Why social media is a waste of your time

 

Don’t worry – I’m not about to slate social media, or tell you to go in and delete all of your social accounts and banish the whole thing from your content marketing plan. Quite the opposite, in fact. I’m here to tell you that you absolutely SHOULD invest your time and energy in social media, but I’m also gonna warn you that there’s a huge chance that you’re doing social media all wrong…

Even if you’re using every single social media platform going, there are 3 major reasons why you’re completely wasting your time. Let me tell you about ‘em.

Reason #1 – Your audience isn’t there.

I see it all the time – business owners create themselves a Facebook Page, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat…and there are new channels popping up every other month, right?

Which ones should you choose? It can be tempting to try and be everywhere – but don’t! Trying to engage on every platform is just too overwhelming, and you’ll probably end up not posting at all!

You need to be consistently posting and engaging on the platforms where your audience is most likely to be.

Unless you’ve got a content manager taking care of your content marketing for you, then just choose one or two, and concentrate on making an absolute killing on them. No half-arsed posting – have a proper plan, and be consistent. And make sure you’re using platforms where you KNOW your audience will be – not the ones you like using the best. Yeah, you might really enjoy posting images on Instagram, but if your people are mostly using LinkedIn, or Facebook, then they aren’t gonna see them, are they?

Reason #2 - You are just selling, not engaging.

I can’t stress this enough – social media should ALWAYS be social. It’s not a place to just advertise your products and services – you have to add value, otherwise, no-one will buy from you.

People only buy from brands that they know, like and trust. So allow your followers to get to know you – post thoughts and opinions, ask questions, tell them stories. Don’t just sell.

I should add, though, that it is OK to sell stuff sometimes – but be sparing, otherwise you’ll put people off.

Reason #3 – you are growing your following, not your business.

People online are always pushing the fact that you need to grow your followers in order to succeed on social media – and that’s kind of true…but not entirely.

Yes, it’s useful to have a healthy number of followers, but it’s the quality, rather than the quantity, that you should be focussing on.

Rather that merely thinking about vanity metrics (how many followers, how many views, how many likes etc.), it’s more important to look at HOW people are interacting with you, and thinking about WHO you want on your followers list.

It’s easy to collect a load of people who will never buy from you. It takes more work to have a curated list of people who are genuinely interested in who you are and what you do. Without the RIGHT people, your business won’t grow.

Summary

Here are some ‘success tips' for getting social media to work for your business.

1.      Get your profile right.

2.      Engage.

3.      Be consistent.

4.      Comment as much as you create - more if you can.

About me

Tereasa Hedges, freelance copywriter for creatives, designers and makers.

I’m a freelance copywriter who specialises in writing content for creative people, helping you to reach larger audiences through blogging, web content, email marketing, and a little bit of social media for good measure.

Want to work with me? Contact me for a chat via shirecopywriting@outlook.com