Common Obstacles to Social Media Marketing for Startups: Overcoming

Common Obstacles to Social Media Marketing for Startups: Overcoming

Are you prepared to face the most difficult social media marketing obstacles?

You're not alone if you've found it difficult to keep your social media strategy flexible and current.

There is more competition than ever for users' attention on social media. The way we create content is changing thanks to new social networks. In addition, people's expectations are rising daily. Building a memorable brand presence online might seem overwhelming, which is understandable.

Be at ease. We're analysing 10 of the most prevalent social media marketing issues brands are now dealing with in this guide. We'll also provide you with concrete next steps for each problem that will make it easier for you to overcome the obstacle.

1. Keeping up with changing social trends
2. Finding social talent
3. Proving the ROI of social
4. Falling engagement rates and fewer post interactions
5. Standing out against established social competitors
6. Lost time from juggling multiple social platforms
7. Little-to-no communication between departments
8. Running out of creative content ideas
9. Responding to call-outs and crises
10. Lack of growth, direction or strategy

1. Keeping up with changing social trends

There are now more trends than ever because the average lifespan of a trend is rapidly decreasing.

Consumers benefit from this abundance since they may take advantage of hyper-targeted microtrends that cater to their interests round-the-clock. Trend-harnessing for marketers is becoming increasingly challenging.

A Q2 2023 Sprout pulse survey found that 49% of marketers believe the biggest obstacle to managing their brand's social presence is spotting and responding to developing trends on social media.

For social media marketers, it has the effect of a needle in a haystack. You must sort through an infinite stream of content to determine what is relevant in order to develop content that appeals to your target audience.

This appears to involve a lot of scrolling when done manually. Fortunately, you can stay up to date on social media without using up all of your screen time by making process changes and social media management tools.

Solutions:

• Make identifying trends a team effort. Don't make an independent effort to stay current with emerging trends. Ask your peers about what they're seeing on their feeds as a substitute for crowdsourcing ideas.
• Utilise a social listening technology to effectively tap into trends. For trend content to be successful, it's essential to get your voice of the client right. A social listening tool's audience insights can be used to improve your message and make it more timely and pertinent.
• Choose strategic engagement plays instead of brand-new content creation if you don't have the time. As many impressions can be produced by comments on popular videos or content from relevant creators as there are by feed posts.

2. Finding social talent

Inboxes and timelines aren't the greatest problems social media employees deal with. It is posted on job boards.

The hiring of social media experts has grown to be quite a difficulty in the current, constantly changing environment. The obligations made on social marketers have increased dramatically. Being an excellent strategist or copywriter is no longer sufficient. Brands are increasingly looking for people who thrive at producing compelling content in a range of media and have a solid grasp of online culture.

Finding experienced personnel is cited by more than half (52%) of marketers as their team's main challenge, according to The Sprout Social IndexTM 2022. The lack of skilled and knowledgeable social media management specialists makes it challenging for organisations to assemble the ideal team.

If your team is one of the many who are attempting to increase their workforce this year, give your growth strategy considerable thought. Create a job description that appeals to candidates and is consistent with your future goals for the channel.

Solutions

• Create a thorough, precise, and intentional job description for a social media manager that demonstrates to candidates your understanding of and respect for their work.
• Utilise the tools in this recruiting manager toolkit to create a memorable interview experience. It includes everything you need, including sample assessments, scorecard templates, interview questions, and an onboarding checklist, all of which are intended to make the process impressive from beginning to end.
• Review social recruiting tactics. Utilise employee advocacy and recommendations to reach out to fresh talent that might not otherwise see your job posting.

3. Proving the ROI of social

As an essential component of every business plan, social media has truly come into its own. It affects everything, including the songs we sing and the subjects we discuss.

However, some executives might be unable to see the immediate benefits of prioritising social media as a channel for investment. Although social clearly contributes to lead generation, customer nurturing, and other processes, it can be challenging to understand the metrics required to quantify that influence.

