5 Problems With Social Media

I've blogged about the pros and cons of social media before but this post focuses more on the problems with social media.

If you are a brand, social media has to be a part of your marketing strategy. It's the world we live in. But there can be some challenges with relying solely on social media:

1. You must select the right platform. All social media platforms are not created equal. You do not have to be on EVERY platform. Select the platform that will reach your desired target audience and focus on engaging and building a community within that platform.

2.  There is a lot of noise and distraction. One of the downfalls of using social media for marketing and promotion is that you get sucked into the never ending social media vortex. You can waste valuable time on social media platforms just looking through posts for inspiration and end up totally off track and forgetting why you logged on in the first place. 

3.  It is TIME CONSUMING.  Noise and distractions aside, it takes time to build a following on social media and post relevant content. This time takes you away from perfecting your product or service. Even with tools like Hootsuite where you can schedule posts, you still have to engage with your followers and you can end up in that vortex I spoke of.  

4. It is such a quid pro quo environment. Most people only follow you if you follow them back and while this helps your numbers it doesn't always help your engagement or your sales. I would rather have 100 people who are really interested in what I have to offer than 1,000 people who never like, comment or subscribe!

5. Everybody is a critic! If you have thin skin, social media is NOT for you. No matter how much you lament over a post or try to perfect an entry there will be someone who catches that you placed a comma in the wrong place or they will fact check you. Or worse they will offer up nothing constructive and just complain that they don't like your post (or you). This can take away from your message and cause people to question your credibility,

To minimize these issues you just need to determine what platform will work best for you, post consistently and work on delivering quality content.