7 Warning Signs That Your Social Media Strategy Isn’t Working

Social media has made it easier than ever before for someone to grow an authority around a passion. Millions of the people who have embraced social media use it to promote their businesses, spread the word about their blog posts, and lead people to product pages. These people create social media strategies in the attempt to grow their authorities on the web.

Out of all of the social media strategies that get implemented, only a few of them work. Most social media strategies do a few things wrong. In a social media strategy, if a few things get done incorrectly, the entire strategy could get sabotaged. Let’s say you are gaining 100 Twitter followers every day. If you only send one tweet every day and never promote your content, then you are not getting traffic to your blog which could lead to more revenue and authority on the web.

One of the best ways to do something right is by knowing the warning signs. If you see these warning signs in your social media strategy, then you need to adjust your strategy. If these seven warning signs are within your social media strategy, then you need to adjust that strategy:

#1: You Are Practically Chasing Potential Followers And Likers

This mistake is commonly referred to as begging other people to follow you or like your page and stalking them until the action gets performed. You also get very excited when you get one new follower or one new like. If your social media strategy has this warning sign, it takes too much effort to get a single follower. If you want to build an authority on any social network, it must be easy for you to get followers by the dozens, and eventually, by the hundreds every day.

On Twitter, I would be disappointed if I gained less than 200 followers on any given day. Gaining over 500 Twitter followers in one day would be a really good day for me. Don’t rejoice over gaining a single follower because that indicates slow growth. Instead, rejoice over the big milestones. Rejoice over getting dozens of daily followers, then hundreds of daily followers, and if you absolutely crush it on social media, thousands of daily followers.

#2: You Don’t Have An End Goal

What is the point of growing your social media audience? If you can’t answer this question, then this warning sign applies to your social media strategy. You need to identify the benefit of growing your social media presence. Sure, social proof is good, but you need a better reason to grow your social media audience.

I grow my social media audience so I can get more blog traffic, meet new people, and get more subscribers when I promote my landing pages (if you have a landing page, you should promote yours on social media too). There needs to be a purpose behind your actions other than the fact that social media is the big thing.

#3: You Are Not Interacting With Your Followers

Some of the best social media tips are tips for real life. One of those tips is to have a two-sided conversation with your followers. Think of how annoying it would be to listen to a one-sided conversation in real life. One person does all of the talking, and you just listen. You want to say something to the person talking, but it’s a one-sided conversation (oh well).

When people went over to social media, they forgot to properly carry over this important concept. Most social media posts are one-sided conversations in which people post what is on their minds without thinking about interacting with their followers. If someone posts a relevant response to one of your social media posts, you need to respond to that person. The strongest relationships that develop via social media start with interaction.

#4: Your Posts Are Not Getting A Lot Of Engagement

One of the reasons people go after large audiences on social media is to spread the word about what they do. In order to use social media to spread the word about what you do, your followers need to engage with your content. If your followers are not engaging with your content, then your audience size is just a number that doesn’t mean anything. 1 real follower is better than 100,000 fake ones.

If your posts are not getting a lot of engagement, then you are probably not reaching your goals for your social media strategy. You need people to share your content to have an impact on social media.

#5: Your Strategy Is Taking Up Too Much Time

Social media is a way to promote the pages that build relationships and bring more revenue for you. Social media is not a giant cash machine. Although you should focus part of your time on your social media strategy, you also need to focus your time on revenue generating activities. If your strategy takes up hours of your time every day, then you need to shorten it. You can eliminate certain processes and buy upgraded tools with more features (i.e. HootSuite Pro) to save time. Time is money.

#6: You Are Often Using Social Media To Promote Your Products

Red flag! Social media is not the place to promote your products and make the extra buck. Social media is the place to build relationships with like-minded people. You get the revenue from social media when you promote your blog, and the blog visitor either decides to buy a product he sees right away or subscribes to your blog and buys a product down the road. You can occasionally promote your products on social media, but you should only promote a product in a meaningful way. Kim Garst did that well with these tweets about her latest book.

#7: You Aren’t Making Yourself Different

Why would someone follow you instead of the other person in your niche? I don’t know for you exactly, but you must know why you would get people to follow you instead of someone else in your niche. You need to make yourself different from other people and present yourself in a way that encourages more people to follow you. Your bio needs to let people know why you are different in a concise manner. You can be different for the value you produce, having circumstances that most people don’t have, being something that most people are not, having a high level of credibility, or something else that makes you stand out. Standing out will help you build an authority on the web.

Not only is it important to make yourself different so you grow your audience, but if you make yourself different, your followers will remember you. Social media is a very noisy place where it is easy to be forgotten. If the people who view your social media account see you as a unique individual, then these people will remember who you are, visit your blog, and eventually buy your products.

In Conclusion

Chances are you know which warning signs apply to your social media strategy. At this stage of the game, there are only two choices. The first choice is to accept your social media strategy as it is, not address any of the warning signs, and not see dramatic growth. The second (better) choice is to address any of the warning signs that affect your social media strategy and stop them before those warning signs turn into your strategy’s danger. By addressing and fixing the flaws, you will move forward with your social media strategy and authority development.

Which warning signs apply to you? Do you have any additional warning signs that you would like to warn people about? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

7 Warning Signs That Your Social Media Strategy Isn’t Working