Social media marketing frequently faces the issue of making a business case for social media, but this shouldn't be the case.

While linking the presence of your company to business practises and justifying social media to your boss may involve issues outside of your control (money, personnel), the bottom line and performance are priorities. By doing this, you not only strengthen the significance of your position but also get the support of your peers and the leadership for the future.

Solutions:

• By understanding crucial social media KPIs, you can track how your social presence affects business objectives like brand exposure, lead generation, customer nurturing, and sales.
• To assist you in achieving those objectives, highlight pertinent indicators like traffic, mentions, reach, and engagement that have made a difference in the last year.
• To emphasise the value of having a strong social presence for your sector, conduct market research and competitor analysis.

4. Falling engagement rates and fewer post interactions

The question "Is organic social traffic dead?"

Numerous seminars, LinkedIn posts, and think pieces have been inspired by this straightforward, five-word inquiry. It is logical. Organic traffic chasing might feel like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole where striking one goal implies missing the next due to constantly shifting algorithms.

Keeping up with quickly evolving algorithms and features was named as the second most common social media marketing problem by marketers in our most recent quarterly pulse poll.

If you don't run paid promos with organic content, getting reach and interactions can be a struggle. However, it's not an insurmountable battle.

Solutions

• Examine your best-performing content to see what generates the most comments. Examine the timing, content themes, post types, layout, and voice of these postings to see if you can identify any commonalities.
• Put your attention on material that appeals to your existing audience, consumers, and followers. User-generated content campaigns, question-based content, and responding to shout-outs and comments are a few examples of this.
• As a strategy to increase your reach and brand mentions, think about cooperating with influencers and businesses.

5. Standing out against established social competitors

Feel like your voice isn't being heard much?

The majority of industries are very competitive. Look no farther than the beauty industry for proof, which is teeming with brands and influencers ready to demonstrate products.

Staking your claim as an up-and-comer is a difficult task, regardless of whether you are competing with established brands or other well-known companies in your industry.

Instead than stressing over others' identities and communities, put more effort into developing your own. It's simple to become bogged down in comparing follower counts and engagement rates, but doing so is bad for both you and your followers.

Always keep in mind that a vibrant, smaller community is more valuable than gaudy statistics.

Solutions:

• Engage customers in your core marketing strategy by, for instance, curating user-generated content and answering queries, comments, and tag requests.
• Create a unique brand voice, and don't undervalue personality as a means to stand out.
• Engage staff members to promote your brand's content and expand your account.

6. Lost time from juggling multiple social platforms

Creating a profile on several social networks can sometimes make you feel like time is passing you by.

One of the most difficult components of social media marketing is managing several identities and interfaces since messages, notifications, and content deadlines demand your attention all the time.

Cross-posting and participating in comments on numerous channels are necessary to maintain a presence across various platforms. Without a well-planned approach, it's simple to feel overburdened and exhausted.

We all have a finite amount of time in the day, so it's important to use it carefully without jeopardising client connections or upsetting your schedule.

Here is where resources like Sprout's Smart Inbox are useful. This centralised method of managing your inbox gathers all of your communications from several sources in one easy-to-access location, saving you time and effort.

Solutions:

• Establish a "priority" network and concentrate the majority of your efforts there. Where do you engage in the most meaningful conversation? Where is there the greatest growth? Which platform best supports your company's objectives?
• Use a social media solution like Sprout to streamline your online assets and presence. By doing this, you will spend less time switching between networks and your workflow will be streamlined.
• If necessary, think about delegating tasks to others or spreading them out among your marketing staff.

7. Little-to-no communication between departments

It takes more than just posting content and engaging with your audience to effectively use social media. Collaboration with other departments is necessary, including demand generation, product development, and customer support.

The teams that social marketers communicate with the most are depicted in the graph below.

