With over 3 billion users online, ignoring social media is an unaffordable luxury for marketers. Yet, even seasoned marketers can struggle to reach a significant portion of this vast audience. The social media landscape is constantly evolving, making it feel chaotic even when you follow best practices.
Here’s a startling statistic: 42% of marketers plan to stop working with social media in the next 2 years. 49% of marketers have difficulty identifying and responding to trends.
You might think that major brands have it all figured out, but they face challenges too. Viralpep constantly overcomes modern challenges in the field of social media marketing and wants to share its experience. We have prepared a list of the most common social media marketing challenges, as well as ways to overcome them. Let’s complement each other’s knowledge, so we can minimize mistakes and overcome difficulties and challenges painlessly. Remember, Viralpep is here to help.
Social Media Marketing Challenges 2024
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Finding Social Talent
Hiring social media professionals is tougher than ever. The demands on social marketers have soared. Today, brands need experts who can strategize, write compelling copy, and create engaging content across multiple formats—all while understanding internet culture.
Research reveals that over half (52%) of marketers find hiring experienced talent to be their biggest challenge. This shortage of skilled social media managers makes it difficult for brands to build effective teams.
If you’re navigating the job boards, you’re not alone. Finding the right talent is a growing challenge in our fast-paced industry.
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Running Out of Creative Content Ideas
Coming up with fresh content ideas can be one of the most frustrating social media challenges. A creative rut can disrupt your entire workflow.
Growing your social media presence is a continuous effort. Whether a campaign flops or goes viral, you need to keep the momentum going with engaging content.
Take inspiration from success stories like Duolingo on TikTok, where creative content has propelled the brand to new heights. Experiment with different platforms and social networks. Unexpected platforms like Kodi can enhance your marketing efforts and help you reach your target audience. Of course, you need to do some research first, consider the Kodi Firestick update, and regularly track the results of your advertising campaign. It’s also useful to analyze competitors from other regions, but this may require a VPN.
Don’t get bogged down by what your competitors or legacy brands are doing. Creativity often ebbs and flows, even for social marketers. Stay proactive by engaging in regular brainstorming sessions to keep your content ideas flowing.
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Controlling Hard-Selling
Promoting your brand or offerings is important, but moderation is key. While it’s good to highlight what you bring to the table, avoid overwhelming your audience with constant self-promotion.
Excessive self-hype, whether for a brand or individual, can turn off your audience quickly. The result? They might leave before you can even say “Buy now!”
As Matt Kohut, managing partner of KNP Communications, says: “Pay careful attention to the ratio of audience-oriented versus self-oriented posts.” In other words, focus more on what your audience will find meaningful or useful, rather than on yourself. Share information that matters to them, connect people, and learn based on their interests. This approach will help others see you as humble, resourceful, and sincere. Whether you’re showcasing your corporate or personal brand, find the right balance. Aggressive, ad-style promotions are outdated.
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Establishing Strong Relationships With Influencers
Building strong relationships with influencers is more important than it seems. According to a HubSpot study, 50% of millennials trust influencers for product recommendations. This trust creates a bond between influencers and their followers, something brands often struggle to achieve.
Influencers can bridge the trust gap between consumers and brands, making them essential partners in modern marketing strategies. It could even be international connections. If your product or service is broadly specialized and international, involve international influencers or those who specialize in your niche abroad. You can conduct research on your niche in a specific region using VeePN VPN, which allows you to fake your virtual location. For example, collaborating with an Asian influencer can bear fruit even in other countries if your product is associated with Asia.
The 2017 Pepsi and Kendall Jenner ad is a textbook case of influencer marketing gone wrong. The commercial staged a Black Lives Matter protest for Pepsi’s global diversity campaign, featuring Jenner leaving a photoshoot to join the protest and offering a Pepsi to a police officer. This act was intended to symbolize unity but was widely criticized for trivializing a serious movement.
Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., mocked up an ad with a tweet of her father confronting police, captioned, “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi.” After the backlash, Pepsi pulled the ad and apologized, highlighting the importance of choosing the right influencer and message alignment to avoid damaging your brand.
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Over-Reliance on Marketing Automation Tools
Relying too much on automation and AI tools for social media marketing? Be cautious! While they’re great for tasks like scheduling posts and tracking performance, they can strip away the human touch that makes social media engaging.
Imagine you run a restaurant and have all your posts scheduled. A famous food critic drops by unexpectedly and trashes your best dish online. Suddenly, everyone is talking about you. But because you depend entirely on automation, you miss the chance to engage with the buzz, whether it’s negative or positive. You’re left in the dust, unable to respond, clarify, or capitalize on the attention. Don’t let automation trap you in the slow lane—keep the human element alive.
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Falling Engagement Rates
This five-word question has ignited numerous discussions across webinars, LinkedIn posts, and think pieces. It’s no surprise—constantly shifting social media algorithms can make chasing organic traffic feel like a game of whack-a-mole, where hitting one target means missing the next.
In our latest quarterly survey, marketers ranked keeping up with rapidly changing algorithms and features as their second biggest social media challenge. While earning reach and interactions can be tough without paid promotions, it’s not an impossible battle. With strategic planning and consistent effort, organic social traffic can still thrive.
Conclusion
Social media marketing will always be about challenges and difficulties. How marketers overcome them is much more important. The challenges vary, but the key to overcoming them is having a proactive plan. By engaging experienced specialists, interacting with influencers and creating interesting content, you will be able to overcome stagnation and break through to the next level. Viralpep is ready to help you with this: indirectly, with the help of our blog articles, or directly in the form of a service for promotion or vision of social networks.
