3 reasons why social media marketing is harder than ever… and 3 ways to overcome it

Hey Friend!

Ok I have a LOT of thoughts about social media. It’s truly a blessing and a curse. I believe there is so much deception about how easy social media marketing is. You are constantly creating new content that lasts for about 2 days, and then it’s lost to time. Most people who are truly thriving on social media have teams behind them to help out so they can keep up with these algorithms.

Social media marketing is definitely becoming harder than it used to be, but it’s not all doom and gloom! There are lots of things you can do to overcome these challenges and increase sales online – even if you don’t have a team behind you!

I’ve got 3 reasons that social media marketing has become harder, and 3 ways for you to overcome it. Use these tips to take advantage of these platforms so you can easily increase sales.

Why social media marketing is harder than ever

1. Social media platforms are not searchable

Social media marketing is an ever changing game, it’s completely transient. Once you’ve posted something on social media, it’s really only useful for 24-48 hours, and then you’ll never see that post again.

This means you have to constantly create new things, post content, and show up every day to please the algorithm. On top of that, your content is only ever shown to a few percent of your audience, so most people who follow you never see your content. Because of this, it’s really difficult to establish good roots in social media and get to the place where people recognise you.

If your goal is to grow and scale and have your business stand the test of time, you need something that is going to work in the background. And the reality is that social media marketing just doesn’t do that.

2. Social media marketing is hard because the platforms are noisy

This isn’t about the numbers, because no matter where you show up, you might feel like there are ‘too many people’ in that space. But especially on social media, there are a LOT of people and it’s such a busy space. People’s attention spans are short, you are constantly being bombarded by ads, and you are always seeing everybody’s content, which is constantly changing. It can be super overwhelming.

Because of this, people are not very engaged when they’re on social media platforms. Most people are there to mindlessly scroll as a distraction from their day, not to learn about your 6 tips for x, y, z. It’s hard to increase sales when you don’t have an audience that are open and actively seeking a solution to their problem.

3. Social media marketing isn’t successful when we forget that social media is a social place

This was a huge one for me. I got so focused on the right content strategy and figuring out how to grow my business and increase sales, that I completely forgot that social media is first and foremost a social place. People are there to hang out and connect and be sociable.

We forget that people are not on these platforms looking for our offers. They’re not always interested in our latest freebie, our paid coaching sessions, or learning about the latest update in our industry.

If people do get interested in those things, its a much slower, more natural process that begins with them getting to know you as a person. So to be successful at social media marketing, you have to ground your strategy in connection.

how you can overcome the challenges of social media and increase sales

1. take advantage of the fact that social media is not searchable by reusing and repurposing content

Social media is a constantly changing place, so use that to your advantage! You don’t need to waste time and energy constantly creating new content, especially if you don’t have a team to help you.

Instead, post the same thing across multiple platforms, dig up your old content and repurpose, or even just copy and paste old posts and reshare them. People will not know if you post the exact same thing twice on social media.

2. Even though social media is noisy and constantly changing, you don’t need to play the game to be successful and increase sales

If you want to stay on top of the trends and play the game, go for it! But you can also be incredibly successful on social media just by being yourself and doing your own thing.

You have a lot of tools at your disposal on social media platforms, and you don’t need to do the same thing as everyone else to see success. You need to stand out somehow, but you don’t need to stand out by doing everything.

3. to be successful at social media marketing, show up to be sociable

The people I know that are successful on social media have their strategy centred around building relationships and being sociable. They don’t send DM’s jumping straight into their offers, they send a quick message asking about the person’s latest vacation of the picture of their dog.

It can seem like a lot of extra work, and it’s tempting to want to just rush to the end where people buy something from you. But unless you’ve established that trust, it’s going to be impossible to convince them to buy from you.

Social media marketing has become more challenging than it used to be. With the constant changes and updates, and the platforms becoming more complex than they used to be with more people using them, it can feel like an uphill struggle. But by understanding these challenges and remembering what these platforms were created for, you can thrive on social media!

Chat soon!

Sarah

P.S. Listen to the full podcast episode for extra tips and information! 🙂