In today’s 24-hour news media machine, we are constantly bombarded by stories of overnight success and viral videos that garner national attention. It is easy to think that “going viral” is a simple task and that anyone can do it: all you need to do is sign up for a twitter account and click “submit.”

Unfortunately, this is not how the world works and it can be discouraging for business owners who are not seeing any results immediately. To combat this let down, business managers should remember that using social media as part of your marketing toolbox is more like saving for retirement than hitting the lottery. Social media is not the silver bullet of marketing. It will not cure cancer and it certainly can’t help you if you aren’t very good at marketing in the first place.

The trick is to be patient and find your own strategy that works for you. This often involves trying on social media marketing strategies that work for other and discarding them after some time. Given the amount sheer volume of content being posted on the internet every day, it takes time for the search engines – and even your – customers to find you.

In short, you wouldn’t tell your sales people to stop calling prospects simply because they got told “no” on the first call – the same goes for social media marketing.