Managing a social media account can be frustrating. As a digital account manager at an outsourced marketing agency, there are many disadvantages to social media marketing that I am constantly battling for my clients.

For example, what performed well last week didn’t work today (for no apparent reason). Or, I’ll put time and effort into a social media marketing campaign only for the latest algorithm update to force me to start again. 

But over time I’ve found ways to get around these challenges. In this blog I’m sharing what I consider to be the four biggest disadvantages to social media and how you can overcome them – based on real successes I’ve had with my clients.

*All stories shared are real client stories, but some of the visual examples are from our own feed for confidentiality purposes

1. Social media management is time consuming

To see increased brand awareness, engaging with the online community is a must. However, the downside is that this is an extremely time-consuming responsibility.

One element is the act of managing interactions. This involves checking your posts regularly and responding to comments or discussions. The other is more valuable, but it also takes much more effort. This is interacting with posts and conversations on the profiles of micro-influencers or thought leaders.

Unfortunately, there’s no quick way to do this – you simply have to spend a few hours searching through your target audiences’ profiles to find relevant topics where you can add value.

Getting around it

On the other side of the argument: community engagement does wonders for your brand. It puts you in front of more people, it opens up direct conversations, and it gets around algorithms that may otherwise hinder reach.

We had a client whose engagement was decreasing without a clear reason, so we started using the Founder’s profile to join conversations in the comments on our target prospects’ posts. Not only are we getting more likes and replies, but there’s been an increase in people visiting the Founder’s and the brand’s pages. So, it’s also building their reputation as thought leaders.

In short, it takes a lot of effort, but the payoff is more consistent and more directly valuable.

Here are a few ways you can speed up the process:

✔️ Reducing the number of original posts to make room for engagement activity

✔️ Have a list of target accounts that you check regularly

✔️ Refer to a messaging cheat sheet so you can create responses quickly in real time

2. Trend monitoring is a never-ending job 

What works on social media is fickle.  

For example, LinkedIn is always changing the goalposts for success. The algorithms are always being updated, and it feels like each new announcement either introduces a new roadblock or completely upends your current strategy. Just look at the LinkedIn feed on Social Media Today: nearly every article is explaining the latest change to the platform. 

As a result, social media managers need to monitor trends and review platform analytics on what feels like a daily basis to keep performance on track. 

Getting around it   

Take your eyes away from the day to day and look long-term. Trying to react to every new update or datapoint will turn your feed into an inconsistent mess. 

There are so many elements of a post that can affect its performance – the format, the messaging, the design, the posting time, and more. As such, the only way to truly see what works is to assess the bigger picture. 

For example, I thought carousels were on their way out for a client because the engagement rate, impressions – everything – dropped for a few months running. So, I stopped posting them. Then, after a few months I ran a test carousel featuring quotes from the team. This carousel did really well.

I realised it wasn’t the carousel’s format at fault; it was the type of content we were using them to display. Carousels performed best with longer-form, high-value content. Whereas the punchier, short-form statements were better saved for static images.

So, to tackle this issue, you should:

✔️ Perform regular 3-month audits, but pay attention to longer-term trends

✔️ A/B test posts to analyse what element is impacting results

✔️ Don’t make rash decisions

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3. Competition is fierce 

Social media is a competition. In marketing, you are always competing for market share and voice, but social media marketing feels much more head-to-head.  

Unlike your blog page, you’re fighting against a feed of other brands to be noticed by people with short attention spans. And because an individual’s feed is primarily posts from brands they follow, it’s not as likely they’ll stumble across your brand organically the way they might through a Google search. 

As a result, it takes a LOT of marketing effort to steal followers away from your competitors (especially if they’re well established). 

Getting around it   

To earn market share, you need to know your competitors inside out. 

I worked with a startup whose main competitor already had a huge presence and had established trust with their audience. I did a deep dive of their activity and noticed they were sharing a culture post featuring people’s faces every month. These posts were the page’s best performing content.  

Then, I noticed a gap. None of their other content types used pictures of people. So, I started including people’s faces in more of our posts, such as to promote blogs they’d written. 

No-People:

LinkedIn Post

People:

LinkedIn Post

Our ‘new members reached’ metric and total reactions increased after this. Our competitor’s, on the other hand, dropped. 

So, compete with big companies on social media by:

✔️ Spending time on in-depth competitor audits 

✔️ Identifying gaps and opportunities 

✔️ Adding competitors to your social media platforms’ analytics and continuously reviewing performance 

Not sure what activity your social media department should be focusing on? Read more about the essential social media services any team (or agency) should be performing. 

4. ROI is difficult to determine  

“60% of marketers see measuring ROI as one of their top three social media marketing challenges” – Social Media Today 

Social media strategies will never be a quick win for sales. It’s very rare that a warm lead will come to you through social media and immediately convert. Although paid campaigns can generate leads, generally, social media platforms are for awareness and engagement, not closing deals. 

Plus, as I said, it’s time-consuming. When you account for the time and resources that go into it – from copy writing to designing to scheduling– each post probably costs you around £30. 

This makes it difficult to justify the cost of social media or see tangible ROI.  

Getting around it   

43% of B2B marketers attributed their sales to LinkedIn. (Facebook followed at 24%, and Twitter at 20%). – CoPilot AI  

Customers tend to engage with between 3-7 pieces of content before they’re ready to enter the sales funnel. Your social media content is feeding this journey. Even if a lead doesn’t come directly from your social profile, they have likely engaged with the activity.  

Many of our customers tell us exactly this. When sales teams talk to prospects in person, they learn that prospects are visiting social profiles to learn more about the brand and its products or services. 

Ultimately, organic social media content is about building authentic connections with your audience. It’s about sharing valuable information, fostering a community and sharing your brand’s story. So, beyond followers and engagement, hard metrics aren’t always relevant. 

But if you do want to measure this impact, you need to: 

✔️ Be patient – social media is unlikely to be the final conversion point, so it’ll take time for social content to generate results. 

✔️ Know what to measure – you can measure performance metrics like click-throughs, engagement rates, and completed forms, but social media should also drive traffic to your website. Head over to Google Analytics to assess what proportion of traffic is coming to your website from social media. 

✔️ Spend in the right places – use a mix of organic and paid activity, and only invest in areas you know will provide high-value returns, e.g. warm leads. 

If you want to learn more about social media best practices, get the ‘Social Media: Find Success on LinkedIn’ guide to improving performance on your LinkedIn profile.

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