Are you doing too much on social? Streamline and thrive
Why are you on social media? As an individual, it's probably a mix of education, entertainment and community. For me social media is a combination of learning, community-building, networking, mumfluencer videos and inspirational things Taylor Swift said.
But as a business, your social media should have a very clear intention. Because otherwise it's very easy to lose track of the content you should be creating and the campaigns you should be running. And very easy to waste your time and money in the process.
So, with that in mind...
If you do one thing this week, make it…. review why you're on social media.
Why?
It sounds ridiculous, I know. But I talk to a lot of companies who excitedly list the platforms they are on but can't tell me why they are on those platforms. Or say it's because other similar businesses are on them. Or because they look fun. Or because they think they just should be.
Here's the problem with that. Social media is a time-suck. If you're not getting a return from your activities that's aligned with your business goals, you're wasting your time. And I don't mean that if you're posting and not seeing sales on the back of each post that's a failure - of course it's not. As I said in my last newsletter, 97% of people who see your posts aren't ready to buy. But you should be seeing an uplift in awareness, engagement, conversations, clicks or sales based on your social activities. Social media is not something to do for the sake of it, it's a business tool.
How?
First, take a look at your ideal customer audiences and where you think they spend time. If you're a branding agency, for instance, this could look like:
Marketing managers of financial services businesses > LinkedIn
Prospective employees and collaborators > Instagram
or if you're a charity this could be:
Prospective donors > Facebook & Instagram
Prospective partners and major donors > LinkedIn
Check the analytics of your activities on all these platforms. You want to make sure that the people who are engaging with your content on each platform look like they fit - in the vast majority - in the groups you're expecting. If they don't, this is a red flag.
Remember that having an audience on any channel doesn't mean anything if that audience doesn't match who you want to be talking to. So ask yourself whether this is because:
Your content isn't attracting the right people because it needs tweaking, e.g. centring your prospective customer in your copy, calling out their pain points, using relevant hashtags etc, or
The platform isn't right for you, because you're doing all the right things but 'your' people aren't there.
What now?
If any of your channels aren't actually supporting your business goals, pause your activities and focus your efforts where you are seeing returns - whatever that looks like for you. Your time and energy are precious, don't waste them on TikTok if the people engaging aren't ever going to contribute to your business growth.