Top 5 Social Media Marketing mistakes that can easily be avoided
Social media has become a crucial part of any company’s marketing efforts. When used correctly, it can help build online authority, ensure easy connection with one’s audience and it is generally a fun tool that can enable any business to make its mark in the online world. Although many think that social media communication is something anyone can do, in reality there’s much more to it than first meets the eye.
Our agency has been in the business of social media management for half a decade now and throughout our 5-year existence we’ve witnessed our fair share of marketing blunders that had the potential to wreak havoc in a company’s public image. It’s now time to share our knowledge and our accumulated experience throughout a series of insightful articles that will help you become better at online marketing and communication.
Let’s start with 5 of the most common mistakes which keep you from realizing your true potential on social media:
Not having a clear strategy in place
So, you’re active on Facebook, post regular updates about your cup of coffee in the morning, reshare information from competitors from time to time and perhaps even post about promotions of your products every now and again. But by posting sporadically and without any direction, you should definitely stop for a moment and ask yourself: what is all this for? What’s the main goal here?
Like all marketing campaigns, a social marketing campaign also needs a clear strategy to help you reach what you are trying to achieve. You’re going to need specific goals, a concrete budget, and a put-together plan of action which focuses on your aspirations, outlines the specific ways in which you can reach your targets and defines the exact ways in which you can measure your efforts.
Making it all about yourself without connecting to your audience
It’s so tempting to make the social media platforms you’re using all about your product or your service. But this alone won’t secure you new followers or committed customers. The very best things you can do with social media is to offer insight, to educate, entertain and, most importantly: engage with your audience! Users that have liked your account are looking for much more from social media these days.
The easiest way you can gain their attention is by trying to engage with them. Ask them for their opinion on something, reach out to them to share their views and engage in real conversations with them. Try to avoid robotic responses to comments and instead take time and energy to truly respond. By striving to post interesting content that lures your followers to interact with your page, you’ll soon see that your engagement rate will increase tenfold. Make sure you put the emphasis on “we” instead of “me”, because in reality your audience is less interested in your product per se, and much more interested in how your product can make their lives better if they purchase it from you.
Treating all social platforms the same
Sometimes it can be so convenient to post the same thing throughout all platforms, right? But while it may seem like at a time-saver at first glance, on the long run it can have dire consequences on the number of engaged followers you have.
Each and every social platform has its own type of content, its unique framework and its different type of audience. So what might work well on one social channel will likely not be so popular on the other. Make sure you take time to really learn the ins and outs of each one before posting and utilize each platform correctly to maximize results.
Not having proper visuals to accompany your message
Attention-grabbing visuals are equally important (if not more) as the message you’re trying to get through with the help of a well-thought-out text. You can have the best-written sentences in the world, but if you don’t post a relevant photo, GIF, video or infographic to go along with it, chances are that it will get lost in the myriad of content already available on social media.
Great visuals contain small fragments of your brand’s mission and vision, whilst also presenting clearly and efficiently what the content is about, so your audience is captivated by it at first glance. Don’t shy away from motion graphics and animated visuals – they tend to stand out from the crowd of image-based posts and offer a little something extra to your followers.
Not measuring or measuring the wrong metrics
The things mentioned above are all done in vain if nobody tracks key performance indicators throughout this process. What’s more, it’s not enough to see how much your audience has grown and leave it at that, because that in itself is not a good enough indicator to showcase what actually works and what can use some tweaking in your campaign to perform better.
Statistics need to be measured in depth and just like with any other type of marketing, you should be looking at the impact each post has on your business, instead of being satisfied with the mere growth of followers.
Social media management is a very complex system and has numerous factors that need to work well in order for it to bring success to your business. Whilst exercises of trial and error can get you far, it takes a lot of time and energy to figure out what works best for your particular business. This is why it’s recommended that you leave social media to professionals!
The Onlike Content Marketing Agency, with its vast experience, has worked with tens of different businesses throughout the years, and can serve as the ideal partner when it comes to the online marketing management of your business. Give us a call and find out how your company can use the power of social media to your advantage!