Surefire Signs of Social Media Marketing Failure
#1- Lack of a strategic and data-informed content strategy.
This is the paramount challenge for most businesses and organizations. Either they don't know what to post, their content curation process is inefficient and gets in the way of creativity and spontaneity, and/or they're posting content that isn't grabbing the attention of the target audience(s).
Strategic content includes spontanous posting. So don't be afraid to throw in a random status update or pic of an employee doing something goofy. Just be careful these posts aren't the only thing your fans are seeing.
#2- The 'Likers' (Facebook Fans) aren’t interacting with the content.
There are a number of different reasons why there aren't any interactions on Fan Page posts:
- Redundant advertorials, repeating old info or links, and entirely too much focus on sales, discounts, and coupons. Sure, an occasional advertorial or discount is fine. At Soupala, we have a saying about social media marketing: "There is nothing wrong with some self-promotion as long as it is augmented with lots of selfless self-promotion." Facebook works best if you think about it as building your tribe and your brand. Coupons are probably not the best method for driving long term profitability with relational customers. The most important thing a brand can do with their Facebook fans is earn their admiration.
- The tribe is too niche and very few are active on Facebook. For example, if the highest priority audience bucket consists of general male audience ages 60+ in the Rogue Valley, chances are the marketing dollars would be best spent on advertising in traditional media channels (MailTribune, TV/cable, and radio).
- The wrong "Likers" were acquired for the Fan Page. Yes, this really happens. In a future blog post, I’ll share a couple of true stories about this problem and how to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.
#3- Not running Sponsored Stories (Facebook social ad units).
The most critical service Soupala provides for clients is management of their Facebook advertising. The average half-life of a Facebook post is less than two hours. If the organization or business isn’t effectively turning Facebook posts into targeted social ads, the vast majority of their fans (or potential new fans) will never see the content.
The science of increasing social engagement with ads is a completely different game than search advertising or banner ads. To be successful, a business has to be able to support a never ending cycle of curating and posting new content, interacting with fans, and making sure that fan interaction is further amplified by shifting ad spend to the best performing social ads and retiring the "old" ads.
Under this model, cost-effectiveness of a Facebook social ad typically lasts about 48-36 hours. Our advertising managers will create at least two separate ads for the same exact post (one under the CPM and the other under CPC). Once Facebook approves the new sets of ads, we turn off the CPC version and wait until the CPM version loses its cost-effectiveness. Once we turn off the CPM and turn on the CPC, the cost per interaction will jump up and flateline until Facebook algorithm stops giving impressions to the ad (Facebook would stop making money if it kept running CPC ads that no one clicked on).
At Soupala, we spend approximately 15-30 minutes/per day on each client’s Facebook ad account, and this is something we do extremely well. For an in-house employee that does not specialize in Facebook ads, this process could require 1-2 hours per day until they’ve really honed their practice.
#4- Lack of any exclusivity.
Facebook and Twitter is viewed as just another channel to distribute the same exact content shared in the most recent email blast.
#5- Advice on social media from an expert who frequently drops the phrase "go viral" into the conversation about marketing strategy.
Maybe it was partially true in 2005, before everyone got on the bandwagon. We've had clients that assumed because we were younger that we knew the secret to making things go viral. Now, we know better.
Unless it involves the budget or social following of a big nationwide brand or Hollywood campaign, putting up a YouTube video and having it spread organically is a rare event. If we're lucky, we'll recognize a trending pop culture topic early on and quickly create a piece of content that fuels meme fire, so-to-speak. But even that is never a sure thing, so it's best to not raise expectations too high.
Something we might discuss with clients is the natural viral co-efficient of a new customer or sale. For example, the viral co-efficient of .5 means that for every 100 new customers, another 50 new customers will be created just because of word-of-mouth and recommendations from the other 100 customers. Bare in mind the cost of converting the initial 100 customers is most likely going to be very expensive (taking into account market research, product design and redesign, consumer testing, marketing/advertising, and customer service that went into creating the initial 100 happy customers). But I digress.
#6- Not including domain expertise in the social content mix.
This is especially important for business-to-business marketing. Experts need to be able to communicate their expertise in a way the target audience(s) can relate to.
#7- No open social media policy for employees.
Many businesses have strict policies against social media in the workplace because managers have fears about risks to the company and potential losses in productivity. If the company’s social media policy establishes the guidelines and structure, employees end up being some of the best brand advocates a business could ever have. Most of the employees are checking their Facebook at work anyway. Maybe they wait until break or lunchtime, but the vast majority of younger workers have or are going to have smartphones in their pockets.
#8- No one in the company or organization is able to upload a photo to one of the organization's social media accounts in less than three minutes.
This is largely a training issue and practice makes perfect. The goal is to learn how to do social media without eating up too much of the clock. If the photos are being taken with a smartphone, it should take less than a two minutes to upload that image to Instagram or PicSay Pro, apply something interesting to the image, and then post it to the appropriate social network. Get a system in place and challenge employees to make it work.
Why the photo curation bandwagon? Because we've seen the trends in the data. It’s why major nationwide brands embraced Instagram so quickly. Photo sharing make a huge difference when it comes to fan engagement and attracting new fans on Facebook. Image sharing is also imperative to running cost-effective social ads.#9- The leaders are not leading the change.
I’m talking about the old school executives and technology dinosaurs. You know who you are. Leaders cannot properly support (and budget for) what they don't understand. Executive Directors and CEOs need to set the example when it comes to leading the social media transformation, even if they are 60+ years old. They can start by reading this guide compiled by Team Kodak.
#10- Failure to socialize with customers.This may seem obvious, but businesses big and small are frequently guilty of this "me me me" approach with their social media. Social is not top-down advertising. Most businesses and organization know that it is appropriate to socialize a little with the person that walks into their office or store. That's how one "gets to know their customer."
#11- Not posting on Facebook on the weekends.Peak traffic on Facebook is usually Saturday morning. For adults, 4 pm-8 pm after work is a good window, with Thursdays and Friday evenings seem the best for promoting entertainment related content and shopping hooks.
This post was written by Mica Cardillo, Founder and CEO of Soupala. Follow him on Twitter @Soupala.
