Should You Still Be Marketing Your Business On Social Media?

The year is 2022. And everybody and their mama is on some type of social media. It’s where a lot of us get our news and info. We keep up with family. We shop. But should you still be marketing your business on social media?

When we talk about social media, we’re talking about the big two: Facebook and Instagram. The others, while still large and popular, aren’t quite where Facebook and Instagram are yet.

yes,….but

In short, yes. You should still be doing some type of marketing or branding on social media. Post cool pictures often. Even better, get some great videos made to post. Grow your following. Engage with your followers. Post thought provoking content to get reactions. Use the new tools such as Instagram Reels and Stories to engage in different ways. You should be doing all of this.

Here’s the “but”. Because we no one really knows how the algorithms work on these social media platforms and because we can’t predict how the content will be distributed, Instagram and Facebook should NOT even be in your top 3 of marketing channels.

Check this out: Is your cell phone content hurting your brand

You Have No Control

When you’re primarily marketing your business on social media, you’re basically giving up control of your content. Once it’s posted, it no longer belongs to you. Sure you might have a copy of the content in your phone, but Facebook also has it. And they can do with it what they please.

They decide who to show it to and who not to show it to. Only a small percentage of your followers will actually see your posts. Of course, they tell that more engagement (likes, comments, shares) on your posts means it’s distributed to more people. But to who?

Social media is just entertainment

Just because marketing your business on social media is mostly free, that doesn’t make it the best. As many people as there are on social media there are many more that aren’t. And a lot of those that are on it, don’t use it enough to come across your content. Or there’s so much content for them to sift through that they may never know your business exists.

When people open up their Facebook or Instagram app, they’re looking for entertainment. They’re not looking to buy stuff. Of course they will if they come across something they like, but likely didn’t open the app for that. So if you’re putting all of your eggs in the social media basket, you’re essentially trying to sell to people who aren’t even looking for your product or services.

The analytics matters

Let’s talk metrics. Sure you can look at your engagement numbers to find out when you get the most engagement, on what day and what hours. They may break down by age, sex and location. All of this is great.

The biggest question marketers want to know though is, “HOW DID YOU FIND US?”

We want to know what you were searching for when you came across our content. What search terms were you using? What platform were you on?

Instagram and Facebook do not provide these analytics, which leaves you in the dark. You don’t really know how, or if, people are finding your content.

Where should you be marketing your business?

If you’re trying to make money, you need to be where people who are looking to spend money go to spend money: Google.

Your content has to be searchable on Google for you to see great results. Content you post on Facebook and Instagram is not indexed on Google, therefore, it’s not searchable. Which also means that all of the content you posted on social media doesn’t exist to people who can’t find you on Google. Heck, even if someone follows you on social media, they’ll probably still go to Google to search for the same service you offer.

This is why, in 2022, we will not be encouraging clients to create videos for social media. Let’s create them for YouTube, get them optimized to be found there, then we can take snippets of that content to use for social media. From social media we can drive traffic to our YouTube or websites. In 2022, social media will be a marketing accessory rather than a marketing necessity.