Why Social Media Results Take Time And Strategy

If you’ve ever posted on social media, stared at the screen, and wondered why your phone did not immediately ring, you’re not alone. We’re calling out one of the most damaging small business myths: the belief that a couple of posts can instantly create a wave of customers. 

Social media expert Dawn Renshaw, founder of Stoney Creek Social Media, explains why that “microwave marketing” mindset fails and what a real social media marketing strategy looks like when you want results that last.

Episode Resources

Stoney Creek Social Media

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Transcript

Welcome And Myth Setup

Richard Piet 0:07

Hi Richard Piet. Welcome back to the Kindness Marketing Podcast. Dawn Renshaw, founder of Stoney Creek Social Media, is our expert. And today is going to be the first of what I expect to be some periodic myth busting episodes. Hi, Dawn.

Dawn Renshaw 0:25

Yes.

Richard Piet 0:27

Excited about that one.

Dawn Renshaw 0:28

Yes, I am. I am.

Microwave Marketing Versus Marathon

Richard Piet 0:30

You know, uh, one of the things that is so difficult in the world of social media, the world in which we live now, is misinformation, right? I mean, we could have hours and hours of talk about that. But one of the things that folks tend to be misinformed about is the notion that I'll put this out on social media and boom, uh, you know, we'll just get our doors blown off with attention. It doesn't work that way, does it?

Dawn Renshaw 1:00

No, I I call it microwave marketing. People think that they're just gonna slap that in the microwave and turn it on. Next thing you know, they're gonna have more customers and they know what to do with.

Richard Piet 1:11

I love that. Microwave marketing. We cannot do this in two minutes.

Dawn Renshaw 1:17

Yep. I had a good friend when I got in the business and he said that that especially social media is more of a marathon instead of a sprint, and most people don't even have their shoes on.

Richard Piet 1:27

How does it really work?

Audience First Then Clear Goals

Dawn Renshaw 1:29

Something that we have kind of perfected over the years is, you know, people come in and they're like, we want to go, go, go, go, go. And it's like, okay, you need to slow down. We need to figure out, you know, who your target audience is, what they do, where they live, what, you know, what resonates with them. And then look at the messages that we want to talk about. You know, and often people want to talk about them, like uh, we do this, we do that, we do that. You know, some of that does resonate. You know, it's like people want to do business with, you know, people who didn't just start their business yesterday. Um, and they want to know that they have good reviews, but they also want to know, hey, I've got this problem, can you solve it?

Richard Piet 2:09

Yeah, I think there's a um a perception, at least, that that information brings credibility, which it does, right? However, uh it's just a part of it, isn't it?

Dawn Renshaw 2:23

Right. And you know, people have to you have to know it's like, do you want people to call you? Do you want people to come into your storefront? Do you want people to send you a message? How do you want us to increase the traffic? Like, what are your goals? You know, and consistency is one that people really they're like, like you say, you think that they're gonna throw a couple of posts out and you know, their phone's gonna ring off the hook. People have to see it over and over again until they believe it.

Richard Piet 2:48

Mm-hmm. Yeah, uh this is interesting to me because having come from the traditional media world, this sounds it it rings a bell because uh people, and this is how social media is not different than traditional media, that is to say. You are not going to get immediate response necessarily, and it is a longer uh focus, and you have to consider all of those things that you've talked about. Who are you after, what's important to them, et cetera? These are all uh an analyzing things that have to be figured out first. So uh is there a lot in doing that? How do you know you've found that information?

Dawn Renshaw 3:33

We're

Analytics And The Posting Sweet Spot

Dawn Renshaw 3:34

very analytically driven. You know, I just met with a client yesterday and we went over their analytics and said, okay, you know, the post on the fourth, the seventh, the tenth, the twelfth, you know, those did really well. Now the one on this day and this, you know, these didn't do well. Why didn't they do well? You know, what makes them resonate? And it takes time, it takes consistency. One of the questions I get asked more often than any other is how many times a a month should I post on social media?

