If you've been working on your social media campaign, and haven't experienced any great results yet - it's possible that your campaign is a failure. This is the time to sit up and take stock of what you did wrong, and try to correct it! To help you along your way, here are the top 10 reasons that social media campaigns fail.
#1: A Sales Heavy Campaign
Surely the most common of all mistakes, is the sales heavy social campaign. You're selling, marketing and pitching too much, and not giving your community anything of value. Instead, stick to the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent content, 20% sales!
#2: You're Winging It
Social media is easy-peasy. Who needs a plan? Posting and working with social media without a plan is a one way road to failure. Stop winging it, and create a strategy and a schedule, so that you don't waste your time.
#3: Automated Nightmare
It's nice to think that you can automate everything. But you can't. Spewed out content in bulk is the worst thing you can do for your fan pages. Unfortunately there is no quick fix solution in social media. It takes time and effort. Stop automating!
#4: Same Rubbish, Different Page
If your social strategy has no defining features, of course it isn't going to work. Why would anyone spend time on a page that always says the same stuff as everyone else? You need to be original, and ADD to the social conversation.
#5: Me, Me, Me, Us, Us, Us
If your social media pages look like a one way conversation, then you're either not posting on them, or you're posting one way dialogue. Stop speaking about yourself and start addressing the people that matter - your fans.
#6: Never Giving Back
The keystone of any successful social strategy is to give back to your community. If you don't give them free things, discounts, coupons, competitions, games - or engage them in any way, they're not going to care about you.
#7: The Inexperience Killer
Throwing someone that doesn't know how to work with a social strategy in the middle of yours, isn't going to turn out well. Social media is fun, but it's also hard work, and you need to be experienced. Send them on a course, or hire someone better.
#8: Lack of Site Understanding
Each social site can highlight and enhance your business in specific ways. Learning how to use this to your advantage, is key to your overall strategy. Posting the wrong content on the wrong sites will lead to disaster.
#9: It's All The Same as Print Media
Content drives your social campaigns, but treating this content like you treat print media content is a bad idea. Online content is light hearted, engaging, fun and informative. It's not journalistic, complex, dense and analytical.
#10: Focusing on Viral Content
Spending all of your time and resources trying to create 'viral' content is not a good strategy. Viral content is rare, and there is no real formula to follow. It's likely that you've ended up with more misses than hits. Focus on great content instead.
Why do you think people fail with social media? Add to our list by leaving your comment below!