Social media is the go-to place where consumers get information and advice when it’s time to make a purchase. In a recent study, nearly 70 percent of surveyed customers spend more time online than offline for pre-purchase information gathering, with a relevant number researching online only. Are your social media marketing methods positioned to capture those leads and sales?

By now, you or your business may be using social media to connect with consumers to develop relationships prior to the sale. You also may be having second thoughts about how you’re going about it. It’s difficult to get trustworthy information, especially from vendors who sound like they know what success is. They’ll tell you how their product/service fixes all your “problems” but how do you really know if that’s true?

The best place to start is by taking a hard look at what you’re doing right now and see how it measures up to the proven social media marketing methods that successful companies employ. Check out these five ways to tell if your social media marketing methods are failing:

1. The Louder You Speak, the Less You’re Heard.

I recently wrote about a client of ours who decided to go with a “Social Media Provider” because it was free. It’s been a few weeks now, and their Facebook page has taken a hit not only in growth of their page, but also engagement, reach, leads and sales. This provider basically turned their page into an Infiniti commercial. Over and over, they’re blasting out the “benefits” of their product. Now, Infiniti commercials have their place but it’s certainly not on your Facebook page. Two things happen when you blast messages about your products and services:

• People unfollow you and don’t engage with content that’s solely about products and nothing about answering their questions or acquainting them with the reasons why people buy from you.

• Your content looks exactly like everyone else’s, thereby making you boring and forgettable.

2. You Speak Too Softly.

Content marketing is about getting the right message to the right customer at the right time. Marketing on each social platform where your customers are requires careful analysis to identify what to post and how often. Facebook has recently changed its algorithms and posting relevant, useful content more often (say four to five times per day) is now suggested. To create a presence on Twitter you need to tweet at least six times per day. If you’re blogging, post at least twice per week.

3. You’re Getting “Results” but You’re Not Sure What That Means

Without clear objectives and goals in your social media marketing methods, you’ll have nothing to tie your results back to. I see many, many business owners feel successful because their Facebook page has a few hundred or a few thousand likes. Likes are only the first step of your overall social media marketing strategy. Engagement, reach, leads, customers and sales are metrics you must set goals around and measure to know for sure what your results mean and what your next steps are.

4. You’re Unable to Identify and Define Who Your Ideal Customer Is.

In the old days of networking, they used to say, “If you think your customer is everyone, think again.” It may seem strange but there are people out there who will never buy your products and services. Some will, some won’t, so what. Whether you’re a salesperson using social selling techniques or a business doing social marketing, its important to know who your IDEAL customer is so you can take advantage of social media’s targeting methods. Designing a winning content strategy to attract new customers or to engage your repeat customers, enables you to provide value to the relationship. Figure out what questions your ideal customers have and be as useful as you can with the content you publish.

5. You’ve Got a Rookie in the Starting Position.

Nearly every time I speak, I meet 2 or 3 people who’ve been given the title of “social media director” when they’ve had no experience either in the industry they’re working in or as a marketing professional, sometimes it’s both. Would you put a green pea salesperson on the floor with no training or guidance? Would you trust your brand to someone who has no idea how to develop a solid marketing plan nor execute it? For the love of Pete, please don’t leave your reputation up to a rookie. It’s ok to give someone you think deserves it a chance but please get them some one-on-one coaching. The money you spend today will pay large dividends in a few short months when you have a full-fledged social marketer in your organization.

If you find that after reading this, some or all of your social media marketing methods are failing and you want to establish a return on investment, contact me. I’m happy to offer guidance.

Kathi Kruse is an automotive social media expert, blogger, speaker, coach, author and founder of Kruse Control Inc. Born in the heart of Los Angeles to a family of “car people,” Kathi’s passion for the car business spans a 30-year career managing successful dealerships in Southern California.  Kathi is co-author of the book Next Up – Essential Social Media Strategies for Auto Dealerships. Her Kruse Control Blog is the leading Automotive Social Media blog in the U.S.