Why You’re Not Successful in Social Media – Mistakes and Solutions

Social media is the buzzword in today’s marketing environment and everyone talks about how important it is to use this vehicle to grow your business and your online presence. There’s just one problem: most people fail at it. And fail miserably. They fail so badly that there’s actually people out there today that think social media doesn’t work. It works, the reason it doesn’t for most is that it’s a “you” problem. If you want to be successful at social media, you MUST avoid the number one reason people and brands fail at social media:

“You MUST lead with value”

If your Facebook page and Twitter feed is a constant stream of SPAM posts and “Buy from me, Buy from me, Buy from me” type of content, no one will take you seriously. After all, what is SPAM other than “Stupid Pathetic Attempts at Marketing”? Similar to that annoying person interrupting conversation at real live network events by shoving his business card to anyone within arm’s length, people only want to interact with those they like and trust. If you don’t lead with some kind of value play, you’ll never get past that stage and no one’s going to take you seriously.

Social media is all about branding yourself as well. Are you projecting a positive image for yourself and/or your company? Social Media will not convert to actual money if your online presence looks like it was created by a 10-year old. True, 10 year old’s can do it, but most likely if you’re not succeeding in social media, it could be because you’re afraid to spend the money necessary to create a professional appearance. If you treat social media like a business, it’ll help your business. If you treat it like a hobby, you may enjoy it, but it probably won’t pay the bills. You need to constantly be investing in your business, both in time and money. If your company’s “message” looks the same as everyone else and not taking your business seriously, you’re certainly going to get lost in the Social Media sphere. It’s not social media’s fault.

Did you ever hear the saying “The money is in the list”? Well, it’s true, and you’re making a huge social media mistake if you aren’t using lead capture forms or squeeze pages to generate targeted email lists. You need to have a strategy to monetize whatever brand it is you want to create for yourself, and harvesting email addresses or phone numbers in the case of mobile marketing is tantamount to not even trying to begin with. Most of the businesses that proclaim “social media doesn’t work” doesn’t do any of this. They just rely on the old marketing systems and advertising tactics that have gone the way of the VCR.

Being able to adapt to changes in the constant evolution of social media networks is also extremely important. Facebook continually changes. So does Twitter. So does just about every form of social media. You need to stay up to date on these changes so you can employ strategies and techniques to exploit those changes. What if you don’t? Well, then the “Social Media doesn’t work” mantra comes into play once again. Many businesses still don’t use Twitter (big mistake), and many more use Twitter completely incorrectly. If you do it right, Twitter can be a constant source of immediate leads to your business on a daily basis, and the same goes for Facebook, especially with the use of interactive fan pages or creating your own Facebook Group and promoting that group to like-minded prospects. One of the best ways to do this is to make social media a habit and set aside an hour a day for social media networking learning and dive into it headfirst.

But don’t make it hard for prospective customers to contact you with tight privacy settings. If you want to be successful in Social Media, you need to be “connectable” and be willing to engage as a real person with valuable content. If no one can find you, no one can connect with you (or buy from you). Privacy settings will literally kill your social media marketing if they are set too high.

The second most reason people fail at social media is extremely common: Procrastination.

There are so many reasons for this, but many people tend to be perfectionists and don’t really get serious in a new venture until they “know it all”. Well, we all know because of the constant changes and evolution of social media that knowing it all will never happen. Instead, you have to adopt the attitude that you don’t really need to get it all right, you just need to get it going. So many people are addicted to learning rather than implementation that any marketing strategy becomes ineffective because of their fear of making mistakes or doing it wrong. The only mistake you can make in social media right now is not getting into social media in the first place.

The key to a successful online presence is the targeted nature of social media. Determine your niche and become the master on that particular subject. The “Jack of all trades, master of none” approach is not something you should strive for. Provide valuable information on whatever your niche-content is by tapping into people’s emotions, their needs, and their personality types with subtle social media communication and you will soon discover the secret of powerful social media marketing that cannot be duplicated elsewhere (or stolen, since you’ve made that content “your own”). Learn to get these social media contacts on the phone and you have a powerful marketing system.

Yes, social media works! And with the proliferation of smart phones, your customers can be anywhere in the world via social media.

We all make mistakes, but to say that “Social Media’ doesn’t work is simply not true. The results you deserve in social media are right around the corner, you just have to make the commitment in time and energy to learn what needs to be done to become successful, and then do it. Or contact people and develop a mastermind group who have actually built businesses using social media techniques who are competent in the industry for guidance. Not the Spammy ones, who you probably wouldn’t deal with in the first place, but real world results people who can lead you with tried and true techniques. If you don’t apply the above information and are failing in social media, you have only yourself to blame.