4 Social Media Marketing Problems with 1 Solution
Social media marketing is constantly putting obstacles in front of brands. It is hard to navigate. but it’s vital for your brand to have a presence on at least a couple of platforms. The PAGER method solves four main issues that brands face with social media marketing so that you can get help your bottom line while at the same time build a community of fans.
There are so many ways that social media marketing is difficult for arts-based brands that they often give up. Or, intermittently post just to get something up there. Which usually leaves them feeling like their accounts are - to quote my twelve year old - “cringey.” In the past ten years that I’ve been working in the social media space, I have heard obstacles like:
social doesn’t drive sales
it’s too spammy
I have to come up with too many posts
my posts don’t get seen
I’ve taken so many online courses from so many thought leaders in the space and they all have their merits. But many of them don’t address all of these problems. They may tackle a few, but not all of them. To address all of these concerns I created the PAGER method for social media marketing. I didn’t want lean marketing teams to feel like they were drowning anymore. By following PAGER, brands can build an audience, build a community, and drive their sales goals. All while putting their social media posts on autopilot.
What is the PAGER Method for Social Media?
PAGER is the method that gives you a framework for what kind of content to post, how to exponentially grow it, and how often to post it. Each day of the week, you publish social media content that corresponds to each letter of PAGER. In this method, though, you also learn how to mine existing marketing assets that you already have - like a blog, a podcast, a StoryBrand BrandScript, a lead generator, content you’ve already posted - and create and store content in batches to then schedule and automate.
Now let’s go through the different issues that clients often have and how the PAGER Method combats them.
Social Doesn’t Drive Sales
Many of the higher ups in organizations that I work with usually have an issue with social media because they don’t see how it translates to revenue. Now, to be clear, social media is not meant to drive sales the same way that an advertisement would. But that doesn’t mean that your business goals should be ignored.
Even though many of the big time social media people said not to promote your stuff on social media, business owners would say to me, “But we have a workshop in two weeks an no one has signed up for it.” It became clear that even though it’s good to put up posts that get your audience talking and build community, you still need to keep business goals in mind.
With the PAGER method, you publish posts one - and at most two - days of the week that are specifically geared towards these business goals. I call this PIE content, and it points people towards your promotions, initiatives, and events. It could be getting people to:
buy tickets to an event
download your lead generator
take advantage of a sale
If you are posting five times a week, then you’re still adhering to the 80/20 rule of 80% of your posts not being sales-oriented. And if you’re posting four times a week, then you’re following Gary Vaynerchuks’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook model of posting one piece of promotional content for every three pieces of valuable content.
By making sure you have a regular cadence of promotional posts in your content mix, you can make sure that your audience knows what events, promotions, and initiatives you have coming up without sounding like a commercial.
On the flip side, some people find social media too self promotional. Here’s how the PAGER Method solves that.
2. Social Media is Too Spammy
Remember when social media was just friends and family posting (maybe you’re too young. In which case, one of these days I’ll tell you about two brothers named MySpace and Friendster)? Although that’s not as much the case anymore, with businesses and brands marketing themselves. But even if brands are still there, that’s still why many of us open up social media apps. According to We are Social and Hootsuite’s most recent Global State of Digital Report, “keeping in touch with friends and family” is far and away the number one reason why people go on social media platforms. "Finding inspiration for things to do and buy” is the sixth reason, below “filling spare time” and “reading news stories.” So there are a number of reasons that your audience is using social media before you or your company even comes into their mind.
When you post content that promotes your brand, then, your audience is going to see that as a little annoying. They want to see what their friend’s daughters were wearing for Halloween and you’re trying to get them to sign up for a webinar. There’s a disconnect there.
And when it happens more than once from the same account, they are just going to scroll on by, and eventually not see your content anymore because the algorithm has figured out that you don’t like it.
You get it. You feel it too. Brands can be too spammy on social media. Which is why the “G” in PAGER method, stands for General.
General content is designed to inform, educate, or inspire your audience. It’s the tips and tricks, busted myths, and handy how tos that you put out. And your job is to put that out once or twice a week.
Most likely this is the stuff that you’ve already been posting in some way shape or form, but the PAGER method gives you a clear idea of what kinds of post to create and how often to publish them so your account doesn’t turn into a lame local commercial that’s constantly running.
3. Have to Make Too Many Posts
There’s no doubt about it, an active social media account requires a lot of content to stay that way. The content beast always has to be fed. That said, there are some ways that you can lower the burden on the amount of content that you have to come up with.
With the PAGER method, you learn how to take one long form piece of content - like an article you’ve appeared in, podcast episode you’ve guested on, or blog post you’ve written - and quickly create multiple posts around it. You can use Artificial Intelligence to make those posts quickly, or follow templates and story boards that I’ve laid out for you.
This way, when you sit down to create content you wind up with three to five times more posts than you would normally have.
The PAGER Method also shows you how to organize what you’re creating so that you don’t have images, videos, and copy in multiple places around your devices.
4. My Posts Don’t Get Seen
Yes, it’s true that most social media platforms are a pay-to-play space. If you want your posts to get in front of more people, you have to pay them advertising dollars. Each of these platforms may say they’re all about connecting the world. But at the end of the day they are businesses.
If you don’t have a big budget for ad spend, then you have to play the game a little bit. So, you want to balance out your promotional posts with Engagement posts.
Engagement posts are the kinds of posts that get people to vote in a poll, answer with an emoji, or give their two cents in some way. These are posts that are designed to get your audience interacting with your content.
And you want to have these kinds of posts going out regularly.
When someone interacts with your content - by tapping, commenting, or sharing - that person will be shown your posts more often. And when a group of people are interacting with your content, then the platform will show your posts to more people.
If you want posts to get seen, regularly post Engagement content.
Read more about Engagement content.
Say Goodbye to Your Biggest Social Media Obstacles
The social media landscape is constantly changing. And it’s so hard to keep up with. But learning the PAGER method you know that you have a solid social media marketing strategy that works on any platform in any niche. You can be confident that your audience is seeing posts that not only help them solve their problems, but let them know what events and initiatives your company has coming up. You can know that you have the right balance of posts that are both business and community driven.
By implementing the PAGER Method, you can say goodbye to many social media issues that most small businesses struggle with.
Learn the PAGER Method and Solve Your 4 Social Media Problems
At Downstage Media we know that you want to use social media to build your audience and you need a social media strategy that works. Social media marketing, though, has major problems that it's constantly throwing at you and you can feel like just giving up. I believe that the PAGER system helps you simplify your social dramatically. So, schedule an Intro Call so you can get coached on the method. And in the meantime, sign up for the PAGER Group waitlist. So you can stop drowning in social media anxiety and can build a community of fans.
To help keep this post relevant, leave a comment below with an issue that you’re having with your social media marketing. I’ll do my best to address it in a future post.