Richard Piet 4:02

Oh boy, yeah. That is a big question.

Dawn Renshaw 4:04

And I we have found that 12 to 16 is a sweet spot. Um sometimes people think that you have to post every day, multiple times a day. I just don't know if you have that much important stuff to say.

Richard Piet 4:19

You know, well, it puts a lot of work on you to figure that out, doesn't it?

Dawn Renshaw 4:24

And then sometimes people are like, oh my gosh, I see their stuff so much, I'm gonna unfollow them. So you have to look at that too.

Richard Piet 4:31

Oh boy. Yeah, oversaturation has can have the opposite effect. So

When Engagement Starts To Show

Richard Piet 4:36

what is the expectation that one should have in terms of engagement and response to it? When is it typical for folks to start to see engagement from their social media endeavors?

Dawn Renshaw 4:54

Often when we start working with somebody, especially when they haven't done very much social media, there's a huge spike and it goes straight up. And then the next month or two, it just plummets. And then they're like, what happened? And it's like, well, it's going from zero to anything is going to go up. And so three months in is when we tell people that people are going to start responding to uh to their marketing.

Richard Piet 5:19

There's nowhere to go but up if you've not been doing anything. So the spike seems to make sense that uh after nothing, all of a sudden there's something and it it levels out after a while. But of course, to maintain this kind of trajectory, it takes consistent evaluation on your part and theirs, right?

Dawn Renshaw 5:40

Yeah. We have a we work with a reporting software. We actually work with two of them. Um we're very, very, very analytically driven. And I'm not impressed with with you know large reach or impressions or you know, if it's not moving the the bottom line, if if you're not getting sales. And so there's a lot of times where we, you know, we've all heard the word pivot, and that's kind of what we do. It's like we look at this and we keep moving this way and moving that way. And often a lot of times, if we're getting um a lot of website traffic, but it's not converting from there, sometimes it's a website issue. You know, or we sometimes have to look at maybe it's reaching the wrong people and the wrong people are going to the website going, this isn't me. You know, sometimes we're not communicating effectively. It it's so much.

Psychology Conversion And Website Fit

Dawn Renshaw 6:24

Sometimes people talk to me, they'll come and they'll be like, Hey Dawn, I just got a new printer. Can you network it with my computer? I'm like, No. And they're like, Why? And I'm like, I don't know how to. And they're like, Well, you work on a computer all day. I said, Well, I drove here in a car too, but I don't know how that works. You know, it's like, you know, what we do is so much psychological. Who are these people? What makes them tick? What, you know, what can how can we get into the mind of your consumer and and, you know, persuade them to do business with you.

Richard Piet 6:52

Mm-hmm. Well, uh, that's the other side of the point. There are pieces to social media that may not necessarily be the social media itself. You just talked about websites and and audiences and the right focus. So if we've stirred up questions for you here about uh social media, Dawn can answer those and give you some perspective on perhaps what it is that you could be doing in your business by way of Stoney Creek

Myth Recap And Practical Next Steps

Richard Piet 7:23

social media. But the point today was to bust the myth that social media works immediately. It may not, and it probably won't. It's a longer slog and a focused one, and that's the point.

Dawn Renshaw 7:39

Right. Ultimately, I don't think there's any marketing that's gonna be a one-hit wonder.

Richard Piet 7:43

Right.

Dawn Renshaw 7:44

Whether it's radio, billboards, you know, direct mail, email marketing, that's what we tell people. It's like there's really not you don't have a choice of going and say, Oh, I'm gonna do this, and it's gonna instantly create a buzz and traffic for my business.

Richard Piet 7:59

So it's not so simple to just post and go. There's strategy involved and information and understanding that needs to take place, and Dawn can help you sort that out for your business by way of Stoney Creek social media. Dawn Renshaw will be back soon here on the Kindness Marketing Podcast.

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Richard Piet 8:21

Thank you. Make sure you subscribe where you get podcasts or follow us on YouTube. Take care.