<img class="size-full wp-image-9862 alignright" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/investing.jpg" alt="investing in social media" width="450" height="300" />There’s a good chance your business isn’t spending enough on social media. Because social media is a relatively new specialization area in marketing, many businesses simply aren’t doing it right. They haven’t learned the best practices and are skeptical of spending too much money on something they consider a risky investment.

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Is your company focusing enough attention on social media in its marketing plan? Try our </span><b><a href="https://itxdesign.com/the-4-step-litmus-test-for-your-social-media-content/" target="_blank">4 step litmus test</a></b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for your social content if you’re not sure. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">If you’re not investing enough in social media, it will be apparent in your engagement rates, follower and fan counts, and amount of traffic driven to your website. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are 5 signs you’re not investing enough in social media.</span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">1. No one’s clicking your content</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">If your engagement rates are always low, or even tiny spikes in engagement seem like big victories to you, you’re probably not investing enough in social media. If no one is clicking your content, they’re simply not interested in it. It doesn’t even have to be bad content--in fact, sometimes content that doesn’t get clicked on is actually very good. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">But if the post promoting that content isn’t engaging and interesting, it won’t drive or encourage people to click on it and find out. <a href="https://itxdesign.com/what-type-of-facebook-content-causes-more-engagement/" target="_blank">Lack of engagement</a> when your content is good means you need to invest more in finding your target audience on social media and promoting your content to them. </span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">2. You take more than 24 hours to respond on social</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">If it takes you a day or more to respond to a question, concern, or friendly 'Hello' on social media, you’re not investing enough in it. You need someone to manage the day to day role of executing your social strategy, and that has to include engaging with members and replying to questions and mentions. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Taking too long to respond means that whoever is handling social media doesn’t have enough time to do so and you might need to bring someone else in.</span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">3. You aren’t running ad campaigns</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Not running advertising campaigns on your most active social media networks is wasting your business’ online potential. Not only will running good, quality ads help you narrow and define your target audience, but it will also help you directly reach your target audience, drive them to a pre-defined goal (Page likes, traffic to website, promote a specific post), and measure the results when the ad is finished. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">You can create several versions of your ads to continually A/B test them on your audience and find out which work best. Social ads tell you a lot about your audience, so if you aren’t using them, you’re probably not investing enough in social media. </span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">4. You only use 1 or 2 social networks</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Facebook and Twitter are very popular social networks, but if they are the only two you’re using, it’s a good indicator that you’re not investing enough in social media. Businesses that perform well online and engage with their customers use a variety of means to contact and connect with them. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Highly visual brands, and brands that target female customers, flock to Pinterest where the audience is 80% female and 100% visual. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Business-related brands and B2B companies enjoy Google+, where likeminded audience members congregate to engage with good content. And fun, young brands are on Snapchat to entertain and interact with their users. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">If you’re only using the bare minimum of 1-2 networks on social media, you aren’t investing enough in it.</span>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">5. You post once a week</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">If you only post once a week, you’re not investing enough in social media. Social media isn’t a sprint--it’s an endurance race, and you have to show up at the same time every day to make the best impact and see the best results. Posting once a week tells your fans and audience that you’re not active on the network and most likely don’t know what you’re doing. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Projecting confidence and ownership of your page on social media is an important way to connect with your audience. Doing so is investing in your social media presence and success.</span>

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Read Next: <a href="https://itxdesign.com/4-ways-to-integrate-social-media-into-your-website/" target="_blank">4 Ways to Integrate Social Media into Your Website</a>