Maybe your business shouldn't be on social media

23 May 2016

What a contradictory title huh? Well, more and more small-to-medium businesses are flocking to social media as a cheaper alternative to promote their services and products. Social media is attractive as it is free to establish a presence on the platforms. Facebook alone has 1.4 billion monthly active users. So it must be good for business right? Well...

Focus is everything

My agency, Lemok Agency, manages multiple digital marketing strategies for just over a dozen small-to-medium businesses based in Gauteng and thousands of rands are spent every month on social media. My team and I are always monitoring and measuring results to check what works best. We even benchmark results to our clients' competitors and other related small-to-medium businesses.

Maybe your business shouldn't be on social media

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After reviewing 65 social media accounts (focus on Facebook and Twitter), we found that 13 of these small-to-medium businesses achieved an average of 12% increase in sales while the remaining 52 were stagnant with no reported returns. Why? Because most small-to-medium businesses simply do not have a clear strategy for social media - that is, clear social media goals with a clear road map to achieving those goals.

It's all about effectiveness

There are two questions (well, the answers to these questions) that ultimately contribute to social media success for small-to-medium businesses:

1. Why are you using social media? Is your Facebook page for customer service queries? Is your Twitter profile used as a content distribution channel? When you know why you are on a certain social media platform, you will have a targeted strategy. Sometimes we find businesses posting about political sagas or the weather - maybe the reason your audience isn't engaging with you on social media is because your content isn't guided by any strategy and it all seems 'wishy-washy'.

2. What are you measuring as your performance indicator? At Lemok Agency, we often say we do not sell 'likes', but we focus on what's important which is sales. Too many businesses measure the wrong things, and usually this is because they simply haven't asked the questions in point one above.

So, until you know why you are on social media and you can develop a clear social media strategy, I would suggest you take a "social vacation" for a while. It is better not to have a presence online then to be visible with no derived 'value'.