You’re wasting your time with social media if you own a small business
Yes, you read the title correctly. I think small business owners are wasting their time using social media. There is a reason I’m saying this. Five reasons, actually.
If you’re going to use social media successfully, then settle down with a cuppa and read how you can do it. Then get started by downloading my FREE template that will help you make the most of your time.
You don’t have a goal for your social media
If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve with social media, you’re on a sticky wicket. Most small businesses I meet throw themselves headlong into creating social media accounts without any idea of what they’re trying to achieve. Missing this step is setting yourself up for failure. And that’s where you start to think that social media isn’t working for your business. You start doubting your business idea. You think you will never find any customers. Is this beginning to sound familiar? You can be a complete success with social media; if you have an end goal in mind.
You don’t have a plan
I think my regular readers will start to think I’m sounding like a broken record. You MUST have a plan for how you’re going to use social media. Without this, you will post infrequently, you’ll be scrabbling for content (when you should be running your business), you’ll miss great opportunities to get business and you’ll be thoroughly fed up. This is because you’ll be making lots of effort and you won’t see the results for it. Make it easy for yourself – plan your posts well in advance so they are quick to do and help you get results.
You’re looking for your audience in the wrong place
If you sell clothing for men and women over the age of 50, focusing all your efforts on Snapchat will not get you results. Taking the time to find out more about your potential customers will help you understand the type of content they like, how they like to consume it and where they look for it. So spend some time figuring out what your ideal customer looks like and which social media channels they use. Then focus your efforts ONLY on those channels. Don’t worry about the new shiny things that come along unless they are relevant to your audience.
You’ve taken the scattergun approach
I’ve said it once, and I’ll keep on saying it. Individual marketing actions will not get you results. Marketing campaigns will! Remember that you are PUSHING out content to PULL a response from your potential customers. This means all your marketing activities need to work in harmony. They need to be pulling in the same direction and guiding people along the same path to complete the actions you’ve set out to help you meet your end goal. So, make social media part of your marketing campaigns to make it more effective.
If you don’t know what’s working, how can you do more of it?
Measuring how well your social media is working is such an important thing to do. If you don’t know what’s working and what isn’t, you’re going to keep wasting your time. Figuring out how well social media is performing against your goals helps you to understand where to put your efforts. You’re busy enough already, do you really want to waste your time on social media activities that get your business nothing? I thought not! That’s why you need to make measuring your activities part of your routine.
I hope I’ve helped you understand why social media can be a waste of time for small businesses. You have precious little time to waste and if you don’t do the five things I’ve laid out in this post, your efforts will not move your business forward.