Social Media Marketing Mistakes – 5 Major Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
As you probably already know, Social media marketing has become one of the most common ways of marketing in the world today.
With millions of people dependent on social media today, social media marketing has become one of the most effective marketing strategies…
… IF done the RIGHT way.
While there are still other means of marketing such as:
- Email marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Content marketing
- Video marketing
- and many other types
A business that is not leveraging social media is unfortunately missing out on a great opportunity to increase their traffic and customers on a regular basis.
In fact, according to Ambassador, 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.
Today’s post will help those businesses already leveraging social media marketing and are not quite getting the results they were looking for.
As you keep reading this article, you’ll discover the five major social media marketing mistakes and how to overcome those mistakes.
Social Media Marketing Mistake #1 – You’re Not Listening to Your Audience
If you’re leveraging social media you must ask yourself, how well are you listening to your audience?
We see many businesses who just drop content on social media channels and never come back.
Huge mistake!
You must always listen to what your audience wants from your brand and/or business.
Knowing this will help guide your business for future promotions and products.
The goal is to listen, analyze, innovate and keep your audience engaged.
When you successfully engage and listen to your audience you start to build up the know, like, trust factor which leads to more customers.
Social Media Marketing Mistake #2 – You Don’t Have a Clear Objective
Most businesses that launch on social media don’t adequately plan or strategize their marketing plan.
Planning in general is important, but this also includes putting together a social media marketing plan.
A plan should include the following:
- goals you want to achieve with a specific date in mind
- the market you want to target
- marketing budget
- content planning
- engagement strategy
- and scheduling
It’s also important to put a plan in place that has realistic goals that are achievable.
Celebrate the small wins along the way and always have a clear social media marketing objective to help keep your business on track.
Social Media Marketing Mistake #3 – You’re Not Optimizing Across All Social Media Channels
There are several social media platforms on the internet today.
Focus your efforts on the ones with a large amount of traffic, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter.
Also, you need to know where your targeted audience hangs out.
Yes, it can be difficult to manage several different social media platforms at once.
But with the use of automation tools the job will be a lot easier.
One tool we use is something called Post Planner, you can check out HERE.
Don’t get too caught up on automation that you forget mistake #1 and not engage or listen to your audience.
I recommend you spend time on/research the different social media platforms and adjust your content accordingly.
WHY???
Because different social media platform users prefer different types of content.
For example, Instagram and Pinterest are very image and picture oriented.
Whereas with Facebook the users might be inclined to read longer text posts.
Make sure your content makes sense for the platform you’re marketing on.
Social Media Marketing Mistake #4 – You’re Stretching Yourself Too Thin
Are you posting your content on all the social media marketing platforms and not getting results?
I realize this is contradicting mistake #4 but stick with me here.
If you are not getting results by using multiple social media channels, then the problem could very well be that your are spreading yourself too thin.
Most Social Media platforms require you to fully immerse yourself into the marketing of your product/offer to get the full benefit of that specific platform.
That means you need to take consistent action on a daily basis, if not several time a day.
We see a lot of businesses lose focus on a marketing platform and just rely on automation.
Even though the content is getting out there…
… it’s not producing outstanding results due to the lack of commitment to the channel.
Trust me, I have done the same thing.
I have content going out on automation on Twitter, but I have realistic expectations that I won’t get a ton of results from that platform.
If I wanted results from Twitter, I would really need to dedicate more time to the platform or hire someone who can.
This is what I mean by spreading yourself too thin.
Some platforms require a lot of time to get results.
Master one then add in another platform or hire a team who can manage another platform for your business.
Social Media Marketing Mistakes #5 – You’re Not Offering Real Value
A lot of entrepreneurs who use of social media marketing to boost awareness for their goods and services pick “quantity” over “quality”.
What do I mean by this?
They believe in posting for the sake of posting content, rather than posting quality content.
Posting for the sake of posting tends to be bland content with a lack of engagement from your audience.
Your goal is to post quality content that will WOW your audience and create more engagement.
More engagement will build up the Know, Like, & Trust factor for your business which will result in more leads, traffic and sales.
Make sense?
Social Media Marketing Mistakes: Final Thoughts
As we wrap up this article there are 5 main Social Media Mistakes we see people often make.
They are…
- Not listening to your audience
- Don’t have a clear objective
- Not optimizing across all Social channels
- Stretching yourself too thin
- Not offering real value
Social Media marketing mistakes can really be avoided if done right.
Bottom line, it’s all about building awareness, creating engaging content, leading your audience to your offers, and most importantly follow up.
Now it’s your turn….
What mistakes do you see businesses making on social media? Feel free to share in the comments below your thoughts or tips.
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Questions? Comments?
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Comment Below with your favorite Social Media Marketing mistake you see AND be sure to share this article on Facebook or Twitter!
