re more likely to support you online.
The best thing you can do to support your social media efforts is have a tribe around you that support you.
I’ve networked for nearly 15 years and my business wouldn’t be the same without it.
You still need social media if you have a BID / Town Team / Use Advertorial
It’s lovely that you’ve just paid a few hundred pounds in Bid Levy Fees and Advertorial in the local newspapers.
Our BID is great and they offer so much for local businesses, but they have 500+ businesses to support, so your business won’t be promoted 365 days a year.
And Advertorial is a great way to reach a larger audience, we offer advertoial to help businesses reach our 70,000+ followers. But even if you signed up to a 6 month advertorial package, what happens between the days the advertorial goes out. Why spend hundreds driving people to follow you on social media and then not maximise that.
It’s not a case of Social Media VS BIDs & Advertorial.
It’s a case of Social Media + Bids & Advertorial.
All are needed, but your own social media is the only marketing activity that will be done daily.
BONUS STAT
In the UK, it’s been reported that almost 60% of small businesses fail in their first three years of life.
Martin Glennn (chief executive of United Biscuits, and former Pepsico marketer) argues that “My main contention is that at the heart all business failures are actually marketing failures”
Marketing leads to Awareness, Consideration and Sales.
More customers can ease a lot of problems in a business.
NEED HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can chat about whether online or Face 2 Face is better for you
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
We offer Social Media Training on
* LinkedIn
* Instagram
* Facebook
* Twitter
* TikTok
* Blogging
We can do this
* 121
* Corporate Workshops
* Group Workshops
* Face to Face or Via Zoom / Skype
Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
