11 Social media marketing challenges (and how to overcome them)

You cannot ignore the challenges of social media marketing. If you’re a solo entrepreneur relying on social media marketing, understanding the challenges and solutions will help you save time and get better results from your marketing efforts. You want to run your businesses without running yourself into the ground.  So, I’m sharing 11 common social media marketing challenges and how to overcome them.

Social Media Marketing Challenge #1

Time

Let’s start with the obvious, shall we?  Organic social media marketing (this is the marketing you do on social platforms that doesn’t include paid advertising), is time-consuming. Let’s keep it real. Creating posts, scheduling, publishing, interacting on posts, researching, tracking, monitoring, and on and on. Also, as a midlife entrepreneur, with less energy than the younger years, it can feel especially time-consuming while you’re building momentum on one of the platforms.

Solutions:

1. What can you automate? I’m the Joyful Systems Strategist so automation is always top of mind for me. Use tools such as Repurpose.io, for example, to repurpose content without you having to manually do the job.

2. What can you delegate? Again, as a Systems Strategist, I’m all about helping entrepreneurs streamline processes. This includes understanding what can be delegated to someone else. You cannot do everything or you’ll burn out. Quickly. Figure out what can be delegated. Even if you can’t afford to hire someone full-time, you can contract with someone to relieve the social media marketing burden, if even for a few tasks a week.

Social Media Marketing Challenge #2

Coming up with new content

It seems like you have to come up with fresh content ideas almost daily. This can leave you feeling exhausted trying to think of novel things to post. 

Solution:

Use a framework.

Frameworks take the guessing, strain, and overthinking out of your work. 

When you use a framework, you’re never starting from scratch. 

If you don’t have a framework, I walk you through a framework so you never run out of content ideas here. This framework works for both article writing and social media content creation.

I’ve had clients who thought they hate social media marketing but when we dug a little deeper, the issue was they didn’t have a streamlined process for coming up with ideas and then a system for implementing them. 

Also remember, your goal isn’t to become a prolific writer as such or a prolific content creator. Your goal is simply to create the amount of content necessary to keep your audience engaged and get in front of new people. The amount required varies from person to person. Don’t use another entrepreneur’s standard as your own before setting your own social media content standard. 

Social Media Marketing Challenge #3

Understanding the algorithms

Oh, the algorithms. I call them the hungry beasts ?. The algorithm is the mechanism behind a social media platform that prioritizes content. Meaning, if you create a YouTube video, who sees this video is based on several factors such as video engagement, channel subscribers, video relevance, keywords, etc.

Trying to understand and navigate these algorithms is a full-time job. Really.

Solutions:

1. Find one expert who teaches about your social platform of choice. Listen to them (for example, buy their course/training if you can, follow their tips, etc.). The more experts and gurus you follow, the more confused—and tired—you’ll be. As you build years of experience with social media and business, you can start adding other experts. In the beginning, stick with one. 

2. Test, test, test. You’ll often hear me say marketing is an experiment. All marketing tactics and strategies are a grand experiment. You won’t know what will bring results ahead of time. Even the gurus don’t know. They can share strategies based on tactics, but there’s always other factors (such as your audience, your delivery, your timing) that cannot be accounted for ahead of time. Consider everything an experiment. With each stage of the experiment, you’ll assess to understand the algorithm (and how it is responding to your content). 

Social Media Marketing Challenge #4

Keeping up with trends

Staying in the know about what is trending can make your head spin. It seems like there’s a new trend every day. For example:

*Trending themes and memes

*Trending tools

*Trends specific to your market

Solutions:

1. Focus only on trends relevant to your brand and audience. You have enough on your plate. Only focus on trends that are relevant.

2. Set up tools to keep you in the know. For example, Keyhole, Talkwalker.

Social Media Marketing Challenge #5

Running on a treadmill with no off switch

If social media marketing is your main way of getting customers and clients, you’re on a hamster wheel and can’t get off. Most social media posts have a short lifespan. After a few days, nobody new is seeing them.

This means, that when you stop posting, your earnings drop. That’s not a fun way to run a business. You’ll burn out.

