Social media is still a buzz word to many people and businesses around the world. Everywhere you look online you will see people promoting social media and these phrases might look familiar to you: “social media marketing is the best way to market your services and products to the social web”, “get your customers involved by starting with social media”, “engage with your customers through social media”.

Even thought all these random messages people are spreading online can convince you to start a social media marketing campaign, it is really not suited for any business. Having only a Twitter and Facebook profile doesn’t mean you have a strategy in place. Only scheduling your posts to go out on a daily basis is not a social media strategy. Only listening to what is going on via the social web and not acting is not a social media strategy.

Here’s a couple of tips on why your social media campaign might be failing with your digital marketing initiative.

Wrong social media channels

Not all of the social media channels are equal such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest or LinkedIn. Each of the channels are designed for various things and the content you share on these should be crafted to that purpose. In many cases these channels can be used the same such as sharing interesting news or updates.

Each social media channel has limitations. Understanding how each of the different channels work can have an impact on your brand’s voice. To give you an example – if you hardly have any interaction with customers on your Twitter profile, did you know that this channel is an ongoing conversation channel and if there is no interaction on your profile,what does that say about your business?

You are not active

If you don’t have social media strategy in place, social media can really consume your time. Are you planning to engage with people on social media or did you just create your social media profiles because everyone else are doing it? Did you know that it doesn’t have to be time-consuming because if you only spend a few minutes every day doing small things on the social web you can achieve amazing results.

With social media, businesses can achieve many things when taking small steps. You can build a great following over a period of time if you take a very casual approach to your strategy that involves small talk. Ask questions about your audience’s experience and share it with others reinforcing their positive statement. Share an update when there is something great to share.

Only start a campaign with a strategy

This is most likely the worst reason for any business to start engaging on the social web. If you don’t have strategy that supports your business goals or digital marketing strategy, your campaign will fall flat. Before you start your campaign, set a couple of expectations on what you want to achieve with your strategy. What are you going to do in your social media campaign? Who do you want to reach? Do you know what interests your target market? What content interests them?

You should always remember that social media is public. With social media you don’t have control of the conversation and consumers have the power to talk back. It is really a fun and social medium, but it can be dangerous if you don’t plan it properly. Research and think it through. Be smart with your campaign and always think that quality is worth more than quantity.