Before the age of social media, businesses relied on traditional advertising to navigate audiences through the buyer’s journey: billboards, radio, newspaper, media placements, etc. Websites moved industries to online strategies and tactics, but the true game changer came with the popularity of social media. According to Statista, there are currently 3.6 billion people using social media; this means that businesses can now reach and engage with audiences like never before.

Now, it’s important to remember: with great power comes great responsibility.

So, let’s dig deeper. Below, let’s walk through five reasons you are currently sucking at social media marketing and how you can improve.

1. You’re on too many platforms.

First, you want to meet your audience where they are. If you have a Twitter business account, but your target consumers are spending all their time watching TikTok dances, you’ve put your eggs in the wrong basket. It’s vital to conduct market research to find your consumer demographics and match these to the correct social media platform. If you want to look into user demographics for each social media platform, check out this blog: “Which Social Media Platform is Best for Your Business?”. Additionally, if you have too many accounts, you simply won’t have enough time for effective social media marketing. Select the top platforms your audience frequents and spend your time, energy, and money here.

2. You’re posting too infrequently or at the wrong time.

So, maybe you have your social media platforms set up beautifully, but you aren’t seeing the engagement you really want. This could be because you’re posting too infrequently or at the wrong time. Consistent posts are an excellent way to earn and maintain the trust of your audience. If you suddenly stop posting, your audience will wonder what happened and if this unreliable tendency carries over into your business. In regards to posting at the wrong time, this is something that can be fixed through trial and error—start posting at the time you think your audiences are most active on the platform, then tweak from there. Be sure to also check the analytics that the social platform provides you with. This is a great tool to see the time of day or even the day of the week that your content performs best.

3. You aren’t using content marketing along with social media marketing.

You want to be sure you haven’t completely forgotten about content marketing while developing your social media marketing plan. Maybe you’re posting a great Instagram post about the up and coming fashions for the new year, but you don’t link the blog post you wrote about this topic within. At the end of the day you want your audience to end up somewhere they can convert into loyal customers... and that is usually on your website.

4. Your content isn’t engaging.

If you find yourself posting full blown copy throughout your social media platforms, it might be best to reconsider your approach. Sure, your audiences love when you provide them with information, but they love it even more when they can easily engage with it. Video content is a great tactic in this way; people not only engage with video content more, but they also have higher recall of the messaging (plus aren’t videos just more fun?!). Increased recall aids in moving potential consumers through the sales funnel more easily. Another strategy that could be beneficial here is responding to comments your viewers are leaving on your posts. If you show engagement in this way, you will build rapport and trust with your audience.

5. You aren’t accurately targeting your audience.

You want to be sure your content is being delivered to the right audience. For instance, if you’re wanting to hone in on those within the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, but you are putting them in front of decision stage content, you need to adjust. Delivering the right content, to the right people, at the right time is absolutely the key to success. Social platforms provide a variety of tools to facilitate the targeting of your desired audience. Be sure to utilize these tools to achieve accurate audience targeting.

There you have it—five potential reasons you currently suck at social media marketing.

Let's review: you’re on too many platforms, you’re posting too infrequently or at the wrong time, you aren’t incorporating content marketing, your content isn’t engaging, and you are inaccurately targeting your audience. Just by making those few suggested tweaks in your social media marketing plan, you are bound to move from sucking to succeeding!