Social media is a business owner’s paradox. It’s an inherently unserious medium that you can’t be taken seriously without. You’re on there to get business, but if you try to sell, no one will buy from you. So, how do you live comfortably in the paradox, and what do you do when your social media is not generating leads?

The Purpose of Socials

Let’s start with something basic. Why bother being on social media? 

At worst, social media is a toxic cesspool of machismo, racism, bullying, and conspiracy theories. And sometimes it feels like, at best, it’s a time suck. So why associate your business with it? 

Well, while it’s true that social can be both of those things, it’s also quite simply where people are, and frequently where they search. At its best, social is a place we connect with others and the public square where we share information. 

I’ve also written blog posts about how social media is word-of-mouth marketing on steroids. 

So if social is all those things, the good and the bad, how do you use it to reach the people you want to reach and stay out of the time wasting and meanness? 

Social Media Marketing Not Working? Are You Sure?

Most business owners these days don’t need to be convinced of social media’s viability. They just wonder why their social media is not generating leads. 

Firstly, let’s get something straight. The primary social media strategy for business should not be to generate leads. That seems paradoxical, but it isn’t. 

Just like a business may have a helpline or a box of tools, neither of which directly makes money, social media is an important tool. 

Like your website, social media is your digital storefront – the first impression for many of your clients or potential customers. You would leave your business windows filthy or let your employees go out in torn uniforms, so you also want your social media to make a good first impression. 

You also want your social media to keep you top of mind. 

Social Media Not Generating Leads: Social Media Engagement Vs Leads

So you keep posting on social media, but no leads are coming. Why bother being top of mind if not to get leads?

You wouldn’t be angry if every time someone drove past your store, they didn’t stop in. And you wouldn’t ask why you should bother having an open sign. On the other hand, turning the sign off would guarantee you didn’t get the business because they’d think you were closed. And not having a sign designating where you were and what you did would mean the only people who came already knew about you. 

You have likely been in a situation where you looked up a restaurant or shop and found that it hadn’t posted on its Facebook or Instagram page in several months. What did you do next? 

Likely one of two things. If you were very interested, you called to see if it was still open. More likely, you did what most people do. You went somewhere else. 

So social is like your open sign being on. But it’s also more than that. It’s a chance to show who you are and build loyalty. You do that through content and engagement. 

Social Media Engagement Vs Leads

You should strive to create content that helps or entertains people and ideally, makes them want to like, comment, and share your posts. When people engage with your content, more people see it, and that means you become top of mind for more people. 

This will eventually drive business to you, even if it’s not because someone clicked on a post and immediately dropped what they were doing to do business with you. That’s the difference between engagement and leads. 

So how do you craft for engagement? 

Social Media Strategy for Business

So it’s time to get to the meat of making your socials. While POP can’t teach you everything we’ve learned in a single blog, here are some basic rules to make your social media strategy for your business successful. 

First Do No Harm

While social media is a chance to be a little less stiff, that doesn’t mean anything goes. So firstly, ensure that whatever you’re doing isn’t turning off your target customer. 

POP takes the time to get to know our clients’ strengths and ideal clients and plays to that in our content creation. If you’re doing it on your own, do the following:

• Keep information up to date – no one wants to drive somewhere only to find its posted hours no longer reflect reality. 
• Always be truthful – don’t pretend you’re the cheapest if you’re not. Don’t pretend you’re perfect for everyone. 
• Be nice – no one likes a bully. And that’s true not only in your business socials, but your personal ones. Many consumers will look at your social media to see who you are before they hire you. If you’re using that social media to ruin someone else’s day, there’s a good chance you’ll lose some potential customers. 

Keep it Social, Son!

Keep your social media social. Don’t make it salesy.

No one should mistake your posts for an advertisement. Be helpful, entertaining, and above all, you. Share stories about customers or employees. Give tips. Don’t just say “buy from me!” There is a difference between a used-car salesman and a CTA, believe it or not.

Nothing Grows in Chaos

Our marketing formula remains simple: 2QC: Quality, Quantity, and Consistency. 

Create your content ahead of time and schedule it for the same days each week. Algorithms appreciate that, and so do people. 

Need to Be Salesy? Get Some Ads!

If you’ve looked at this and decided that you do it all, but what you need now is leads, by gum, well, fear not, there’s still an avenue to be salesy on social media. 

Even though your posts should never look like an advertisement, you know what can? Ads! Social media has advertising options too, and you can design them to create specific types of leads, including clicks, phone calls, website visits, or form fills. 

However, beware. While these can get you the leads you want, that won’t be where customers stop. They’ll look at your site and your social media, too, so you can’t skimp on any of the previous steps!

Finally, do come back to a common refrain – you’re good at what you do. You don’t need to be good at everything. Local marketing companies like POP are good at what we do. 

When you get to a point that you’re too busy in your business to do every single little thing that makes it run, consider handing off some of the aspects that you don’t love, don’t have time for, or aren’t good at. If one of those things is social media marketing, then we’ve got you covered. 

Give us a call if your social media is not generating leads or engagement. We’ll take a look at it and tell you how we can help!