7 Social Media Marketing Questions I Get Asked the Most, Answered

I get bombarded with questions about social media all the time. In Walmart. The school pick-up line. Church. Social media is what I’m known for.

Last month, a good friend of mine in the business did around-up of the top social media questions she getsasked and posted them on her blog, so in the spirit of share, and share alike, I thought I would do the same. The timing is quite fitting. I recently led a workshop with my good friend Louise Pritchard ofPritchard Volk Consultingon Branding and Social Media Strategy forThe Southern C Summitand many of these same questions came up again. They are common questions, which means that business owners are still learning how to effectively use social media in marketing their business.

Before I dig into these questions and give you my answers, let me preface it all with this. This is simply the adviceIgive based off of over 16 years of overall marketing (and advertising) experience, including almost 7 years of that working solely in social media and digital marketing. There is good advice and there is bad advice. I mean, really, really, really bad advice. There are social media consultants out there that prey on inexperienced business owners like ambulance-chasing attorneys prey on victims. They take advantage of that business owner’s inexperience in this arena and lead them to practices that are just wrong, and sometimes against the rules. My company, and myself, pride ourselves on being one of those who follow the rules to the very end, so know the advice we give comes from experience and research ????

Before you decide what platforms you are going to use, you have to answer three questions –

Let me explain. You have to knowwhy you are using social mediato market your business online – everything you do has to come back to that. After you know why, you have to know who you are targeting. This is very, very important. You will only use the platform(s) that your target audience is using. Let me repeat that.You will only use the platform(s) your target audience is using.You will rarely, if ever, use every single one. Once you know your target audience, you will essentially answer the question, BUT, you have to know what your ultimate end goal is for using social media. That will also play a role in what platform(s) you are using.

Example: You are women’s retail boutique that wants to target women ages 30-45 who like trendy clothing. After looking into the demographics of the platforms, you’ll see that the majority of that audience are using Instagram first, then Facebook, followed by Pinterest. So you choose to start with Instagram and Facebook.

Here is what Buffer found in theirState of Social 2018that most businesses were using (and keep in mind, this is an overall average – you need to do what is best foryourbusiness andyour target audience):

Posting on social media requires a careful balance. You do not want to post too much, but you don’t want to hardly post at all. There is research to support both. The amount you post is ultimately up to you. Based on my years of experience, this is my recommendation:

Your posting frequency will be determined by your goal and“why” statement in your social media strategy. You want to make sure you are posting enough to satisfy your goal in why you are using social media.

Honestly, I so badly want to eye roll when people ask me this. With all of the fake news and viral Facebook doomsday posts that go around several times per year, no wonder people think this. Facebook is not dead. People of ALL AGES are still using this (including teenages and college kids!) and the daily active users count is growing (see chart below). There are over 3 BILLION people on Facebook. If you want to reach your target audience, you are going to have to do something on Facebook – and more than likely it’s in the form of aFacebook ad. As seen below, Facebook is still the leading platform of choice for social media marketing.

Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way – if you are going to use social media (and Facebook) to market your business, you are going to have to run Facebook ads. To make this point, when Buffer presented theirState of Social 2018, they found that businesses that have invested in social media ads are more than twice as likely to report that social media marketing is “very effective”.

Back to the question on hand. Facebook ads can be run for a minimum of $1-$20 per day depending on what your objective is. You can get more detailed information in myFacebook ads primer here, but what I would suggest for most small businesses is to expect to spend $2-$3 per day minimum for brand awareness ads and $5 per day minimum for traffic ads. At those amounts, you will see quantifiable results.

I feel like this is the $50 million question. Of course, there are (illegal) shortcuts such as buying followers and gaming the system, i.e. following people then immediately unfollowing them as soon as they follow back, however, I do NOT suggest either of those.

Growing your Instagram following is hard. And that is the 100% honest truth. You will fight tooth and nail for every single one of your followers, but they will be authentic, engaged followers. So how do you get them?

Do not get tied up in the vanity number of how many are following you. In the age of people buying followers, it’s hard to know of the millions of Kim Kardashian’s how many are actual human beings. Focus on quality posts and engaging and things will be fine. You can start off by following and engagingwith us on Instagram(shameless plug, I know!).

Time management is always a sticky subject. You could literally spend all day doing nothing but social media for your business. But that’s not why you have your business. Using social media to market it is just one teeny tiny part. This was a question that came up in my workshop and here are three tips I gave that will help:

There are many tools out there to help you manage your social media. The programs range from free to paid, based on the number of platforms you use and features you need. We are partners withSprout Social, so that’s our go-to and first choice (and they offer a FREE 30-day trial!). These programs allow you to schedule posts, respond to posts, view analytics, monitor your reputation – and more. Other choices out there includeBuffer,Hootsuite, andCoSchedule. Like I preface anything, you have to choose what works best for you and your business.

Of course, I get asked all sorts of questions, but these seven are the ones that have come up the most over the past year.

Social media is fluid. It changes all the time. What works today, may not work tomorrow. And isn’t working today, may work next week. If you are managing your business’ social media yourself, please make sure to educate yourself from reliable sources so you know that you are doing things right (see list below). If you need help, you are always welcome tocontact usand let’s talk!

Here are some reliable, vetted sources that we suggest to follow for good advice, other than this blog of course ???? :