4 big hurdles brands face in creating a credible social media presence

With more than 84% of brands carrying out social media marketing (Hub Spot report), the greatest challenge is to rise above all the clutter and establish your brand’s credibility. The effectiveness of social media marketing is highlighted by the fact that it is100 times more effective in sealing the lead-to-closure rate. Hence brands are vehemently using this channel to attain multiple business goals.

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There is no gospel for building a strong social media integrity. Brands have achieved this through trial and error techniques. In this article, I shed light on the greatest barriers faced by startups and established brands alike, while marketing on social platforms, along with the solutions to overcome the social media credibility and presence crunch.

#1. Not having enough time to manage social networks – The most widespread reason for not updating the social profiles regularly is the lack of time. In the case of startups there is too much on the plate, right from paid campaigns, to getting online leads, to looking after the SEO. Amid all this and owing to the small size of the team, often at the end of the day there is not much time for social media marketing.

Solution – The two solutions to get over this problem are:

• Outsource/hire an inhouse social media marketer – This further depends on the You can either outsource the social media marketing from a reputed agency which has experience in working with the same or related niche, or hire an in-house social media ninja. In the initial stages however, hiring an experienced full time social media marketer may not be budget friendly. So explore the possibility of either appointing a part time community manager or, outsourcing from a social media-marketing agency.
• Keep aside one hour for social media marketing. Social media management tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer schedule your posts on multiple networks, so if you have some spare time in your plate then consider opting for this. By handling the social media accounts, you come to know the trends making rounds in theindustry. Listen first hand to the chatter about your brand and directly interact with the target audience. These tools provide analytics reports about the performance of the brand on various platforms.Helping choose the networks that are the most effective,

Additional strategies to simplify the task of social media management include:

• Using only two or three social platforms that are most effective – Research on the platforms where most of your target audience resides, accordingly choose one primary network to establish your thought leadership, and use the other two as supplements.
• Chalk out a strategy – To streamline your social media efforts, rather than being overwhelmed by the strategy that your competitors are using, chalk out a strategy, which is the most relevant and useful. Establish your goals, be it advertising, establishing subject expertise or obtaining more leads, and then carve about a strategy accordingly.

#2. Not knowing the type of content to post – This factor limits a brand’s reach.

• Not maintaining a blog, white papers or e-books – If a brand is not a content publishing platform, it doesn’t mean that there is nothing to share. Curating relevant content is another way to establish thought leadership and credibility. Commenting and participating in discussions, and creating micro-content is equally effective in gaining traction on social networks.
• Some business niches think they are not interesting enough to gain the target audience’s attention. Often very niche businesses are under the impression that their matter sounds boring or uninteresting on social platforms. Creating some interesting and engaging content using visual marketing has the ability to capture even the dullest industries.

#3. Lack of knowledge about your customer’s expectations from your brand – Not doing a reality check on what the audience wants you to share on social networks leads to failure of any result. You can get the grassroots knowledge of what your customers want to hear from you by:

• Asking the audience – Rather than forecasting on the target audience’s expectation, by simply asking what exactly they need. This can be done through an inquiry form on the website page, by Tweeting the requirement, or by creating a Facebook poll (promoted or organic).
• Find out the topics your competitors are using and the gaps that are left to be tapped into – Research into the topics that they are discussing and also the topics that address the users’ pain points that are missed out. Finally, stand out by solving the problems faced by the target audience.
• Test and measure every hypothesis, experiment and campaign – Measure the response achieved after each campaign to know the type of content the audience responds to the most. Although there are ideal times for posting on each network, what works for one niche or brand may not work for your specific brand. Test each of these and then measure the result to ingrain the positive outcomes, while discharging the unsuccessful strategies.

#4. Not being clear about the goals that you want to achieve with social media marketing – To streamline the marketing efforts in the right direction, be clear about the goals that are to be achieved. If it’s plain marketing, channel all the posts in that direction, if it’s to create a highly engaging brand, leave no stone unturned in making it one. If you want to capture maximum leads through these networks then optimize the efforts accordingly by including the on-page signups, promoting content, blogs, posts or ebooks. and making it a hub of credibility.

The ball is in your court, test, and measure, take feedback and rework to get the best out of your attempts and establish a credible social media presence.

About the author:

Priyanka Desai – As a content and social media marketer, she helps brands create awesome content for their blogs, ebooks and guest posts, and crafts engaging campaigns. Get in touch with her on LinkedIn or drop a mail at [email protected].

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)