We take risks every single day. The moment you step out your front door and into the wide open world you take a risk. When you started your own business you took a risk. And every time you post something new on social media without a strategy in place. you take a risk.
In this article, we’re going to highlight the main risks involved with social media marketing and whether or not it’s even worth it…
Is social media marketing risky?
First, we must understand that social media marketing in and of itself is not inherently risky. The only real risk is that you either try to market your business by yourself without any expertise – or that you invest in a social media marketing agency that has zero expertise simply because they were ‘cheap’.
In that light, social media marketing can be risky when you are unprepared.
As is anything, right?
Take sky-diving as the perfect example: it seems incredibly, unnecessarily risky. However, according to a recent study; over 62-million jumps were evaluated (with an average of 3,200,000 jumps per year), averaging a fatality rate of 0.0011%.
In other words: plan well and play by the rules and you’ll make it back to solid ground in no time.
- No plan = a waste of money
The first major risk of social media marketing is the potential financial loss.
Again, you could throw lots of money at ads and hope for the best or you could hire a terrible third-party who doesn’t achieve the desired results.
Not an ideal scenario.
However, if you take the time to put a plan in place, or alternatively hire an established social media marketing agency with a wealth of social proof and case studies to support their capabilities, then you’ll significantly reduce the risk of losing money.
Know your audience, know your competitors, and know where you and your ‘solutions’ fit into everything.
- Fail to understand your audience and alienate them
The next risk is turning your audience off entirely by failing to understand them. Many business owners believe they know who their target audience is, but rarely do they ‘guess it right’ without having done the appropriate level of research (of which is in-depth).
If you miss the mark entirely and craft adverts that do the opposite of what is intended, it can be incredibly harmful for your brand.
Know your brand and make sure that every single post you create (whether informative or promotional) is designed specially to resonate with them.
- You don’t have the infrastructure in place to support your success
Another potential (and often overlooked) problem is being unprepared. What happens if your social media marketing campaign blows up? What happens if you go to sleep tonight and wake up with 200 new orders in the morning?
Just as you need to do the necessary research to craft a compelling social media marketing campaign…you also need to make sure that (should you succeed), you have the infrastructure in place to handle new orders and deliver on your promises.
Conclusion: Do it well or don’t bother
It all really boils down to this one statement: “do your social media marketing well or don’t bother”.
It’s that simple.
Social media marketing is only ever risky if you fail to prepare properly. Otherwise, with a reputable and well-established social media marketing agency by your side, you’ll be far more likely to experience and sustain genuine success.
