Overcoming the Top 5 Challenges of Social Media

There’s nothing worse than experiencing a social media nightmare. When you worked hours on a content piece, just for it to reach 200 people. When your competition’s numbers surpass yours. When you look at the clock, and panic about finishing planning content on time. 

As social media managers or marketers in general, there are several horrors that we experience in our industry that haunt us. We’re not only here to let you know that you are not alone, but we also want to provide you with several solutions to each of these common problems. 

In this article, we will address the common problems we marketers face along with a wide variety of tools and resources that can alleviate your stress, and help you have major breakthroughs, without expelling all your budget, energy, or time. 

Top 5 Social Media Challenges  

Let’s explore some common social media nightmares that a lot of us have faced. After reading, be sure to let us know if you can relate or share some that we may have missed! 

Social media growth has become stagnant

As social media managers or marketers, we see our social media accounts take dips here and there in regard to reach and engagement, but when your reach becomes stagnant for a substantial period of time, it becomes time to implement something new. 

You should begin assessing this problem by taking a deep dive into your analytics. Viewing your top performing posts as well as the posts that did not do well helps you understand which types of content your audience prefers to see. With Metricool’s social media Analytics tool, you can view all the metrics of your social networks in a single block: that is, follower growth, reach, interactions, engagement, top-performing posts, and ad performance if you run any campaigns. All you have to do is become a Metricooler: 

Another solution to experiencing stagnant reach would be to conduct a social media audit on your accounts. Auditing your social media accounts is a necessity, to optimize your profile and ensure your profile is updated to match your current business goals. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to conduct the perfect social media audit: 

Lastly, it is important to be sure that you are posting at the most optimal times. In regards to Instagram, in the Instagram Study we conducted, we found that 8 p.m. every day is the best time to post. In our study, we also found that the best days to post on Instagram are Mondays and Thursdays. In regards to other social media platforms, it can be hard to choose the best time to post. Luckily, Metricool offers you the best times to post in two ways: 

• Through the calendar colors: the darkest slots are the ones with the most active users. 
• A percentage that indicates when there are more active users in a specific time slot.

To learn more visit our article on the Best time to post on social media: 

Can’t keep up with the competition

With the rise of social media marketing comes the rise of competitors. Standing out or being able to compete can get overwhelming. There are two great ways to keep up with your competitors: 

• Conduct a Competitor analysis– It’s essential for your marketing strategy to research and fully understand your competition on social networks and, with help from Metricool, you can accomplish a social media competitor analysis. First, you must find out who your competitors are. To do this you can monitor and analyze the hashtags related to your sector on social networks, find the best-positioned brands on Google, and listen to your followers. With Metricool’s feature, you can benchmark and analyze your competitors on the three main social platforms: Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and even download your information into a CSV (if you are a premium member). For more information on our competitor analysis, click the button below: 

• Content Modeling– by having a close eye on your competitors it can be beneficial to see what is and isn’t working for them, so you can model your content based on that. With the information Metricool’s competitor analysis gives you, you can refocus your strategy, get ideas for your content, debunk myths, and replicate their way of working. You can use this ad as a model, but it is important to note that you must adapt it to your brand’s voice and goals. 

Which platforms are my target audience on?

There are lots of ways to figure out which platforms your target audience is on to create content to target them effectively. There are 3 great places to start when dictating where your target audience prefers to scroll: 

• Search your niche on each platform– For example, if you are a company that sells women’s clothing, your target audience would be women of a certain age, location, etc. You can simply search for these types of people on different platforms.  
• Cater content to different platforms– For example, if you are selling a product or service that is visual in nature, then Instagram or Pinterest might be a good choice. If you are looking to build relationships with other businesses, then LinkedIn might be a better option. 
• Audience Analysis- Metricool offers a thorough audience analysis on a CSV Template. See the YouTube video below for a complete guide: 

Burn-out, or creativity block

There is no worse feeling as a marketer than the feeling burnt out or when you experience a complete creativity block. We are here to snap you out of it. Try these solutions: 

• Try an AI Text Generator– a process where an AI system produces written content, imitating human language patterns and styles. If you are experiencing a creative block, AI could help you come up with a variety of ideas to run with. Metricool offers an AI feature inside of the planner tool where you can now create text with the help of Artificial Intelligence. The goal is that you avoid facing writer’s block and save time, while the assistant creates the copy you need for each social media network. To learn about how this tool works click the buttons below: 

• Try a Canva Template– A Canva template can explode your creative block by gifting you a variety of templates by just typing in your broad idea. To make it even easier, Metricool now has an integration with Canva. This duo makes it extremely easy to create your content and schedule it on Metricool with ease. To learn how click on our mini-tutorial below: 

• TikTok/IG Reel Templates– TikTok and IG Reel templates make it very easy to break your creative block and save you time coming up with ideas. Templates allow you to use the same music and timing as the original reel, and replace the photos or video clips with your own. A popular TikTok template is known as CapCut. CapCut is a free all-in-one video editing tool that has a wide range of tools, templates, and resources to create your dream videos. IG reel templates can be found when scrolling through the reel feed. Then all you have to do is import your content and it will sync them to the sound. 

• TikTok Creative Center– if you are experiencing burnout on TikTok, turning to their creative center is a great idea. The creative center offers you information on inspiration, trends, creative tools, and education. 

• Take a look at your competitors– As we discussed above, competitor analysis can help you build your brand immensely. Take a look at their content to see if it strikes an idea in you for your brand. 

Running out of time

As social media managers, managing multiple accounts is oftentimes the hardest part of the job. If you are feeling overwhelmed, you need to give some of these solutions a try: 

• Metricool Autolist- An autolist is a set of several publications that you can share on different social networks automatically. This content can be scheduled periodically and in this way, you don’t have to worry about publishing on your networks frequently and at the right time. Click the button below to view a full Metricool Autolist. 

• Metricool Planner– You need to spend your precious time creating content and defining a strategy, not programming. You need the peace of mind of having an overview of what will be published daily in each channel and moving any content as you wish through the calendar. 

• Metricool Inbox Management- This allows you to view and reply to all the messages you receive across social media networks. You will not have to switch from one account to another to respond to comments and private messages. On Metricool, go to the ‘Inbox’ section, and see all your social media messages in one place. 

• Repurposing Content– Recycling content and transforming the tweaked content to different platforms help save time from coming up with a new idea and increase engagement on one idea. We recently hosted a wonderful Webinar on the ‘Art of Repurposing Content.’ See the video below: 

• Team Management Tools- Team management tools such as Slack to effectively communicate with team members, Asana to effectively organize tasks, and Canva to effectively create content can help manage multiple accounts with ease. 

Social media managers and marketers deal with challenges every day, but our hope is that you can now sleep well at night knowing you have plenty of tools and solutions to these common challenges. 

If you want to see us discuss overcoming these nightmares live, make sure to watch this Masterclass where we dive deep into tackling social media “horrors” using tools and tricks:

sophie , 25 October 2023