It always amazes me when people expect to see results on their social media efforts overnight. All marketing takes time to get some traction and social media is no different to this, so why do businesses expect different results.

SEO campaigns can take 6-12 months to see results so it is no surprise that social can also take months to see results (accepted norm is about 6 months)

It is time to be a little patient.  Here are a few things to think about before jumping in feet first or deciding to stop your social media campaigns:

1.       Be clear about what you want to achieve from Day 1 – and when it doesn’t work in the first few weeks, don’t get scared and change direction. It is good to refine and tweak but don’t panic and make big changes just because you don’t see instant results or likes.

2.       Do not make rushed, spur of the moment decisions – Expecting instant gratification is grounds for failure. If you think that you will post a video or some content and expect it go viral overnight then think again.  It takes time to develop the right tone of voice for your brand, to understand what type of content your audience wants to get from you and what format they want this delivered in eg: video, text, images

3.       Content is king, queen and prince – you have to have the right content at the right time on the right channel. Choose quality over quantity and remember to make sure it is in the context for the channel you are using. It should be different on Twitter to Facebook for example

4.       Have some fun it – don’t be afraid to show your brand personality and behind the scenes. People do business with people! They prefer to do business with people they like and they resonate with your brand, they will engage and are more likely to do business with you

5.       Social has changed so you need to change the way you are doing things too. Don’t post sales content constantly – no one cares! There is an 80/20 rule and you want to educate and engage with your audience. With Facebook’s changed organic algorithms you also need to remember that if you have 500 fans, when you post, you’ll be lucky if 50 of those fans see your content. This is where paid campaigns come into play.

Don’t be afraid of social media. It is a great way to position your brand and make you more visible. Just take some time to think and plan before you dive into the deep end. And remember it won’t happen overnight but with the right ingredients, it will happen in time.