Question: When was the last time you actually checked to see what return you were getting from social media? All that time spent posting on Facebook and Instagram, engaging with people on LinkedIn or uploading short videos to TikTok. What does it all mean?
Answer: If you spent time checking all your analytics and insights against your original goals, there is a very high chance that the return on all this activity is actually very poor or in fact represents a significant opportunity cost for your business.
Ever since the late Noughties, all marketing strategies will have included important sections on how you can use social media to achieve specific business objectives. In the early days pre algorithms and AI-generated content – let’s call it the Organic Age - Twitter and Facebook were brilliant ways of building your brand online, growing a significant following and thus feeding your sales pipeline.
Then came paid media in the form of sponsored posts – the Ad Age - pay-per-click advertising and targeted campaigns using the vast amounts of data being captured by these platforms. These enabled even micro-SMEs with tiny budgets, to reach previously unimaginable audiences.
We’re now in what I would term the Post Social Age where you have a toxic combination which almost renders social media activity redundant.
1. The organic reach of typical social media accounts is tiny. This means that for every 1,000 people who may Like or Follow your account, only 10 - 20 will actually see your content. And out of those 1 or 2 handful of people, you’d be lucky if 1 or 2 people engaged with the content, let alone reacted to your call to action.
2. Competition is now intense with legions of influencers, news organisations, businesses and bots pushing out AI-generated content all clogging up the news feeds.
3. The time and energy required to create the sort of content that makes a splash online is considerable. Plus you’re competing with organisations with ad agencies or genuinely talented content creators who instinctively know what blog, Podcast or YouTube channel really works.
4. Users are increasingly engaging with entertainment and influencer content rather than brand content. This is where the ‘social’ networks have abandoned their roots and have become entertainment channels. This makes it nigh on impossible for your average SME without a really strong personal brand, a story to tell or access to influencers to make any headway on these channels.
5. Finally, algorithms rule the roost yet we are completely at their mercy and if the tech giants decide to make significant updates then there is little we can do. We’ve seen this time and again with Google, prioritisation of content on Facebook and Instagram, enhanced visibility of personal posts on LinkedIn and of course the almost total destruction of Twitter/X due to the desires of its megalomaniac owner Elon Musk to tweak its algorithm.
So what on earth do you do if you are a small business without a strong, engaged audience, you don’t have any viral content and you can’t afford to invest thousands in paid media?
Fear not as there is still plenty you can do to promote your business in a post social media age.
However, it is critical to have a properly thought-through digital marketing strategy which you can track (see our last blog on measurement).
This should include making sure your website is the best it can be, making the most of email/messaging marketing, building strong networks of partners, investing in your local presence on Google and finally, creating the very best authentic content you can in order to power your content reservoir – high quality ‘owned’ media.
In many ways we are going back 20 years, to the first phase of online marketing, before the emergence of the social networks. We may even be going back 30 years to a pre internet age where authentic content, paid media and direct communications ruled the roost.
If you are interested in getting the most out of your marketing or are fed up with chucking money at social media channels that just don’t work, why not get in touch with us?
Either come along to one of our workshops where we can train you to understand doing business online, measuring the performance of your business online or creating dynamic content.
Alternatively, why not arrange an appointment with one of our fully-qualified advisers to get a sense-check on your business. We can help you to create a bespoke 90-day marketing plan and even help you deliver this plan for a low-cost fee.
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