Marketers today face numerous social media marketing challenges while chalking out their social strategy — staying relevant, creating personalization, reaching out, earning and maintaining trust, and cutting through the noise. We list three challenges that are likely to affect most marketers, along with the tips to overcome them in 2019.

Social media has become a popular channel for marketers to reach their target audience as it is the preferred platform for today’s ‘always online’ customer. But social media presents itself with a set of unique challenges. We break down three of them for you, and how you can overcome them in your social media strategy.

1. Establishing Trust and Transparency

2018 was a turbulent year for social media users. The disclosure of Facebook’s user data leak to a political firm — Cambridge Analytica, fake news, and data manipulation didn’t only shake people’s faith but made them wary of trusting the platform. Users today are more careful about sharing their information and rightly so. They now want to be aware of how their data will be used.

According to Edelman’s 2018 Trust Barometer Report, ‘60% of people no longer trust social media companies.’

Thus, the prime challenge for marketers today is to regain customer trust by establishing transparent and honest strategies for:

• Data collection and usage
• Sponsored content
• Paid social media marketing methods

What you can do:

• Obtain explicit opt-in consent from customers to gather their data
• Use customer advocacy to strengthen brand image and win over potential customers
• Deliver consistent, high-value content with each interaction so your prospects and customers feel compelled to share more information with you

2. Balancing Privacy and Personalization

In another significant development, EU General Data Protection Regulation was enforced in May 2018 in Europe to safeguard EU citizens’ data privacy, harmonize data privacy laws, and ensure compliance across organizations.

Marketers are now caught in a Personalization Privacy paradox.

Personalizing social content and interactions and generating meaningful engagement are crucial for delivering an enhanced customer experience. On the other hand, marketers should be sensitive to customers’ privacy and not invade their lives.

What you can do:

• Give your customers more control over who can collect and store their data
• Communicate to customers about what kind of data you use to make decisions within a campaign and gather their consent
• Let them share their data at will; explain how data can help you create adaptive, responsive journeys, personalized recommendations, and provide dynamic content
• Focus on quality data instead of buying third-party data; it is more authentic and helps you provide quality personalized experiences

3. Pricey Social Ads

Brands are fighting for visibility in overcrowded social feeds. Clickbait links, user filtering or blocking of advertisements have also added to their woes. The rising cost of ads and users’ fleeting attention spans are limiting ROI for paid advertising.

What you can do:

• Boost organic content quality
• Combine social ad spend with an equal investment of time, creativity, and audience targeting
• Optimize ad spend by testing ad variants on ad targeting tools
• Boost conversions by doing more of what has been proved to work
• Generate engagement using interactive content, live videos, story formats, ephemeral content, and Augmented Reality
• Monitor social advertising campaigns in real-time and take corrective measures

Closing Thoughts

The social media ecosystem is ever evolving and provides an essential platform for you to reach out to today’s hyperconnected audience. The fundamental rule to overcome any social media marketing challenge is to keep customer interest, privacy and trust at the core of your social strategy.

Source: Martech Advisor