When we launched Bad Rhino social media in 2011, we gladly said “yes” to any company willing to sign us on. Don’t judge, it’s just what new businesses do. We all need money, right?
Unfortunately (and fortunately), we worked with a number of clients who quite frankly weren’t ready for social media, even though they absolutely wanted and craved our services. Many of them had even put in many hours of work themselves to make it happen on their own before or after hiring us. The problem was (and for some still is) they just weren’t set up for success on social media.
As Bad Rhino grew, we became smarter, more analytical, and we were able to quickly point out to clients if they were a candidate for our services or not. We give clients blood (maybe not), sweat (definitely), and tears (of joy), so for us, we want to identify the barriers to success early in the process so they can be resolved before signing with us.
And if a client doesn’t want to or can not resolve them, then we’re walking away from the deal.
If you’ve been wanting to hire a social media agency, or you’ve been struggling on your own, then you might want to pay attention to the barriers to social media success we’ve identified.
4 Reasons Why Social Media Won’t Help You
1. Your Website Doesn’t Convert
A smart man named Marty McDonald once said, “Social Media is the glue that holds your entire marketing plan together.” Your social media strategy is where you engage an audience, share your most important pieces of content, and drive traffic to your website.
For most businesses, the website is still where you’re selling products, services, tickets, or making the connection. If we find out that your website is slow, sticky, uncomfortable, tough to navigate, or just flat out doesn’t convert, then we’ll suggest a website change.
Driving traffic to a website that doesn’t work is social media hell. You simply can’t even begin thinking of social media ROI until you’re extremely confident you have a website that converts.
Period.
2. You Lack Data
Being able to identify what has and hasn’t worked in your current and previous marketing is huge. Backing this up with data is even more important. Here are some pieces of data you should know:
- How many clicks is social driving to your website monthly?
- What are some of the best Facebook/Twitter ads you’ve ran? What was the cost per engagement and cost per click of those campaigns?
- How much traffic is social currently driving to your website?
- Do you know the demographic of your social audience? Are they in the locations that make sense for your business?
- Which social communities are right for targeting?
- there more, but those are some to start with
If we don’t have at least some of those above, then the process for us takes much longer to get rolling. Bad Rhino always performs an audit to start the social media process, but there are many data points we just won’t have that you should have.
3. You Have An Extremely Low Social Advertising Budget
Not willing to pay for traffic on social media?
In our ears that translates to: I don’t understand how social media works.
Listen, there are some instances that organic reach on Facebook isn’t dead, but it’s mostly a goner. Your posts reach roughly 1% of your social audience without a promotion. That means that just 1 out of 100 people will view your content. It’s just not worth your time being there for such a low number.
Here’s what a social advertising budget allows you to do:
- Drive targeted traffic to your website
- Increase views on your most important pieces of content
- Increase your email list
- Gain new community members
- Increase app downloads
- and more
Question: How much should you spend monthly?
This depends. Even a mom and pop shop can benefit from spending $500 per month, but some can get away with spending $250-300 monthly. Larger organizations are spending anywhere from $2,000 to 25,000 per month (and much higher than that for some).
What’s most important is understanding that if you’re not willing to incorporate an advertising budget, then be prepared to have a social media strategy that is stuck in quick sand.
4. You Aren’t Willing to Spend the Time on Your Social Analytics
Data. We touched on it earlier and we’re touching on it again.
You need data at the beginning of the process. You need it in the middle of the process. You need it at the end.
If you’re not reviewing analytics monthly then you can’t say what’s working and what’s not working. More importantly, you won’t know what to change, adapt, or scale up in the process.
Simply looking at your Facebook page or your top tweet isn’t enough. You need to spend time reviewing every post and looking for what went right and wrong. You need to match the traffic that Facebook reports and check google analytics to see if it’s correct. You need to come up with several key social metrics for your business and incorporate those into your monthly checks…every month.
Consistency in analytics is key. You can’t skip months. You need to put in the effort or find someone who will.
Ready to talk about your current marketing process and the potential of working with Bad Rhino? Click here to start the process!
