Undertaking the enormous task of crafting social media marketing content can be daunting for small to midsize businesses (SMBs). You might be facing common social media marketing challenges that will hinder your progress. From developing engaging content and avoiding the pitfall of constant selling, to fitting in time to generate content and crafting a cohesive strategy, each hurdle can slow or completely halt your social media marketing efforts. However, with a few practical tips, these challenges can be transformed into opportunities for growth and success.
Here are some of the biggest social media marketing challenges SMBs experience and some pro tips to help overcome each potential pitfall.
Content ideas development
As an SMB owner trying to run your business and social media presence it’s completely understandable that a challenge with social media marketing is the struggle to consistently come up with content ideas. It’s a lot of pressure to add social media management on top of your already busy schedule, and developing content ideas takes time.
Pro tip: When it comes to content development, try to maintain a balance between content that is:
Educational – This type of content adds value by educating and informing your audience on important topics related to your brand.
Entertaining – It’s okay to have fun! Try posts that are entertaining to capture the attention of your customer.
Promotional – These posts will directly sell your products or services. Be aware that there is a fine line here between capturing sales and overpromotion. (More on that below.)
Holidays – Try finding inspiration with social media holidays that are relevant to your industry/business around which you can create content. Check out Hootsuite’s Complete List of Social Media Holidays 2024 Edition to start.
Selling all the time
While it is important to promote your brand, another social media marketing challenge is only using your social platform to sell (posting only or mostly promotional content). It won’t appeal to your audience as no one wants to be “sold” all the time. Your content needs to provide value to your audiences or you run the risk of losing followers and engagement.
Pro tip: To avoid this social media marketing hurdle and help balance the frequency of promotional posts vs. other posts of value, create content buckets (categories) of content that you can build your social media calendar around. Theme ideas include quotes, client reviews, product/service features, Q&A and more. You can easily start to build a content calendar by setting a cadence for how often you’ll post content from each of these buckets, or even have dedicated days of the week for each.
Not enough time
One of the biggest social media marketing challenges experienced by SMBs is that running the business gets in the way of time to create and post content. You might start out strong, but as the daily task of simply managing the business takes precedence, marketing efforts, especially social media, often fall by the wayside.
Pro tip: To manage this social media marketing challenge, be sure to set a realistic frequency/posting cadence so that you can keep up with your marketing strategy. Social media best practices reinforce that it’s better to post quality content three times a week than scramble to post less valuable content seven times a week. Consistency is key as your followers will be expecting to see your posts.
It’s also a good idea to create a social media content calendar, also known as an editorial calendar, and schedule your posts through a social media management tool so that you can pre-plan and create posts at one time, and then let the calendar and tool guide your monthly activity. Instead of trying to find time every day to think of something interesting to post and get it up on your page, you can carve out time to plan, create and schedule for the month all at once, which might be better for your time management.
No overarching strategy
Another common challenge of social media marketing is a lack of strategy. This includes social media best practices such as knowing the target audience and commonly visited platforms, setting marketing goals, creating high-quality content to reach those goals, tracking performance and making adjustments. All of these pieces are part of an overarching social media strategy and can be one of the biggest social media marketing challenges to overcome.
Pro tip: Take stock of your current social media presence and if you have the time, complete a competitor analysis. Determine your social media marketing goals and then develop a content strategy and posting cadence that will help your brand achieve them. To achieve meaningful results from our social media presence, we need a comprehensive strategy that goes beyond a day-by-day, post-by-post approach. By focusing on the bigger picture, we can develop a cohesive marketing strategy that drives long-term success and visibility.
Overcoming common challenges
Whether you’re a seasoned business marketer or just starting to manage your SMB’s social media marketing, these insights and tips can help you overcome some of the most common social media marketing challenges with confidence and clarity. Remember social media best practices including creating compelling content that resonates with your audience, balancing promotional posts with valuable, engaging content, embracing time management strategies like creating a content calendar to plan posts and the importance of having a well-defined overarching strategy.
Need help with overcoming any of these social media marketing challenges? Give the social media experts at Beyond Fifteen a call today to learn how we can support your social media presence.