A recent poll conducted by Manta revealed that 51% of business owners did not have a business Facebook page . It also showed that 50% of those surveyed did not feel there was a positive ROI for time spent on Facebook.
Facebook has almost 2 billion monthly active users.
Twitter has 313 million active monthly users.
LinkedIn has around 500 million users.
Do you really believe there is not at least 1% on social media that might be interested in your product or service? Even at 1% those are BIG numbers!
A common thread I find when talking to business owners is that they just don't feel social media will work for their business because they are unique. If the conversation goes deep enough it usually settles on a common misunderstanding of how to market your business on social media.
Common mistakes businesses make with social media marketing:
- The ideal client has not been identified.
- The ideal audience for each social stream has not been identified.
- No effort to offer useful information in the buyer's journey.
- Using RSS feeds instead or original content.
When using traditional selling methods, most businesses clearly understand that everyone is NOT their ideal client. If you are selling commercial maintenance services you would not target homeowners with your marketing. Yet, it is common for businesses to take a shotgun approach to social media.
Facebook allows a business to focus on those demographics that are relevant to your product and service. This includes Gender, Age, Geography, Language and Interests. Did you know you can set your page audience in Facebook? Click here to learn how.
Blah,Blah,Blah....Buy my product. My product is on sale. Work for us. The list goes on. No real effort is made to provide any relevant content to guide visitors through the buyer's journey. A false assumption is made that everyone is ready to buy immediately. Once again the shotgun approach with no real appreciation of the buyer journey or experience. Social media can be an effective lead generation platform and not just a click and buy platform.
You do not have to hire a full time staff person to manage social media. Studies suggest that when you are building a following Quality/Relevance beats Quantity. Avoid using auto feeds that simply repost content. Research has shown that Quality beats Quantity. If you do not have the time or do not want to spend the time developing quality content then you can outsource your social media marketing.
Should a business outsource their Social Media Management?
I have seen ads that offer these services for $3/day. I can assure you no professional copywriter will develop unique content for your social media for that amount of money. ( It is very likely they will just auto post from RSS feeds). Multiply that number by a factor of ten and you can hire a professional marketing firm that will develop unique and engaging content for your audience. This approach is significantly less than hiring a part time employee and you can expense the cost on your taxes. If you are unhappy with the results you can fire the agency and not worry about paying unemployment!
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