There is no denying the fact that social media marketing has become a powerful and highly effective way for businesses to create brand awareness, establish credibility and generate web traffic. However, many small businesses make the mistake of targeting all their marketing efforts to social media, or to a single social media platform, which is even worse.

Are you guilty of doing this as well? Stop right there and re-visit your digital marketing strategy because this could be a disaster for your business.

Relying solely on social media or on a single platform such as Facebook is like putting all your eggs in one basket, which is never a wise idea.

While there are many logical reasons why you should not entirely depend on social media for your business marketing, here are the top five:

1. Not many people see your ads – Different social media channels have lost their effectiveness as a result of many algorithm changes. For example, only 3% of your Facebook audience can see your posts on their home feed. This means, you need to have a significant following to gain recognition let alone make an impact on your target audience.
2. It takes a long time before you see results – Building a social media presence isn’t something that can happen overnight. It often takes years of continuous activity before you start getting any return on your investment.
3. Very few businesses get a positive ROI – A research study shows that out of the 77% of marketers that are using at least one social media to market their business, only 48% get a positive ROI.
4. They can encounter glitches – Remember the recent Instagram glitch that made many celebrities lose hundreds of thousands of followers? The history of social media history is filled with such examples. This can be a huge setback for any business that solely relies on social media.

What You Should Do Instead

The smarter way is to take a comprehensive digital marketing approach and target your audience through multiple channels. These include managing an active blog, optimizing your website for SEO, getting your business listed in local listings and business directories, connecting with your audience on platforms like Quora and Medium, email marketing, actively participating in industry-relevant forums and offline marketing.

Adding diversity to your marketing practices will enable you to reach out to a wider audience and attract people with different interests and behavioral patterns. For example, there are many people who are not active on social media, but heavily rely on search engines to find any information they need. Getting your website optimized for search engines and maintaining an active blog will ensure that your business appears in the top search results.

If you are still confused, just take a look around and see how reputable companies in your industry are marketing their businesses. You will know that you are doing a huge mistake just by relying on social media.