Is your social media strategy failing? Would you like to fix it?

If your social media strategy is failing, you’re not alone as only 12% of companies feel they are using social media effectively.

Many companies struggle with social media because they are making some easily avoidable mistakes while executing their strategies. Therefore, in this article, I am going to list out what they are and how you can rectify them…

#1 You don’t update it often enough

If your social media strategy is based on what worked a few months ago, then, of course, it is going to fail. Social media is constantly changing.

Every social network will regularly update their algorithms, design, user interface, rules, etc.

Take Facebook, for example, they have altered their algorithm several times. Earlier when organic reach was high you could post content directly and drive high levels of engagement and traffic. Hence, lots of businesses did this.

But since 2014 when organic reach drastically declined some businesses evolved. They began investing in ads along with organic methods. They also modified their strategy to include other social networks like Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram which drive more engagement.

Those that paid attention and evolved are still thriving while those that still follow the strategies that worked before 2014 are failing.

Hence, stay updated with the latest social media changes by subscribing to official social media blogs and other social media news websites.

Also, keep an eye on your social media analytics to make sure engagement is regularly increasing.

And every time you get a hold of the latest news and statistics, modify your strategy to suit the social networks and your audience.

#2 Your content isn’t good enough

Years back businesses didn’t know the importance of content in social media marketing. They only shared links to their products on social media and hoped for sales.

Now businesses understand the integral role content plays. Therefore, a lot of them are creating it. In a month around 80 million blog posts are published on WordPress blogs alone.

But the problem is that most of them are creating content just for the sake of it. It’s not good enough.

To stand out from the sea of content, your content should be among the best.

One way to do this is by writing longer blog posts. Blog posts that are longer than 3,000 words get the most shares.

Most people write blog posts that are less than 1,000 words long. Therefore, when you write longer more informative posts you will easily stand out from the competition and drive more shares on social media.

Someone who creates long-form content regularly is Neil Patel. An example is this post, Social Media Marketing Made Simple. It is more than 3,000 words long.

Neil writes long posts just like this one on a regular basis. They also contain quality information all throughout.

You too should begin investing more time writing blog posts like this one.

#3 You don’t have a properly planned funnel

Many businesses have realized the importance of capturing leads as email is nearly 40 times more effective than social media in the acquisition of customers.

This is why when you visit most blogs these days there are several lead-capturing forms.

Once the person signs up they are sent a welcome email and their nurturing process stops right there. After that, the only emails they send are sales emails promoting their products and services.

If you want to stand out from the competition here too you should send out a series of educative emails containing several more tips.

They should be shared in a series of 4 to 5 emails. These tips will build trust and help you establish yourself as an authority on the topic.

You should also continue sending out more content to read once a week at least.

These emails, your lead capturing method, your content and social media comprise to form a basic funnel. Most people don’t plan this out properly and run them separately.

If you share quality content and build a strong relationship with your audience this way your sales email that is interspersed with educative emails will perform a lot better.

Hence, plan and set up a funnel from today onwards instead of only using social media to drive traffic and capture leads.

For detailed tips on how to build a funnel check out this free course, Email List Building, from Leadpages. I have been a subscriber to the Leadpages newsletter for a long and I can assure you they have a wealth of information on running funnels.

#4 You aren’t social

I have come across several social media pages that post quality content and drive tons of engagement in the forms of reshares, likes and comments. But the mistake they make here is not engaging back.

Social media is all about being social. If you want your social networks to bring in top quality results, you should engage back with people by thanking them for resharing your content and responding to comments.

When your social media management plan places an emphasis on communicating back it shows people that they are an important part of the community. This will encourage them to engage with your content in the future as well.

Therefore, from today onwards set a little time aside to engage back with your social media followers.

Now fix your social media strategy

These are the mistakes businesses regularly make with their social media strategies. Use my above tips to rectify your current strategy and avoid making them in the future.

What mistakes have you noticed others make with their social media strategies? How can they fix them? Please leave your comments below.