Social Media Marketing: The Real Purpose and Why You’re Using It Wrong
When most people think about marketing strategy, social media is the first thing that comes to mind. Makes sense, right? It’s one of the biggest pieces of marketing that people see first before anything else for a brand. Social media is where a lot of people discover new businesses, and that’s its intended use.
But here’s where things go sideways for most business owners.
Social Media Is a Top-of-Funnel Marketing Channel
Social media is a top-of-funnel marketing channel. That means it’s where everybody in the world can discover you. When they enter your funnel, it’s potentially the first piece of exposure they have to your brand.
Social media can be great – it’s generally free to get on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. You might be spending money to produce content, but you don’t have to. You can create a piece of content from start to finish, hit post, and it’s out there. It’s very accessible for brands, and you can reach large groups of people with relatively low friction.
But What’s the Overall Purpose?
If social media is so time-consuming and draining, and ultimately leads to burnout for a lot of business owners, why are we using it? What’s the purpose? How can we make it work for your strategy?
One of the first things I’d say is that when you have the wrong expectations for social media, that can lead to exhaustion and frustration much faster than if you’re very clear on the purpose social media is going to serve for your business.
Stop Expecting Social Media to Drive All Your Sales
If you’re going into social media thinking it’s gonna be the driver of all your sales – that you’re going to post 3, 4, 5 times a week and that’s going to lead you to $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 months – let’s stop right there.
I do not want you to go into social media with the intention or expectation that it’s gonna be the sole driver of your sales. Most of the time, your sale is not going to happen on social media.
Now there are nuances to this. If you have a low-ticket offer or product, something that can be more impulse-purchased, this may not apply 100%. But the point that the transaction is not going to happen on social media still probably applies to you.
You’re still going to have to send them to your website to make a purchase and get that conversion. The funnel or journey somebody has to go through may be much shorter, but ultimately your social media posts are going to be the exposure that you can then say, “go to my website” or “take this next action.”
What Social Media Is Actually Amazing For
Social media is amazing for:
- Visibility and brand awareness – Getting that exposure to who you are and what you do
- Community building – Connecting with your audience, especially if you’re doing one-on-one work
- Setting expectations – Helping people understand what they can expect from your products or services
- Research and credibility – When people are lurking and doing research on who you are
A lot of people do their research on social media first, then they go to your website and Google who you are. If referrals or word of mouth are part of your strategy, you’re gonna have to maintain some level of social media presence.
If I go to a profile and the last post was from two years ago, I’m gonna question whether you’re still in business. I’m not gonna make a phone call to find out – it’s too much work, and I’ll move on. Most people are in that same boat.
The Strategy Behind Your Content Matters
I think a lot of people experience frustration with social media because they don’t have the strategy behind what they’re producing and why they’re producing that piece of content. If you tend to post just for the sake of posting, that’s not gonna be good enough.
We need to have a reason why you’re sharing that piece of content, why you’re showing up in the way you’re showing up that day.
I get that it’s not exciting or sexy to sit down and plan your content – to figure out what you’re gonna say, how you’re gonna say it, what visual you’re gonna put behind it. But if you’re a solo team or have one or two team members, if you’re in an earlier stage of your business, this is going to be so important for you.
Planning vs. Posting on the Fly
Sitting down, having that clarity, planning out the content you’re going to create is going to be so much more effective than if you just say, “I haven’t had a post today, let me write something up real quick.”
Yeah, that helps in terms of you being visible that day, but did it move the needle toward your goals? Is it going to make progress on getting your audience to take that next step – opting into your email list, sending you a DM, inquiring about your program or booking a consultation?
Maybe, maybe not. But your time and energy are limited. They are non-renewable resources. I do not want you to post just for the sake of “I showed up today.”
Understanding Marketing Channels vs. Tactics
When you think of your marketing strategy, your strategy is the overall plan. The channels are the roads that people could take to get from the top of the funnel to the conversion. Social media would be a channel – a way that somebody could find you and move to your email list or website.
The tactics within social media specifically could be video content versus text-based content, static posts versus carousels, then you’ve got stories. There are lots of different tactics.
Think of channels as what you’re doing and tactics as how you’re using them. Tactics are gonna change. Channels are gonna be more consistent and steady. You probably still used social media three years ago, but how you used it then is different than how you use it now because the tactics have changed.
Social Media for Setting Expectations
Social media is also really great for setting expectations. A lot of people consume content before they take action, and that’s a great way to set expectations for what they can expect with your products, services, or working with you.
It’s a great way to weed out ideal clients from not-ideal clients – people who your product is a good fit for versus people who it isn’t a good fit for. A lot of that comes down to your messaging and your customer journey.
The Bottom Line
Social media serves a very specific purpose in marketing strategies. If you’re going into it with the expectation that social media is the end-all, be-all for your sales, I’d encourage you to look at your marketing strategy and build it out so that it’s less dependent on social media.
It’s not an owned channel. You have no control over social media, the algorithm, or who sees your content. We’re gonna want to move those audience members into a different area of your marketing strategy.
Having clarity on how you’re gonna be using social media channels for your business and how that’s going to affect your goals is going to allow you to be really intentional with each piece of content you’re putting out. You’re not gonna be in this mode of posting for the sake of posting – you’re putting out content that’s very intentional, that’s going to move people through that customer journey.
Your Next Steps
Look at your social media and how it’s fitting into your strategy. What are you doing with your social media and what’s the intent behind why you’re using it? You don’t need to use social media at all if you don’t want to. You could absolutely come up with a different strategy that doesn’t rely on social media at all.
But if you are using it, be clear on the purpose. Make it work for your business goals instead of against them.
