5 Reasons Your Social Media Channels Aren’t Growing

January 29, 2020

I’ve said this a few times already—you don’t need social media to grow a successful business.

It’s completely okay if social media’s not your thing. There are other ways to get traction! However, if you’re doing social media and hearing nothing but crickets, you might be doing something to stunt your growth.

Here are the most common reasons why your social media channels aren’t growing as fast as they should!

1. You use your private profile for your business.

Your friends and family aren’t part of your target audience.

It’s okay to share something about your work on your private profile, and yes, some of them will be happy to support you on your journey… but if you’re starting a business, then start a different account or commit to aligning your personal profile with your business message… AND make it public.

I use both my personal and business pages for business. Choose what works for you.

2. You don’t engage with others.

Long gone are the years when being online was all it took to get noticed.

Now, since there’s SO. MUCH. NOISE. you have to look for your audience and build engagement first.

Let’s say, if you’re on Instagram, maybe search for hashtags related to your niche to find users you can engage with. If Pinterest is your focus, look for group boards. If you’re on Facebook or Linkedin, groups can be a game-changer!

Remember: Engaging with people is the most powerful way to build a community around your brand!

3. You’re not on the right platform.

Don’t look at big brands and corporations that are on every single social media platform—you cannot be everywhere! (they have whole teams dedicated to each individual social media platform!)

Choose the same platform your target audience—your ideal customer/client—is using. Pick a maximum of two platforms and stick to them in the beginning.

For instance, if your niche is arts and crafts, Pinterest and Instagram are a great choice! On the other side, if you’re a B2B tech writer, you’re probably much better off on LinkedIn!

4. You do too much cold pitching.

No one wants a sleazy salesman popping up on their feed every day.

Social media, among other things, is about sharing your story, gaining trust, and establishing yourself as a thought authority in your niche.

Personal brands that do that daily thrive—and more often than not, they don’t even have to do too much of outbound marketing to sell their products and services.

No clue how to develop the right content that doesn’t involve too many CTAs? For starters, share your knowledge with others and help them solve a common struggle. You’d be surprised how many loyal fans you’ll get by doing this!

5. You’re not consistent with your posting.

If you’re like most people, you probably show up on social media every once in a while.

But when you’re running a business profile, that’s not exactly how things work. You can’t only show up whenever you have something to announce and expect people to take action.

You have to be consistent with your posting, building connection and conversation very intentionally. Do it at any rate you’re comfortable with… for example, maybe four times per week feels best… but be sure to show up four days a week.

To successfully do this, you have to strategize and plan your content calendar long-term.

Pro tip: You don’t have to be online every day to have content posted for you. Explore different auto-scheduling tools or even outsource the social media if there’s no room in your schedule!