7 Hard Truths About Social Media Marketing

Marketing has quickly moved towards social media. However, for new businesses attempting to enter this medium, it is essential to get rid of all the misconceptions that surround this technique.

According to a study, major corporations state that the cost of social media marketing mistakes stands at about an average of 4.3 million US dollars a year. There is no denying the reach of social media. 42 percent of the world's population make up the daily active users on social media. That is about 3.2 million users. It could spell doom for your organization if a social media marketing strategy went south, as it is in front of a global audience.

The good news is that arming yourself with knowledge is a surefire way to prevent such catastrophic mistakes. This article focuses on some of the facts that you need to know about social media marketing before planning your strategy.

1. Social media marketing takes effort.

Contrary to popular belief, setting up a business profile on social media, and setting up your advertisements is not as simple as managing an individual account. The key to marketing success on social media is not limited to publishing a few relatable posts, and keeping the profile active. Reaching your business goals requires a well thought out strategy and impeccable timing.

Businesses should prioritize promoting product value. A business profile aiming to be a user's best friend is not going to achieve much profit. To ensure long term success, keep in mind the three Cs—Commitment, consistency, and change. It requires a commitment to keep following the strategy, even if there are no immediate profits. Learn how expert marketers do it. Follow them on the internet, and their blogs.

The business profile should stay consistent with its views and posts. Finally, make sure you stay prepared to adapt quickly to changes in policies and demographics.

2. Lack of resources

As developing marketing strategies for social media is a relatively new field, the number of employees you can hire is limited. According to a survey, 43 percent of companies stated that their number one problem with social media marketing was a lack of skilled employees.

Train your employees in social media marketing techniques and strategies. Pair this with powerful tools for managing social media marketing, and you are good to go. The top tools that experts recommend for managing social media marketing include Buffer, Social Clout, Feedly, Canva, and Socedo. You can use Buffer to share content to multiple social media platforms through one central dashboard.

Social Clout is a social media marketing analytics tool that collects and analyzes the engagement of posts, and calculates the return on investment. Feedly curates a magazine of sorts based on inspirational content to make it easier to create and design your own. Canva is a graphic design tool for users with no graphic design experience. Beginners also use it for Brochure designs. Socedo is a B2B demand generation tool that is used to automate lead generation.

If your business requires publishing educational resources as part of its strategy, Wordpress LMS is one of the best tools available in the market.

3. No fixed method for determining the return on investment (ROI)

When companies talk about getting a high return on investment, it is unclear what they perceive as the return. Some companies consider the number of followers on their profiles as the ROI, others the number of clicks on advertisements.

Since there is no hard and fast rule on how to determine ROI, there is no clarity in the goals and targets that an organization should set in the field of social media marketing. 60 percent of marketers picked determining the return on investment as the top challenge in social media marketing.

Choosing a bottom line for an organization varies from how to become an influencer to revenue generated from advertisements, and this can change how the company behaves on social media.

4. No guarantee of a positive return on investment.

Another hard to swallow fact for most organizations is the possibility that social media marketing will deliver no return on investment. A study found that only 48 percent of investors get a return on investment from social media marketing strategies. A large number of factors come together to create positive returns.

Choosing the right social media platform, and the right strategy and target demographic goes a long way towards attaining high returns.

5. Social media marketing is not free nor cheap.

A common misconception about social media marketing is that it is free. This idea stems from the fact that non-business profiles are free. However, revenue generated from social media advertising is at an all-time high. Most social media offer a base fare for advertising, and then charge for every successful advertisement.

A successful ad is one that convinces the user to click on the ad, install an application, or claim an offer. Over the past few years, social media platforms have intentionally made it harder for business pages to reach their audience without paying.

The following shows the prices of an advertisement on various social media.

• Facebook/ Instagram—1 dollar per impression per day
• 5 dollars per view and click per day
• 40 dollars for an offer claim or app installation per day
• LinkedIn—10 dollars per day
• 2 dollars per click
• Youtube—10 dollars per day
• Twitter—No minimum
• Pinterest—2 dollars per impression
• 0.10 dollars per click

A standard measure of verifying whether you are getting enough bang for your buck is the CPL, CPV, and CPC. The CPL stands for Cost Per Like. CPV stands for Cost Per View, and CPC stands for Cost per Click. CPC is by far the most commonly used. You can also choose to pay per 1000 impressions.

According to WebFX, the following list features the average cost per click on various social media-

• Facebook—0.97 dollars per click
• Instagram—3.56 dollars per click
• Youtube—3.21 dollars per click
• LinkedIn—5.26 dollars per click
• Twitter—0.38 dollars per click

However, picking a low-cost option does not mean improved profits. Keep in mind the demographics of each platform, and who your target is.

6. Sometimes it all boils down to luck.

Unlike other platforms, a large portion of social media marketing depends on luck. Your business may have the odds stacked against it from the start. A business marketing products that are not interesting to a general audience is bound to face problems in building a successful account.

You may have to shell out more money on your investment for advertising. In contrast, businesses with a large and active customer base will have to invest less for the same returns. However, it is possible to achieve your targets with appealing visuals, and a well-crafted marketing strategy.

The role of luck in making it big on social media is not a small one. Just one post or tweet becoming viral is all you need. Awareness about your business and products will boom overnight. However, this can easily backfire if the feelings about the post are all negative. Make sure all your posts represent your company's beliefs on top of being engaging.

7. It is the future of advertising whether you like it or not.

While all the above facts point towards avoiding social media marketing due to the risks involved, the future is here. The statistics of user behavior on social media proves it. 54 percent of active users use social media to find and research products.

71 percent of customers are likely to recommend a brand if they had a positive experience with it on social media. 49 percent of users use social media influencers' recommendations to buy products.

Facebook has more than 5 million advertisers as of now. 78 percent of users on Twitter expect an active and prompt business profile. 80 percent of all users on Instagram follow at least one business. The revenue generated by Instagram influencers for advertising was upwards of five billion dollars.

A survey on the budget for social media strategies found that 68 percent of businesses that took part, plan on publishing more advertisements on social media. 74 percent of organizations are planning on increasing their budget for advertising on Instagram. 60 percent chose Facebook and 49 percent chose Youtube as well for their 2019 marketing strategy.

With the world moving towards marketing on social media, you would be doing your business a great disservice if you do not join the bandwagon. A brand without a social media presence in 2019 is a brand that will die out very quickly.

The following are a few things to keep in mind when constructing your social media strategy for this year.

• Set specific, attainable goals with measurable outcomes
• Focus on real measures to keep track of returns.
• There are four kinds of goals–
• Awareness of the brand
• Engagement with the customers
• Conversions from ads to product sales
• Customer retentions

You can measure each of these goals through various social media criteria. For instance, the number of followers, shares, and retweets can help quantify brand awareness. Keeping track of customer reviews and comments is also another way you can quantify retention and engagement.

When in doubt, visualize your favorite social media business page, and attempt to emulate it. However, set realistic expectations when designing your marketing strategy.