3 Reasons Your Social Strategy is Failing (And What to Do Instead)

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3 Reasons Your Social Strategy is Failing (And
What to Do Instead)
Posted by:Brad Smith
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Posted Oct ober 29, 2012
"Social tactics are not meaningful sales drivers", according to Forrester's latest research report.
They analyzed primary sales drivers for eCommerce, and concluded that less than 1% of buyers
were from social visitors.
There's a few possible explanations for this.
The first (and most important) is that social aids the buying process indirectly, and is difficult to
track which leads companies (and research firms) to under-appreciate and under-invest.
The second, is that most corporate social media strategies simply aren't that good. And their
results are mediocre because they're too tactical, and too focused on micro-decisions.
Here are 3 reasons why your social strategy is failing, and what to do instead.
Fix #1: Create Content, Not Updates
Every status update should have a purpose, and engineered to succeed.
You're not just "telling people what you're up to", but you're creating content with a specific
objective, interesting hook, and call-to-action.
So every single status update should bear all t he hallmarks of good content.
Research and dig into your prospect's psychology, use copywriting to intrigue and address their
pain points, and monitor your analytics to do more of what people like, and less of what t hey
don't.
Every status update should be like it's own advertisement:
Objective: At the end of the day, you need engagement or click-throughs. But emphasis
one at a time, not both. Because if you want to maximize result s, then you t ypically have to
make a choice that will hurt the other option.
Headline:The first goal of your headline is to grab attention. The best way is to touch an
emotional nerve, or reference a specific "world-view" they might have.

Description: The description is where you use copywriting to play on reader's interests
and psychology, and get them to take action.
Image: Finally, the goal of your image is to produce a desired result. So it doesn't have to
be explicitly tied to what you're talking about. Inst ead, make it sure captures attention and
will make an emotional connection.
Here's an example of all t hose components coming together:
Becoming a social media publisher
allows you to set the tone for
engagement, and steer the
conversation in ways that ultimately
benefit you.
Fix #2: Create Assets,
Not Followers
If you hope to profit from social media
one day, then you need to do more then gain followers.
Instead, you need to focus your marketing on one-to-many.
For example, partners and good relat ionships with other brands or influential properties are assets.
If you can create enough of these, then you'll never have to worry about growing your followers
again. Because they'll help you with promotion and drive awareness for years to come.
The same goes f or your own in-house email list or blog.
These are platforms that grow in value, and allow you to freely share messages and inst antly reach
communities of people.
Invest in marketing assets first, and the social media mentions and friends will follow.
Fix #3: Create Campaigns, Not Launches
Whenever a company has a new launch, promotion, or sale coming up, they want to start
"marketing" on the opening day.
But by then, you've already lost.
Effectively promoting events or launches takes time, and can't happen overnight.
"If you want to succeed in social media, then t hink in quarters, not days." → [Click here to
share this quote]

So tying in to # 1 above, if you want to increase sales and engagement over t he holidays, don't
flood your social media channels with "Buy my widget now!" updates all day.
But start creating holiday content that teases and hints at upcoming promotions. Find partners to
cross-promote and help you distribute this content . Then run contest s to increase engagement
and excitement f or the upcoming holiday specials. Finally, use lead nurturing and email marketing
to consistently follow-up with people when they do or don't show intent to buy.
Investing in a single, well planned and executed holiday campaign will always have a higher ROI
than spamming people the day before Christmas.
And with one investment, you're getting multiple returns in brand awareness, new traffic, social
media mentions & followers, high-quality links for SEO, new email leads, and of course more
cust omers.
The key to social media isn't to reinvent the wheel.
The key is to take what's worked for years, and use social channels t o dist ribut e those messages
farther, faster, and more effectively.
Connect:
Aut hored by:
Brad Smith
Brad Smith is a digital marketing consultant and the founder of FixCourse, an online
publication that teaches organizations how to grow. Discover how to "fix" your marketing
with our free weekly newsletter.
You'll get online marketing strategies that any business can use to increase revenue and tips,
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