3 Warning Signs That Your Social Media Efforts Will Fail

Businesses shouldn't rush into social media.

Because having no social media presence at all is better than having a bad one.

Just because something is popular or trendy doesn't mean you need to do it.

Pinterest for your business is probably a waste of time. It all depends on your unique situation.

Here are 3 questions you need to answer before jumping in to social media.

Image courtesy of deanmeyersnet

1. How does this support your business?

Most people start social media because they hear about it on TV, read about it in the news and hear from others that "it's a great way to market your business".

But most don't understand why they're doing it, or what to expect from it.

They can't define what success will look like before they begin.

That's a big problem. You don't need to know the ROI. But you do need to understand how it's going to either (1) increase revenue, (2) decrease costs, or (3) increase customer support.

So figure out your social media goals before jumping in head-first. Then when you understand it, you'll appreciate it more and invest more time and effort.

2. Are your expectations realistic?

Being successful in social media is extremely difficult.

It's a 24/7 job, constantly evolving, So you need to have realistic expectations.

Not only in terms of success (see #1 above). But also what it's going to take to succeed.

Because it may be inexpensive, but it takes a ton of effort and time. So if you don't have the energy, or can't hire people to take control, then don't even start.

For example, you can't hire blog writers for $10 per article and expect it to drive business and build an audience.

And you can't launch a new website, and expect SEO traffic to flood your website the next day.

Inbound marketing tactics like social media and content marketing can drastically improve yourmarketing ROI.

But they're difficult, time consuming, and long-term tactics. You need to be willing to work for the long-term payoff if you want social media to build your business.

3. Why should your target customers care?

Finally, why should your customers read your blog posts, "Like" your Facebook page, or interact with you online?

The key to social media is engagement. Because without it, people won't stick around any buy something.

And people don't interact with you because you're awesome. They do it because it benefits them.

Maybe it makes them laugh, cry, or shocks them into taking action.

Either way, it's not about you. To succeed in social media, you need to be laser-focused on your audience and their needs, wants and desires.

For example, just because you're in a "boring industry" doesn't mean people won't read your blog posts or follow you on Twitter. You just need to focus on what your product or services does for them, and come up with blog content ideas around that.

Because if you want people to interact, then you need to get them to care. This isn't easy. You need to engage them, watch what they respond to, and be ready to experiment.

And if you're not ready to embrace that, then you're probably better off not wasting your time at all.

Recent Google Changes Digital Agencies Should Know

Google © by Daniel Morris

As Google continues to reign supreme in the world of search engines, it is in the best interests of any company to keep up to date with what Google has to offer and how it works. The algorithms used are constantly being improved and updated, and whilst this is aimed at ease of use for the consumer, any savvy business will keep track and use the search engine properties to best promote themselves.

‘Freshness Update’

The most talked about change that has been made recently has been dubbed ‘the freshness factor’. Google have altered the way search results are prioritised, giving greater visibility to sites that have been updated recently. This means that digital agencies should now be encouraging their clients to regularly add new content to their sites, as this will improve the chances of ranking highly in a search. Although this change has caused a certain amount of controversy amongst web users so far, with many believing that just because something is new doesn’t mean it is more relevant, for the time being it is how it works. It is therefore beneficial to every company to add new content to their websites as often as possible, to increase their chances of heading up a search page.

Content Visibility

Google have also decided to pull more snippets from page content as opposed to from titles or header text. This means companies really need to think hard about every piece of text they display on their websites. Although this will not affect the visibility of the search in the way that titles do, it does mean that people could be reading any small part of any piece of content before they even click to open the website. Therefore more care must be taken by some to ensure that their content isn’t centralised around a catchy header, but is consistently informative and entertaining.

Algo changes

The cross-language information retrieval has also been improved recently. Google have implemented algorithms to recognise the language a query is written in, and return results in that language. For example, even if someone is logged onto an English server, if they write their query in German they will receive relevant results form both English and German pages, so multi-national companies need to be aware of consistency issues.

SEO

Choosing a professional SEO company to assist in designing your website is becoming a necessity. Choose one with years of experience, as well as knowledge of all the latest updates, to ensure your company is top of the list every time.