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11 reasons your social media strategy isn’t working – and how to improve it

Your Engine Room social strategy meeting

Social media can help you grow your business, reach new customers, and build an unforgettable brand. But there are no quick wins, and it takes time to establish a presence. When you aren’t getting the results you want, it can feel like a huge waste of energy.

Without a consistent social media strategy, it can be a struggle to get the engagement you need to make it a worthwhile use of your time. It’s not as simple as show up and post about your products. You need to be tactical, strategic, and understand how to play the algorithm.

If your social strategy isn’t delivering, it’s usually down to a handful of common errors and missed opportunities. Let’s take a look at why your social media might not be hitting the mark and, more importantly, how to improve it.

1. Not understanding your target audience or how they use social media

It’s easy to jump on trends and churn out social posts, but if you don’t keep in mind who you’re speaking to – and what resonates with them – your efforts will miss the mark. Social media isn’t about talking to everyone, it’s about reaching the right people.

Start by creating detailed customer personas. Consider your audience demographic, and their interests, values, and online behaviour. Create social activity that speaks their language, taps into their concerns, and addresses their pain points. Keep your ideal customer front of mind and make sure you are joining in the conversations that matter to them.

2. Ignoring platform-specific strategies

One of the most basic errors you can make on social is posting the same content across Instagram, LinkedIn, X etc. Each platform has unique features, different audiences, and distinct best practice guidance. What works on one will flop on another, unless the content is adapted.

First and foremost, decide which platforms are right for you by examining where your target audience spends time. Don’t create an account for everything if your customers only really use one or two. Be selective and choose the relevant options.

Then tailor your approach to each platform and repurpose your content into the best format.  For example, Instagram is ideal for curated brand moments, LinkedIn thrives on professional insights and thought leadership, and TikTok is all about authentic, user generated video.

3. Inconsistent posting and engagement

You don’t get an engaged social media following from random bursts of activity. Posting sporadically makes it difficult to build an audience as you’re not giving people opportunities to engage with your brand or understand what you’re about.

Commit to being active and find out what kind of activity your audience responds to. Once you know what posts performs, dedicate time each week to creating new content. By regularly posting and replying to comments and messages, you’ll gradually build a following. Social media is a two-way street – engaging with people shows you are active and switched on.

4. Neglecting employee advocacy

If you’re not tapping into your employees as ambassadors on social, you’re missing out. User-generated content performs better than business page posts. This is partly down to the algorithm, and partly because people engage with people and don’t like feeling ‘sold’ to.

Employee advocacy not only increases your reach, but it also humanises your brand. Encourage employees to share company posts and create their own content about your business. By providing clear guidelines you can make sure the messaging is consistent and on brand.

5. Too much promotional and product-focused content

Spamming your feeds with too much product led content is a big no no. If every other post is “buy this” or “look at our amazing product,” people will tune out. Social media isn’t for sales pitching – it’s about building relationships and joining in conversations.

If you’re struggling to find a balance, think about what content you can create to educate, entertain, or inspire people in your target audience. Can you share useful tips and how tos? Can you make them laugh? What issues do they are about? Most of your activity should be to engage people, with the occasional sprinkling of product messaging.

6. Lack of content variety

Posting the same type of content too often bores people and causes them to switch off. Mix up your activity with videos, stories, gifs, articles, polls, behind-the-scenes glimpses, user-generated content, and industry topics. Experiment to see what resonates most with your followers and keep a balanced mix of the best performing content types.

Read our article on crafting the ideal content marketing mix for more.

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7. Failure to use analytics and data

If you’re not tracking what works and what doesn’t, you’re flying blind. You need to use data and analytics to guide your decisions and see where to invest your time and effort. Pay attention to metrics like reach, engagement, and click-through rates. See what posts consistently get results and build in activity that follows the same format or includes related messages.

8. Not aligning social with your marketing and sales goals

Social media isn’t just about brand awareness. If it’s not aligned with your wider sales and marketing goals, you’re missing opportunities. Set clear, measurable objectives that tie into your wider digital marketing activity plan.

For example, if your goal is lead generation, focus on driving traffic to your website or landing pages through social campaigns and content marketing. If e-commerce is your thing, make sure you are running regular offers to followers for early access or exclusive discounts.

9. Failure to adapt to ever-changing algorithms

Staying on top of the algorithm can feel like the ultimate wild goose chase. They’re constantly changing, which means adapting your practices to keep up. By the time you get on top of the latest shift, it’s on to something new. But ignoring algorithms isn’t the answer.

Stay informed of the latest algorithm updates and observe how other brands respond. Make sure you can flex your activity planning to accommodate algorithm changes. Always prioritise high-quality, original content that keeps people interacting with your posts.

10. Ignoring paid social opportunities

While organic social reach is valuable, it’s increasingly hard to achieve. Ignoring paid ads means missing out on being seen by precise audiences, helping to build followers and increase the reach of your marketing messages and business profile.

Investing in paid social campaigns helps get your messages in front of your specific target customers. Even a small budget can deliver big results when used strategically alongside your regularly organic social media efforts.

11. Your social activity is not managed by a specialist!

Given everything we’ve shared up to this point, it’s clear that there is plenty to understand when it comes to crafting an effective social media strategy. It is a full-time professional role that requires training and experience to deliver results.

A common issue we see is businesses not appreciating that social media management needs a specialist eye, and instead leaving it to someone who’s main role is something else, or an inexperienced junior with no support.

Someone with minimal social experience might be able to create posts and reply to messages and comments, but will they build a strong, lasting presence? Will they convert people? With no clear strategy, activity ends up scattergun, disordered, and inconsistent.

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Get your social media strategy back on track

If your social media strategy isn’t working, there’s so much you can do. Often, it’s about making a few tweaks rather than starting from scratch. By understanding your audience, tailoring your approach, and crafting a varied content mix, you can turn things around.

Remember, social media success takes time, consistency, and creativity. It helps to have a professional’s perspective. Why not get a social audit? We ask you a few simple questions and our social specialist analyses your social profiles and activity.

Your social audit is packed full of tips and tactics, along with lots of simple improvements and quick fixes you can implement right away. We look at what you’re doing well and what requires some work, with simple traffic light scores to help you prioritise your next steps.

Find out more about our social media audit

Did you find this article helpful? Follow Ben on LinkedIn for more social media advice and best practice for SMEs.

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