Social media is all the rage now; this is something thatās widely known. When it comes to business, everyone has heard that social media has the power to help a business multiply its revenue rapidly and gain a lot more than they invested at the beginning of their campaign. A couple of years ago, there were reports that businesses had made returns of almost 1000%. Even today, marketers claim that of all the online marketing strategies, social media marketing offers businesses the highest ROI, mostly because of nonexistent barriers to entry and low costs.
However, it is also a fact that social media has become commercially-saturated and there is intense competition. There is a considerable decline in organic reach. What does this mean? It means that there are some hard truths that a business needs to know and accept when it comes to social media. What are they? Read on to find out:
Not all marketers get a positive ROI
Statistics show that almost 77% of the marketers are usually at least one social media platform for promoting a brand. Yet, the results show that only 48 percent of them are able to experience some sort of return on investment (ROI). Why is this so? There are numerous reasons for this difference and they are explained by the following points.
It requires significant effort and time to achieve success
Social media is not magic. You cannot just turn it on and expect to see an increase in conversions and sales. It requires considerable effort and time on your part before you will see any positive outcome. You cannot build a social media presence that easily because you need to understand your target market thoroughly. When this is done, you have to craft your posts carefully and time them right to have the most impact. Likewise, you need to be very active in order to see results. In fact, some businesses donāt even break even in the first few months because they are starting out, which means there will be plenty of mistakes, and also it takes time to generate a huge following.
Everyone has a different definition of ROI
The measures and metrics used for measuring ROI can be different for every business when it comes to social media. Some consider the number of visitors they get from social media channels whereas others only measure the sales generated through social media platforms. In addition, the cost calculation for the campaign is also different for businesses. Therefore, getting accurate figures can be difficult.
Some industries are naturally better for social media marketing
It would be wrong to say that some industries cannot be successful on social media. With the right time, effort and resources, almost every industry can see a positive ROI. However, it is a given that some of these industries tend to have an easier time as compared to others. Industries that are mass-marketing to a demographic that comprises of heavy social media users or ones with interesting content topics and visuals are more likely to succeed and outperform other industries.
Luck also plays an important role in growth
All you need is one piece of āviralā content and you can go from being amateur to a full social media professional. The problem is that you cannot predict what content would be viral. You may include all the right elements, but you still need luck to make it happen. A competing post might get 10 times more shares than yours just because it was timed differently or because it was read by the right person first.