C’mon Alisa, really? Social Media is Killing My Business?

According to Social Pilot, the average social media user spends 2 hours and 22 minutes a day connecting, swiping, and scrolling through their favorite apps. But, how can that be bad for business? Notice I didn’t say purchasing or buying in that statistic.

This is why I’m sharing the top 5 social media business killers

In Episode 52 of the Feed U Podcast, I’m laying out the 5 reasons social may not be the best use of your time or energy in growing your business.  Click here to listen to the entire episode.  I know most experts will scream get on social, build your brand, post post post, but if you are committing one of these social felonies, it’s not only a waste of your time, but it absolutely WON’T grow your business. ]

1. You’re distracted.

If you go to social media to be distracted (I mean who doesn’t?) it’s unlikely you will stay on task for what needs to be done for your business while you are there. Here are some key indicators that you’re not using social as a tool. You consume more content than you create. You have a serious case of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). You are downing shots of compare-schlager on a daily basis. You don’t have any social media time limits in places. You aren’t regularly reaching your goals. You have grown kids that were 4 and 5 an hour ago. (Half kidding with that last one).

2. You don’t have a social media plan.

In other words, you are winging it.  Posting haphazardly or not at all. Looking at a friends or foes feed and going with what they are doing. Or the worst-case scenario, you just keep posting about your promotions and products. (For the love of all things holy don’t do this, it’s better to just not post AT ALL.) If you can’t measure success or results for your social media activity, you likely don’t have a plan.  A plan entails a goal, action, results, and analytics.  It will be extremely difficult if not impossible to stand out on social media without one, so go work on it, STAT.

3. You’re busy being social, EVERYWHERE.

It’s no wonder you’re wearing yourself ragged and are ready to rip your hair out of your head. If you are trying to be on every social platform and build a presence there, one of two things will happen. One, you will be rocking in a burnt-out coma under your desk and no one will be ringing your cash register.  Or two, you will set up all your social platforms and most of them will end up like sad, lost orphans who get no attention and make you look like the evil stepmother from Cinderella because you want them to work for you with no support.  The best advice I ever received was to spend 90% of your time on one platform. Build it, grow it and make it yours. One caveat, make sure your people are there before you build there, otherwise, you will end up like the Mohave desert waiting for gamblers.

4. Your social media doesn’t connect to your sales funnel.

You’ve seen them, the Instagram accounts with 100K followers. You probably even rolled your eyes a bit and thought, what are they doing that I’m not? Then you slyly go check out their profile and realize it says NOTHING about them. Not to mention, they never have a call to action, calling you to take the next step with them. They may not even tell you where they are, what they do, and there is definitely no way for you to reach out to them from that platform.  THIS, my friend, is called “no connection”. Meaning they aren’t connecting how they make money to their social media.  With NO CONNECTION comes NO CUSTOMERS. See number 2 for creating a plan and raise it to add a way to track sales, sell your products and create repeat business.  Add those to your social platform of choice and you will have a winner for growing your business, not just your following.

5. You don’t know if social is working or you don’t know what to post.

Haven’t we all been there? You create an epic social media post, and you hit publish and then you wait. and wait. and wait. C’mon someone like the dang thing.  “Is anybody out there?” If this is the norm for your social media posts, go back to 2, 3 and 4 on this list.  I will add, do some research on your ideal client and see what they are interested in learning about.  Those will help you generate a TON of ideas for posting. Hint number 2, solve a problem.  A problem they talk about, not that you think they have. When you create content that fixes problems, you will see a swell in your social activity. Lastly, make sure you are analyzing what you are doing at least once a month and if not, as Ross from friends would say “Pivot, Pivot, Pivot”.

What should you do to reign in social media and make it work?

1. Have a plan and add some way to analyze if it’s working.
2. Limit your “social time” and set an intention for your social activity.
3. Focus 90% of your effort on one platform.
4. Use a clear Call To Action to inform your followers how to work with you and create conversion.
5. Consider using Facebook ads to increase your exposure and grow your reach.

Listen to the entire episode here:

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