The process of sharing your data and insights shouldn't be onerous or time-consuming. Collaboration is essential for improving campaigns, reducing second-guessing, and empowering both you and your colleagues.

Think about how your sales or pro duct teams perceive the ongoing effects of your content marketing and social media presence, for instance. You can devote more time to tasks that benefit your consumers and attract new ones thanks to their insights.

Solutions:

• Establish regular check-ins and meetings to discuss metrics and examine team collaboration potential.
• When distributing social data, be proactive and consistent. Utilise this template for a social listening report to democratise previously compartmentalised findings throughout a firm.
• To learn more about how your company's social media presence affects your marketing and sales funnel, use your CRM data.

8. Running out of creative content ideas

One of the most frustrating aspects of social networking is coming up with new content ideas. Your entire day, if not week, might be affected by a poorly timed creative block.

The task of expanding your social media presence never ends. No matter how successful or unsuccessful a campaign is, you are still required to follow up and continue to produce quality content.

Success examples on social media like Duolingo on TikTok serve as an excellent illustration of how original content can elevate your brand.

Once more, you shouldn't be preoccupied with what your rivals or established businesses are doing. The same is true for social marketers as creativity frequently comes in waves. We advise deliberate, continuing brainstorming as a proactive way to generate ideas.

Solutions:

• Discover what topics and material are being discussed by your target audience by using social listening tools.
• Develop a technique for recognising social trends to stay ahead of movements and fads before they take off.
• Work with creators or brand evangelists who have recently been successful at boosting engagement. What lessons can you draw from them?

9. Responding to call-outs and crises

The preferred method for customer care and support is social networking.

Additionally, it's a well-liked location to update your clients in the event of a crisis or issue with your good or service.

However, keeping your consumers pleased requires more than just sending out announcements.

The game of social customer care is all or nothing. You run the danger of being exposed for ignoring others if you only respond to a small number of engagements. If a high-priority communication is disregarded, a brand crisis could result.

A simple technique to increase openness with your audience on social media is to respond more quickly, but this is not sufficient on its own. Additionally, make sure you're replying to all of the messages that arrive in your inbox, including the positive, negative, and ugly ones.

Solutions:

• Create a targeted social media crisis plan to manage situations with significant pushback without becoming overwhelmed.
• Keep abreast of common customer issues, queries, and hot topics. Create canned comments that nevertheless feel personal using the information you find.
• Always personalise your customer service interactions, even when utilising messaging templates. A personalised welcome and closing can greatly enhance a digital encounter.

10. Lack of growth, direction or strategy

Running a social media presence on a shoestring budget can feel like swimming against the flow. To reach performance objectives, much alone exceed them, requires twice as much effort.

Many of the conventional growth routes have been obstructed by the choppy economic environment. That doesn't imply that you have no influence over how you behave in social situations. Marketers need to give new organic methods that fight stagnation priority in order to forge a new path forward.

Solutions

• Set harsh priorities. Examine performance reports to determine the appropriate content combination that produces the best outcomes. Utilise what you have learned to oppose competing agendas that don't boost top-line growth.
• By connecting the links between your strategy and the broader business plan, you may promote alignment between marketing and finance. Making the case for budget will be simpler if you are more aware of how you can contribute to overall objectives.
• Refocus your efforts on managing the social media communities to help retain customers. Concentrate on making your biggest fans happy. These brand ambassadors will assist you in developing social proof, which will assist you in attracting new clients in a genuine and relatable manner. Your company can benefit from recurring revenue by encouraging brand loyalty.

Which social media problems do you most need assistance with?

Building a powerful social presence is a deliberate process.

Do not become anxious if you encounter obstacles or are unsure on what to do next. It occurs! Ultimately, obstacles are only stepping stones on the path to attaining your objectives.

Having a proactive strategy in place to consistently advance your social media presence is what matters most. You cannot afford to avoid dealing with the aforementioned social media issues.

Download our collection of free social media templates to get started if you're prepared to conquer these 10 typical challenges.