More than 90 percent of businesses in the U.S. utilize social media marketing.

But while everyone may be using it, it’s far from a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, developing an effective social media marketing plan requires research and work, not to mention plenty of continuous adjustments to your strategies.

Even then, there are plenty of common challenges that you’ll face along the way. 

Social Media Challenges: Choosing Your Platforms, Content Marketing, and Measuring ROI

Mastering social media for your business means knowing and anticipating the challenges you’ll face so that you can develop solutions even before you need them.

From platforms that don’t reach your target audience to content that falls flat, your strategy will need some early planning to ensure success. Keep reading to learn three common challenges that you’ll face, and some tips for how you can overcome them.

Choosing the Right Social Media Channels

Large corporations with massive marketing budgets might have no problem juggling pages and accounts on every social media platform out there today. But for most businesses, trying to take on too much will only keep you from finding your social media niche and creating a successful strategy.

Each social media platform is unique, with its own user demographics and features. A company that specializes in producing web content, for instance, might not have many stunning photos to capture the attention of an Instagram following. But a luxury hotel or boutique clothing company will thrive in a space where they can showcase their setting or products with envy-worthy snapshots and beautiful filters. In the same way, if your target demographic are adults over the age of 50, Snapchat isn’t a great use of your marketing budget.

To ensure that you aren’t wasting your time or budget on social media channels that won’t get you the exposure you need, start by researching the demographics that use each platform. Consider the most popular ways of using each platform, such as through posting pictures or linking to long-form content. Then, focus your efforts on the platforms that you feel will offer you the best chance at success, rather than stretching your efforts thin with too many accounts and pages at once.

Measuring ROI

A successful marketing campaign involves various tactics implemented simultaneously. Each of these tactics has various goals, from increasing brand awareness to encouraging engagement. Unfortunately, measuring the return on investment of each strategy, and how they affect your success as a whole, can be a challenge.

When you post a video, you might gauge the success of that video based on the number of views it gets. When you host a contest, you might count how many times your contest post was shared. 

Even these measurements can be tricky to track. Views may mean one viewer watching several times, or it could mean all new viewers. You have no way of knowing whether the people who watched your video then liked your page, or whether most of your views were from people already following you. Shares can be tough to track as well, as users who fail to share your original post may not even get counted in your total.

These issues can cause you to over-value some tactics while dismissing others as not being worth the investment. To overcome this challenge, you need to establish a clear set of values upon which you’ll determine your ROI. 

A few examples of values you might track include:

• Number of purchases made
• Number of visits to your website
• Number of new newsletter signups
• Number of new followers

Depending on your business’ overall goals, each of these measurements taken following a new post or launch of a paid advertisement can help you decide which tactics are working and which need adjustment.

Creating Content

Stunning images, flashy video, and witty posts are all great for catching the eye of your followers. But if you don’t have anything in place to real them in after that, they’ll likely just keep scrolling.

That’s where content marketing comes in. Content is your chance to show potential customers your value by offering them something in return for their time and attention. Depending on the nature of your business and the industry you operate in, you could offer life hacks, advice targeted at certain problems you know customers face, or even entertaining content. 

The goal is to get your social media followers onto your website to read your content. They’ll get their free answers, advice, or entertainment, and you’ll get the chance to expose them to your business, brand, and products.

Content takes time and research. You not only need to constantly come up with new topics but actually write on your chosen subjects. Producing unprofessional, shallow content won’t get you the engagement you need. While most of us recognize the importance of content marketing, fewer than 40 percent of businesses have a plan in place for producing and managing this content.

Luckily, the solution to this problem is simple; bring in a professional. Better yet, outsource your content to one. Hiring a freelance or outsourced content creator means that you get evergreen, creative, and professional content that’s fresh and ready when you need it.

Overcoming Social Media Challenges

Social media marketing is a great way to utilize organic and paid techniques to broaden your brand awareness, increase your customer base, and ultimately, drive sales. But if you don’t work to understand and overcome these challenges, you’ll be wasting your time and budget on strategies that will never be successful.

By choosing the right platforms to focus on, learning to measure your overall ROI, and developing an effective content marketing strategy, you can ensure that your tactics have the best possible chance at success!

Interested in boosting your own social media strategy with the help of well developed and targeted content? Reach out to us today!