“My social media isn’t working! Why?”
You’ve probably come across something like this in the past or currently. While there seems to be simple explanation, there’s always more to the story.
Imagine: You’ve been very active on various social media platforms for months. You’ve been retweeting, commenting, sharing other people’s posts and posting original content. You’ve even been using hashtags and tagging relevant organizations and companies. You feel good about this effort!
But after a while, you realize the worst has happened – nothing has changed:
- No new followers (or, you lost followers)
- No new notifications of mentions or likes
- No new comments
- No new engagement
You may be wondering how and why this often happens to companies and organizations. Let me help you that. Here are three (3) reasons why social media just isn’t working for you:
Reason #1: Your content is all about your business
First things first – social media is social. The platforms are there for you to build relationships with your customers through social activities, such as sharing and discussing content. They’re also there for you to listen to what’s going on. However, this is hard to do if you’re just broadcasting content about your business all the time. For example, I see a lot of education technology companies on Twitter pushing their promotions, special offers and new product updates and…that’s it. So, it should be no surprise that their social media isn’t working: There’s zero engagement underneath the content.
Building relationships on social media is also hard to do if you only push your products and services using sales-y messaging that people already get from paid advertising on the platform. People don’t like pushy, aggressive brands that provide no value to their experience. So, your posts can easily turn into interruptions. When that happens, your business may be the next one people block, ignore or scroll past.
Solution: Use the rule of thirds
The rule of thirds is a simple way to diversify your content and increase opportunities for engagement. The rule states that whenever you use social media, you should divide your content into three types (i.e., thirds) in the following way:
- ⅓ of content is focused on promotion: business and products or services
- ⅓ of content is focused on sharing: ideas and stories from industry thought leaders
- ⅓ of content is focused on engagement: discussions, commenting, liking, re-sharing etc.
This is not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a great place to start. With the rule of thirds, you’ll become a better listener and learn what content your customers actually want and care about. That’s the data you can use to inform how you use social media and what content you develop.
Further reading: Orbit Media – The rule of thirds
Reason #2: You don’t know who or where your customers are
Without knowing who your customers are, you’re basically talking to everyone, which means you aren’t talking to anyone specifically. That’s like shouting into a void hoping someone will pay attention.
You don’t need to reach every single person on social media. In fact, follower numbers are a sham that isn’t worth worrying about. Followers don’t tell you anything about the brand except that a lot of people follow the brand on social media. It’s the engagement that matters. The entire purpose of social media for a business is engagement. You want to find customers who will actively engage with your brand. In other words, you’re looking for the right people.
When you find and understand them – what they want, what they like, what problems they have, where you fit into the equation etc. – you can maximize opportunities for engagement and improve your social media marketing performance. For education brands, this is an especially important reminder. With the increasing size of the education technology market, it may seem like there are new brands to compete with everyday. But remember: no single business serves everyone. Your target audience is still waiting to be reached!
Solution: Develop user personas
User personas are fictional characters who represent your current or ideal customers and their goals. They are developed by conducting user research about your current customers. For education companies and organizations, there are generally four main audiences: students, parents, teachers and school administrators. However, there’s a lot of variation in what they want, need and are looking for among and within each group. Customer research helps you make clear distinctions.
With user personas, you’ll know specifically who your customers are, where they are and where they’re getting information. Furthermore, you’ll know which platforms these customers are using and what for. This helps you identify what problems they’re trying to solve. For example, you may find that teachers use Facebook more than other social media platforms to share lesson plan content. So, you know to communicate specific messages related to that.
User personas are crucial to have if you want to provide anything to your audience that is valuable, useful and important.
Further reading: Hootsuite – How to create buyer personas [with free templates]
Reason #3: You don’t know why you’re on social media
You should have a clear vision of the goals you wish to achieve on social media. If you don’t have a plan or you don’t know what you expect to achieve from your efforts on social media, two things might happen:
- You won’t get the results you want
- You develop unrealistic expectations
No one wants their efforts to go unrewarded. Make social media work for you by clarifying – and later confirming – why you’re there. If, for example, you’re there to learn more about your target audience, that will inform which platforms you use and how you use them. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, that will inform your choices and the strategy you build.
However, be intentional – make sure your social media goals align with your business objectives. Having the right goals won’t matter if they don’t actually serve your business!
Solution: Build a social media strategy
A social media strategy outlines what you’re doing right now and why it may or may not be working. It helps you align your social media goals with business and communications objectives and goals. It’s a flexible document that usually includes things like analytics, SWOT analysis, audience analysis, metrics etc. With this strategy, you’ll have an evidence-based guide that will help you develop social media content that truly provides value to your customers.
Further reading: Sprout Social – How to build your social media strategy for 2022
Over to you
Using social media doesn’t have to be scary or confusing. It should be simple process that’s worthy of your time. If any of the reasons above resonate with you, then now is the time to address them. Make sure you have the resources to do so. Consider working with expert freelancers if you’re short for time.
Remember – there’s no overnight fix for social media marketing challenges. They take time, but that time is necessary to take. Using research and social media tools, you’ll fix those mistakes and be on your way to making social media work for your business.