Anyone who has been through the process of starting a social media strategy for their business will have come across various obstacles in the early stages. Time and resources are obvious problems, but expectation is increasingly impacting on the success of social media projects. The expectation, by people who don't really understand, about what can be accomplished with a social strategy is not realistic.
Why is Expectation so High?
I blame the internet.
I know that's a stupid statement as none of this would exist without the internet but it is definitely to blame. There are too many stories of people with no experience becoming social media sensations and making millions. The problem for you is that you are not selling cute cats or people falling over in a comical way.
If you believed the hype, you would think that social media is the gateway to unlimited customers all waiting to buy your product or service just because you started using a social network. There's also not many stories about the millions of people who have failed to have any success with social media.
How to Recalibrate Expectations
A social media strategy takes a lot of time to gain traction and initially, unless you are very lucky, you will only achieve modest gains. You need to reflect this in your plan. When creating your initial draft of your strategy, include modest goals. These serve two purposes :
1 - They're easier to achieve so serve as a form of motivation
2 - They make other people question their own expectations
A modest goal might be as simple as gain 50 new Twitter followers each week or to make it more business focused, gain 5 new leads in the next 6 months. These sorts of numbers don't have the 'wow' factor but they are realistic figures for most small businesses. If these goals are questioned, show them examples of other competitors and what they have achieved. Obviously you wouldn't know how many leads they've gained but their number of followers etc. is public information. Show them this article if that doesn't work.
When you reach your modest goals you can adjust your strategy accordingly. By then you will have far more knowledge on how your strategy is progressing so you can create more realistic targets.
The Other Expectation
Expectation about the results of a social media strategy are one issue you encounter but there's another type of expectation which puts pressure on the responsible person for the strategy.
Expectation for everything to work first time.
One of the good and bad things about social networks is how much information they have. Someone posts an update, you blink and you'll miss it. This has some obvious disadvantages but one big advantage. You can experiment without major consequences. You can try various versions of tweets, updates, pins etc. to see which one works best for you. By the time you know, your failed experiments are buried under the 500 million tweets per day. There is no such thing as perfect in social media. That's one of the beauties of it. The best time to experiment is when you start off as you have fewer followers and connections.
Remember to learn from what happens and move on to your next test. At some point you will find a routine and a style which you not only feel comfortable with but is achieving the results you want.
Finally...
Managing expectations has become part of a successful social media strategy. When dealing with the internal politics associated with implementing any new project, it's one of the biggest factors to focus on. The good news is you can manage expectations with clear goals on your strategic plan. Make them achievable so they motivate you rather than hold you back. Social media is a slow burn form of marketing which can disappoint at the beginning but persistence and consistency will turn any plan into a successful one.
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