We all know that social media is vitally important in today’s world. But there’s more to social media than simply amassing a large number of followers. If the people following your social media pages aren’t participating in conversations or sharing your content, you’re doing something wrong. And since social media is the hub through which inbound marketing flows, an inactive fanbase is the death knell for any inbound marketing strategy.

Wondering if your social media strategy is dead in the water? Here are some of the common signs of an apathetic social media fanbase.

Nobody’s Responding

If a company posts content via social media and nobody notices, then the post never truly existed. Without the social component, your posts aren’t nearly as effective. If a Facebook post from a company has no comments, it looks like nobody cares about what the company has to say. That may not be entirely true, but perception is reality, especially in social media.

If you’re getting nothing in terms of response, it’s up to you to figure out why. Are you giving people what they want? Are you posting on the wrong day or at the wrong time of day? Are you posting too much? Look at your social media strategy and your activity levels to see if you can identify any trends in the data. It may take just a small tweak to get those numbers headed in the right direction.

Nobody’s Sharing

A lack of sharing is even worse than a lack of commenting. Why? Because sharing is how you get new eyes on your company. Every tweet you send out has limitless possibilities. If those growth opportunities are stunted, you’ll never expand your reach beyond your current group of followers. 

To get someone to share something, you have to first come up with content that’s so good that people have to tell someone about it. Is your content doing that? If not, you may be able to repurpose it with a more compelling title. You can also ask people to retweet your content, which has been statistically proven to work, to the tune of four times more shares per request.

No New Followers

It might not seem like your current followers can be responsible for a lack of new followers, but in reality they’re more responsible than anyone. It’s the enthusiasm of your followers that spreads the word about your company to other people. If people are bored, they’re not going to be talking about your page, and they surely won’t  recommend that their friends follow you.

Not getting new followers means your lead generation tactics aren’t working. Take a look at the content you’re sharing and make sure it’s as good as you think it is. Specifically, does it match what your audience is looking for? Does it contain information that potential followers might want to know? If the answers to these questions are negative, go back to the drawing board and come up with something a little more relevant.

Stagnant Web Traffic

The whole point of using social media as part of your inbound marketing strategy is to funnel people to your website. If your Web traffic isn’t moving as a result of your social media initiatives, something’s wrong. You can double-check the effectiveness of social media by looking at the traffic for your landing pages that capture only visitors that came in through social media.

People who don’t go to your website may be tuning you out, or they may simply be satisfied with what you’re posting on social media. Either way, it’s your job to turn them into more active participants. Check out the calls to action you post on social media and fine-tune them to maximize your click-through rate. Give people just enough that they’re curious, but not enough that they don’t feel the need to learn more.

Minimal ROI

You could have the greatest social media account in the world, but it’s worthless if it doesn’t have a positive impact on your bottom line. Social media is the start of a cycle that ends when a customer makes a purchase on your website. If this isn’t happening, you have to look at your social media strategy and figure out why it’s not generating more revenue. 

This is a good time to review your offers and calls to action. Make sure you discuss the value for the customer, not for your company. Frame your calls to action around topics and posts that people have responded to in the past. If all else fails, ask your followers what they’d like to see more of in the future. It’s a bit humbling, sure, but that’s how you learn what people want. And once you know what they want, you just have to tweak your message and you’ll be on the fast track to increased ROI.