Solutions to 4 problems entrepreneurs face with new media

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If you are reading this blog post, you want to be among the 25% of small companies that are rocking their businesses with social media. You probably have a lot of questions about how to use these new media platforms to generate leads, which will turn into sales. Emphasis on the sales, right?

If you are like most entrepreneurs, there are four problems that will come up that might keep you from really getting rolling on social media: here they are, with ideas on how to solve them.

Time constraints

Social media is a deceptive little area of marketing that looks easy but is, in fact, very hard. The politics of social media are so hard that most social media people can’t stop talking about it, because it’s so interesting.
To keep up with social media is a full time job. You have to keep up with current technology trends, interact with people on a very genuine level, personalize everything, and build a relationship based on helping other people a lot before you can ever ask for anything in return.

It’s a lot less time consuming to put together an ad creative. It’s a lot easier to get other work done when you can put a message out there and nobody talks back, nobody asks a question, nobody criticizes your reasoning. So entrepreneurs optimize their time and choose the fastest way to get the message out there – which is not what social media looks like.

Solution: If you lack the time to use social media, hire someone else who really enjoys marketing to do your social media, PR, SEO, sales, etc. It’s crazy to not have marketing and sales talent, especially as a startup in this super competitive and volatile economic environment. Incorporating social media into your company is at least a part-time job, but it’s a necessary means of communication your team cannot ignore.

Current lead generation techniques already work

When entrepreneurs are in the middle of trying to keep a business running, improvement measures fall to the wayside. It’s possible that social media could double or triple a company’s lead generation efforts, like it has for countless companies, from Mint online financial software to Naked Pizza, a local organic restaurant chain.

There are two problems:

1) Social media is unproven, and may not replace current lead generation techniques
2) The company may not be equipped to handle double or triple the leads

Solutions: Keep your current lead generation techniques in place, while adding new entry points to your funnel. Visitors may come to your website through online advertising, sponsorship deals, or search engine traffic – add social media as another way to enter your sales pipeline. It’s pointless to abandon a process that already works, so let social media work with your current processes instead of competing against them.

Worry about satisfying the leads once you get them. According to the 37Signals book, Getting Real, one of the main bottlenecks in startups is trying to solve problems before you have them. So it’s okay to think ahead about how you might accommodate double or triple the business if you get it, but don’t let the possibilities stop you from getting out there in the first place.

Lack of measurement

A great fallacy about measurement is that it’s something that happens at the end. Like you collect the data, and then you analyze it.

In reality, social media measurement takes place before you even create your campaigns. Because you can’t run a campaign until you know how you will measure the results – you must put the measurement methodology in place when you design the campaign so you can collect the data in the first place.

Solution: Some companies leave measurement out all together, and get frustrated because all they see are the disappointing end results. Some companies think of measurement as an afterthought, and try to decipher a mess of charts and graphs before they finally give up because they didn’t collect the data they needed to begin with. Be the company that puts measurement at the forefront. Prove to yourself that social media works by letting the data speak for itself.

Unrealistic expectations

Social media does not work quickly. So many companies want to create a funny YouTube video and get a million hits on their website, but as these platforms become more competitive, the chances of your video standing out are even less.

To use social media effectively, you have to build a platform (which consists of relationships AND content) on every social media tool you use. This takes time, and you will not see results overnight.

Solution: Plan for 3 months without results. Think of when you first started the company – did you plan to be profitable right away? At some point you will hit the break-even with social media, but it does take time.

Tagged as: 60days, Challenges, social media

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

JunLoayza October 15, 2009 at 12:16 pm

Social media can be so time consuming! I think I just spent 2 hours today catching up on all of the great content online.

For Viralogy, publishing content, connecting with Twitter users, and thinking up ways on engaging on Facebook is a full-time job in itself.

You suggest hiring a social media “consultant” or I guess freelancer. Any suggestions on what's a good price to pay them and how to make sure they're legit and know what they're doing?

- Jun

Monica O'Brien October 17, 2009 at 4:30 pm: I wouldn’t necessarily say a consultant or freelancer – I would just say hire someone to do the job full-time, in-house even. The other option is to make social media a current employee’s job.

Truthfully, I have no idea what that costs, especially since there is a wide range of options there. Someone might pay 40,000 for a new grad, or 150,000 for a VP of Marketing who handles social media. Consultants(/freelancers) can charge anywhere between $30-$500 an hour.

I wrote about hiring social media consultants in my book, so I’ll post that section here as a new blog post. Thanks for the topic idea

liangtfm October 17, 2009 at 4:29 pm

Nice post Monica, will have to catch up on your previous posts

All excellent points brought up. Time is probably the most important factor of social media that companies need to understand. It is not an instant thing and I believe hiring someone to do it for you should be the last option. I just think companies need to take a step back and really try to see and understand what 'social media' is. Hire a consultant if necessary but integrating some form of SM into any company is necessary.

liangtfm October 17, 2009 at 9:29 pm