Solution:

Create a system, such as my Marketing Rest System, that allows you to take breaks without losing income.  The reason why many entrepreneurs struggle to stay consistent with social media marketing is because social media is draining and we’re not robots. It’s impossible for most of us to show up on social media over and over without long, intentional breaks.

Social Media Marketing Challenge #6

Low Engagement

Sometimes your engagement may dip. Every creator and business will notice this at times. Do not get discouraged. Here’s what to do about it.

Solutions:

1. Understand what is causing the dip. Is it seasonal or something that needs to be adjusted in your strategy?

2. Check your analytics and adjust.

Social Media Marketing Challenge #7

Low ROI

Because social media marketing is so time-consuming, it often feels like a low ROI (Return on Investment) activity.

You feel like you’re spending a lot of time and energy but not getting much results.

Solutions:

1. Change your mindset. If you’re just getting started, gaining traction on social media typically takes time. Do not look at unicorns and aim for their success. Unicorns are outliers. They’re the people who gained rapid success much faster than average. This happens infrequently across industries and in life in general.

There are many factors for that unicorn’s rapid success but you can’t emulate those factors (often because timing was a huge part of their faster-than-average rise. They maybe had a message that was just gaining traction at a certain time and they rode the momentum of perfect timing). Instead, look at the averages, not unicorns.

2. Assess and adjust. If you’ve been at it for longer than 6 months and still aren’t gaining traction with a brand, dig into your analytics to understand what isn’t working. Do more of what is already working. This will mean adjusting your content plan and approach.

Social Media Marketing Challenge #8

Standing out in a sea of noise

I’m sure you’ve noticed that it’s noisy out there and competition is high online. Every day a new online business pops up onto the market. Not to mention the well-established brands you’re up against. What to do?

Solutions:

1. Bring your perspective, unfair advantages, and product differentiation

The number one way to stand out online is to have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Your unique approach, values, and product delivery (this may be speed of delivery or outcome). If you try to do what everyone else is doing and say what everyone else is saying, you’ll get lost in a sea of sameness.

2. Be patient

Everything takes longer than you expect and longer than you want. Do not compare yourself to the rate of other’s success. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. 

Have patience. It is the way.

Social Media Marketing Challenge #9

Feeling unsure about which platform to focus on

It’s hard to know which platforms are best for you right now. Each guru preaches about each platform and you just don’t know which is best for your business. 

Solution:

Understand which platforms are your target audience on. There is no point in being on a platform if your audience isn’t there. You’ll be swimming upstream and wasting time. Do social listening. Take time to research your audience and find out the social platforms they most frequent and where they’re most engaged. 

Social Media Marketing Challenge #10

Discerning what’s working on social media nowadays 

It seems as if things are changing almost daily on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, etc. In addition to creating content for these platforms, we’re also supposed to keep up with what’s working and what’s not. I say this often, we’re not robots with unlimited time and energy capacities.

Solution:

Ignore 99% of the noise and use your data to understand what’s working for you and what isn’t. Remember I mentioned having one expert you follow. Stay glued to what they’re saying and keep focused.  Deep focus is a superpower. 

Don’t jump around to something else because you see a video about how XYZ isn’t working anymore. Be selective with the advice you consume and be smart about what you implement.

Feeling misaligned with certain platforms

If you’re an introvert like me, many social media marketing tactics and platforms will feel draining. Many solo entrepreneurs find themselves spending massive amounts of time and energy on platforms that aren’t the best fit. 

Solution:

Ask yourself which, if any, platforms, you frequent (for personal use). This can give you an idea of your preference. And if you hate all social media, it may not be for your business. I’m a firm believer that all businesses don’t have to be on social media. 

Fundamental to my Joyful Systems Framework is that we work (and feel) better when our business tasks are in alignment with who we are. For example, in the Marketing Rest System free training, I explain that if a platform feels super draining for you, this is an unsustainable way to market your business. It will take too much of your energy and you won’t keep up.

Some things cannot be forced. Pick the platforms that most align. Also, take breaks whenever you can. Your mental health will thank you. We’re not robots. We need planned time away from these platforms. 

Approach social media with intention and create a system for publishing, engaging, and monitoring that doesn’t feel draining. To overcome the challenges of social media marketing, be proactive, strategic, and take breaks.