The last couple of weeks has to go down as being record-breaking when it comes to the number of new business conversations I’ve been having! One of the things I love about these kinds of conversations is that it often flags up topics that I need to write about in order to A: feed the Google algorithm and B: create some content we own here at GU that can be shared across our social media channels. There’s usually a specific topic – something niche but this week, I’ve been hearing all kinds of things that are all specific signals that explain just why these businesses have failed to get results from their social media efforts.

The crazy thing is they all map directly into seven categories. The exact seven categories that are in my Marketing Mastery Framework! Now obviously, I reckon I’m pretty good at what I do, I’ve been at it a while (5 times longer than any job I’ve had before, in fact!), and I like to think I pay attention and get things right more often than not but it’s still surprising when things are, well… let’s use the word congruent!

Why social media fails to bring in business…

So what are these signals? The seven ‘things’ that are stopping businesses (that may well look just like your own business) from getting results from social media?

Marketing Mindset – Or rather, a lack of it!

I’m always going on about the need to get in the heads of your prospects but if you’re not ready to seize the day yourself, I’m sorry, but your content just isn’t going to land! You’ll always be holding back and not quite serving your audience in the way you should. What’s stopping you? A lack of self-belief? Imposter syndrome, perhaps? if you’re not flying your flag – why would anyone else fly it for you? Getting your head in the game has often been the turning point for my mentorship clients when it comes to getting results!

Targeting… Everyone!

I have sent our ideal client guide to so many people this week with the instruction, “Here… read it, print it off and do it!” If you describe your ideal client as “Everyone who…” you are not really being targeted enough. Get specific about who you are writing each and every social media post. If you target everyone – you’ll reach no one.

Structure? What structure!

Have you ever met a marketer that didn’t say consistency was key to success? Nope, I didn’t think so! If you have no structure and no plan, how will you ever be consistent? A common conversation goes, “we don’t get anything from LinkedIn!” I then look at LinkedIn and say, “Um… doesn’t look like you’ve posted for a few months?” Only to get the response, “Yep, well, things are busy and so I don’t get time for it.” Being on a social media platform is not the same as being active! Being active is what brings results, my friends!

Cool story, bro… needs more dragons

Stories sell. That isn’t breaking news, FYI! We have to be able to tell a story through our content, whether it’s a single post or a story that’s communicated across the whole of your presence. Let’s be honest, telling your personal story publicly is hard – I find it excruciatingly difficult, and it’s something I’m currently working hard on myself. However, not every story we tell is a personal one. There are the little stories of client wins, of what happened in the office – the fly-on-the-wall stories that we should be telling that let our audiences get to know us on a deeper level and offer an element of transparency. They’re the stories we can tell each and every day that will bring business.

Your execution sucks

Not yours literally! I’m suddenly aware I might offend someone! I was researching some client completion to get a feel for the market, and WOW. There are a bunch of ways to approach social media when it comes to executing a strategy, tools to help you with ideation, and tools to help you with automation. Please, please be careful what you use and how you use it. Protect your brand always and ensure there’s a human check somewhere along the way – 100% reliance on tech is not the best strategy here!

Interesting I just used the word strategy there – that’s another thing; I often see people getting frustrated with a lack of results because they’ve developed the perfect strategy but they’ve neglected to break that down into a specific tactical and repeatable plan. You can’t have one without the other, and one won’t work without the other!

You’re lacking lead generation because you have no way to generate leads!

“What does a lead look like to you?” I love asking that question! Sometimes the answer describes a persona. Simple, I can do a quick search on LinkedIn, turn the screen around and show you a list of 1000s of leads! Sometimes the answer is that a lead looks like contact details, name, email, and phone number. That’s cool, but what mechanism do we have in place to capture this? How does that mechanism help qualify those leads? If we don’t have a way to generate leads that match our definition of a lead… then we’re marketing for the purposes of brand awareness, not lead generation, and should not get frustrated about a lack of results!

It’s not that you’re not driving business – you just don’t know where you’re benefitting!

Measuring things from a social media perspective is like mission impossible. When it’s really working for you you’re too busy to worry about reach and impressions and all those vanity metrics you obsessed over to begin with! Many business owners are measuring success by looking for someone saying they’ve been in contact because they saw a Facebook post. That rarely happens, I’m afraid, so we need to measure in different ways. I would love to give you a specific here but each and every business is different and that will really come down to a 121 conversation or you’ll have to hang out with me at the Marketing mastery academy or join the Catalyst program, I’m afraid. (Oof… that was a subtle plug, wasn’t it!)

I have written so many articles over the years on each of these topics it’s unreal! Just take one of these points and do a search on this site, and you’ll see them! Unfortunately, whether I describe these things as deadly sins or just bad habits, my view is they’re unlikely to ever go away in full. We all get caught up and busy in what we love doing and if marketing isn’t that for you, then you’re always going to be in danger of falling foul to one of the above signals… unless you get someone or something on your team who loves it!

And, of course, if you’re still reading, you know I’d love that something to be team GU!