4 reasons you aren’t getting social media likes and shares

Most marketers agree that social media is now one of the most important channels for client acquisition and, for entrepreneurs in the app business, this is often great news. Channels like LinkedIn for example offer a dedicated space to network with other business leaders and decision makers. A Facebook page means you take up another spot in the Google search results, offering an additional avenue into your site and another way to make your app business opportunity a resounding success story.

What if you aren’t getting enough likes and shares on social media to generate traffic though? What if your social media channels simply aren’t performing for you and you don’t know why? The good news is that it’s simple to trouble shoot your social media problems. Here, we’ve outlined the four most common reasons why you aren’t getting social media likes and shares, so you can overhaul your strategy and get your social media pulling its weight.

1. You’re guilty of buying followers

This is an all too common cause of a lack of engagement. We get it though. The number of likes your Facebook business page has, or the number of followers you have on Twitter is not just a point of pride. It can also directly impact prospective customer confidence. More likes means you’re likely to come across as more established and more trustworthy. This is a powerful tool when it comes to winning new business.

Buying followers or likes does not mean that you are adding relevant, engaged fans to your page however. You’re simply upping your numbers with what are likely to be fake profiles or users who are totally irrelevant to your core service offering. Those users have no interest in your business so won’t like or share your posts.

Don’t fall into the trap of buying followers – work on building them up organically and you’ll see that your engagement levels stand a much better chance of tracking up too.

2. You don’t post regularly enough

If you don’t log into your social networks at least a few times a day, you’re in the minority. Most social network users will check their profiles at least two or three times a day, with some users as many as eight or nine. If you don’t feed that voracious appetite for news and content with posts regularly enough, your page will look stagnant and outdated. Worse, the way Facebook’s algorithm works means you’ll be punished with a low organic reach – meaning even less visibility and little to no engagement.

If you aren’t updating your social media pages at least once or twice a day, increase the frequency of your updates and measure the impact this has on likes, shares, followers and comments.

3. You rely on organic reach only

Facebook has slowly lowered the amount of organic content shared by brands that reaches user newsfeeds. It constantly amends its algorithms to ensure users only get shown content from people they like and trust. It also wants brands to advertise, which means organic reach is at an all-time low. The reality is that if Facebook is core to your app business marketing, you can’t rely on organic reach alone. You’ll also need to invest some of your budget in sponsored posts, boosted posts and ads to ensure you’re getting enough user eyeballs on your content to generate likes and shares.

4. You don’t post the right content at the right time

Knowing when to post is almost as important as knowing what to post. This is a trial and error exercise because you can’t know what your audience will enjoy and respond to until you try different topics and different posting schedules. If you find that your engagement is lacking, try mixing up the type of posts you share and the times of day you share it. Consider your audience and when they are most likely to be online – there’s little point in updating your LinkedIn page out of office hours for example.

There are plenty of tools available to help you with this task. Try the free version of Hootsuite to get started or a package such as Co Schedule, which offers posting automation and analytics. You can use these tools to track and assess what your most popular content types are and when to post on each of the social networks where you’re present.

If you’re still drawing a blank, don’t be afraid to ask your audience what they want to see more of and when they want to see it. You might find that you’ve been sharing too much sales-focused content (a common mistake) when your audience is eager to learn tips and techniques. Or, you might be focusing on text posts only when your audience has a hankering for images and videos.