In a little over a month, the digital world will be saying its last goodbye to Google Plus. It was a social network that no one really wanted. Even the backing of the most powerful tech company did little to change that. Google Plus will cease to exist in April this year, and it’s hard to see why anyone would miss it. Google jumped on the social media bandwagon without having a good idea for a product or a service. Your business, especially if it’s a small business that relies more on brick-and-mortar stores than digital ones. It might also be too quick to start following seemingly promising digital marketing trends.
If you’re not sure how to discern the ones that show real promise for those that are just shiny new trends with little substance to them, keep reading. We’ll show you three trends that will do absolutely nothing for your business and are unworthy of your attention, time, and resources.
Using Facebook for Free
It costs nothing to create a page for your business on Facebook. Hire a professional to set it up. Create a visual identity, and develop a content strategy for the social network. Facebook isn’t for free. But the basic premise of the social network looks like this, create a page and produce great content. You’ll start getting impressions and traffic organically.
But that’s not how Facebook really works. Over the past couple of years, Facebook has been drastically reduced the organic reach of business’ posts. If your business’s Facebook page has a following of a thousand people, it’s most likely that only about twenty of them will see your post.
If you factor in that those twenty needs to interact with your post so that people who don’t follow your business already can see it. It becomes obvious that relying on organic reach isn’t something you should do on Facebook. However, sponsored posts or ads can have a much greater reach. So don’t think you can use Facebook for free, and pay up if you want to see results.
Putting Stock in Influencers
Influencer marketing has its place in digital marketing. People who are able to attract and maintain online following can shine some of that limelight on businesses that need it. And it’s true that the influencer industry is undergoing changes, but none of those will make it more appealing to small, brick-and-mortar businesses.
Using influencers makes sense for businesses that have more than just a small local footprint. If your business is small and mostly operating in the analog world, the benefits you’ll get from working with influencers will be minor, if any. Influencers work best with businesses that have a broader presence.
And don’t think that micro-influencers are much different, either. There is a trend of businesses working with them to drum up leads. But it’s still not a good solution for you because the micro-influencer’s audience doesn’t have to live in the same town, and that’s what would get your business the most benefits.
Experimenting with New and Unproven Digital Methods
You can do a lot for your small, brick-and-mortar business using digital methods. Local search, for example, is a method that works incredibly well when it comes to getting fit through your store’s doors. Investing resources into collecting and managing online reviews is another proven digital method for small businesses.
But these are only two in the sea of methods you can try. That sea is getting deeper and wider by the day because people are always coming up with new methods to promote a business and generate leads. And with the idea of the early adopter being very prominent among business owners who use digital methods in their business, it’s very important that you know when to hit the brakes.
Small businesses usually don’t have money to waste on experimenting with unproven or emerging digital methods. If you want to make sure that every dollar you invest in digital marketing is a dollar well spent, you need to invest only in the things that produced results for similar businesses. Following trends is a trend you should be careful with because it can be too risky for a business with limited resources.
