How to tackle your biggest social media challenges

How to tackle your biggest social media challenges

Last month, I carried out a survey to find out (amongst other things) what your biggest challenges were regarding social media.

The results are in, and the top challenges were:?

??Audience growth

?Time

??Self-promotion & consistency (were joint third)

Isn't it nice to know you aren't alone??

One of the other things the survey identified was that 65% of you do not have a social media strategy or plan in place (something which definitely helps with all of these challenges!

So, the subject of this month's newsletter is:

How to tackle your top social media challenges, including:

  • Tips for audience growth.
  • How to tackle the all-important issue of time.
  • How to feel better about self-promotion and showing up consistently.
  • How having a solid strategy and plan in place can help you to overcome this.?
  • How I can help you get to grips with your social media before 2024!

Tips for Audience Growth

It's no secret that audience growth is difficult for most small businesses - social media is a crowded space, and it's hard to stand out.

Don't worry. There are a few things you can do to support organic growth!

  1. Have a solid strategy and foundation in place: it will help you to understand precisely what your ideal client wants and needs to see from you—helping you strengthen your relationship with your existing audience and get more ?? on your content.?
  2. Be consistent: It might only be 2-3 times a week, but showing up regularly with high-quality content will ensure you get noticed and help you build an audience of people who know, like and trust you.
  3. Be social: Social media is all about conversation. Commenting on and sharing other people's content will get you in front of a wider audience, help you to add value and ensure you find meaningful connections.
  4. Collaborate with others: Collaborations on social media via shared posts, remixed reels or my personal favourite - live chats. It is a brilliant way to tap into a new audience.?Working with someone else can be a lot of fun and will remove some of the ick factor from marketing yourself.
  5. Use gated content: Competitions, surveys and downloadable freebies are fantastic ways to grow your audience. Competitions are widely shared. And giving away something in return for someone's email address will enable you to build a database of your very own!

Remember that whilst audience growth is important - it's also essential to nurture the audience you have. After all, most of us can only manage a few clients at a time.??

How to manage your time on social media

Love it or hate all that marketing to promote your business can feel like a huge time sap. So planning and prioritising is essential.

There are many ways to save time when it comes to creating social media content and spending less time scrolling on the platforms.?

  1. Work out how much time you realistically have to dedicate to social media: Be honest with yourself and factor that into your planning from the outset. Make sure you consider the impact social media has on your business and the times you will need to prioritise other things.?
  2. Plan your time: Block time in your diary to create content, get social and respond to comments and messages. This way, you can avoid doom scrolling, and it will seem so much more manageable.
  3. Focus on 1 to 2 key areas: Do your research and find out what platforms your audience is using and the type of content they like to consume, and focus on producing more of that.
  4. Conduct a review: If you understand what's working, you can put everything else in the bin, freeing up your time to do more of what you love.
  5. Get organised: Your best content is ripe for repurposing, so make it easy to find the artwork and the copy by clearly labelling everything.Remember, good results take time and testing!

How to lose the ick about self-promotion

Let's face it - no one likes promoting themselves on social media or feeling like they are blowing their own trumpet.

But the truth is that you and your team are the thing that stands out most about your business, so you will need to utilise these things to help you stand out from your competition. Here are a few tips to help you:

  1. Invest in some professional photos and or design templates: You'll save hours of faffing around looking for pictures and taking endless selfies. The experience will also help you dig deeper into the essence of your brand, making it so much easier to come up with content ideas.?
  2. Reframe your thinking: Remember your audience needs your services. Your clients are a testament to that, so think about how your comment or post is helping people and focus on the results you achieve for them. Client feedback is great for this. Someone is paying you - so why would they lie? And other people's words are powerful!
  3. Focus on the results: If you are seeing good results that align with your objectives, it will make you feel more positive, which will make self-marketing seem so much easier.?
  4. Write content in advance and when you feel inspired: A positive frame of mind and not writing in the app where you can get sucked into the doom scroll will release you from some of that worry.
  5. Champion the things you care about: You might feel uncomfortable sharing your story or successes, but sharing the people, things, and causes you care about will showcase your values and help people understand who they are working with and the benefits it will have.

How to stay consistent

Being consistent is vital when it comes to marketing your business. That's not just about showing up; it's also about the language you use and, the messages you promote and your overall brand.?

You may feel like you are always talking about the same thing because you live and breathe it- but it's different for your audience, who need consistently reminding who you are and what you do!

Being consistent is closely linked to the issue of time and planning, but there are a few additional things you should think about:

  1. Only got time to do 2 posts per week? Then, plan those posts and make sure they are consistent in their messaging, quality and timing.?
  2. Create content buckets: Developing content topics that are relevant to your audience and can be segmented will enable you to talk about different things and remain consistent across all channels.
  3. Plan in advance: You may have some seasonality in your business. Planning your content in advance will enable you to focus on what needs to be done and when. Keeping you focussed on your overall business objectives and on track for success.

How will having a strategy and plan in place help you to overcome this?

All these challenges are interconnected and feedback to one thing. The need for a practical and realistic strategy that is unique to your business can be measured and that you can actually stick to.?

Laying a solid foundation for your social media marketing will help you to:

  • Understand what your clients want and need to see from you.
  • Cut out the noise - with some testing and measuring, you will know exactly what's working and what isn't.?
  • Understand what's unique about you and your business—enabling you to market yourself more confidently.?
  • Eat the frog?? and stop procrastinating. With a realistic plan, you can see how social media integrates with your business and helps you achieve your objectives.?

Want some help?

If you are still sitting there scratching your head about social media but know you need to get organised for 2024, then I would love to see how I can help. I have availability to work with you in the following ways:

Review service: A complete review of your social media activity, profiles and what's really going on in the background to help you get rid of the brain fog and focus on what's actually working. You'll get hints, tips and a plan of things you can action straight away.

Clarity Sessions: Want to get really clear on your social media messaging and develop an actionable plan? In this two-hour session, we will identify what you need to say to stand out on social media and develop a clear and actionable plan.

Training: I have a variety of training packages designed with your business in mind. Sessions are entirely bespoke, with a focus on helping you to develop and implement an effective social media strategy.

Strategy and consultancy: Bespoke project-based and monthly services. I will develop and implement the strategy for you so you don't have to.?

You can visit my website to find out more: www.thesussexsocial.co.uk

About Me...

I'm Mel, a Social media and email marketing strategist, consultant and trainer. I am passionate about helping businesses develop and implement social media strategies that fit with the time, money and resources available.

And that is realistic for them and relevant to their target audience.

I'm also a small business owner and mum to two gorgeous kids - so I know all too well the challenges we face!

If you would like to find out more about how I can help you navigate the murky world of social media, then do send me a DM or email me at [email protected], and we can chat.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, just hit subscribe at the top and get it delivered straight to your inbox monthly!

I hope these tips were helpful.


Mel x


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