6 Social Media Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

You don’t need to make mistakes to learn from them! You can learn from someone else’s mistakes too.

Every brand big or small needs to have a Social Media presence in this age. Social Media presence doesn’t mean just more leads, sales or customers, it is a two-way street where you can build your community, increase your reach and know exactly what do people think about you.

If you are serious about Social Media Marketing, you need to do a lot more than just creating an account. And while you’re at it, avoiding some common mistakes can also help you increase your ROI.

Here are 6 Social Media Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

1. SPREADING YOURSELF TOO THIN

Do you need to be on all the Social Media Platforms?  No, you don’t.

If you try to conquer all the platforms, chances are that you won’t be able to generate unique, quality content for each platform. This would mean mediocre content and lower engagement rate 🤷‍♀️

Additionally, you need to find your tribe. If you’re on one platform but your target audience is on another one, that’s not going to work, is it? Finding the right platform is the very first step to be successful on that platform. You could choose to be on one platform or do a combination of 2 to 3. The idea is to not go overboard here and consistently generate good content for the platforms you choose to be on.

2. HAVING NO SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY 😰

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail — Benjamin Franklin

Having absolutely no Social Media strategy could make life difficult for you.

You will not know:  - When to post - What to post - What your content buckets are - What your audience likes and wants

There’s a lot of noise on Social Media and a brand that has no Social Media strategy would definitely fail to cut through this noise.

A good Social Media strategy includes specific goals, content buckets, post planning, setting the benchmarks and a lot more. Sounds overwhelming, I know, but it really isn’t once you get started.

This post will help you get started on creating a solid and actionable social media strategy — A Social Media Strategy Is About More Than Just Posting.

3. INCONSISTENCY 📊

Inconsistency could be in terms of posting, the language you use and the Social Media creatives you use.

To build a brand you need to make sure: - Customers/ users see you regularly - Customers/ users identify your branded Social Media creatives - Customers/ users relate with and get familiar to the Social Media tone you use.

If these things keep changing on regular basis, customers won’t be able to relate with you and that’s not something you want.

4. TOO MUCH SELF-PROMOTION 🗣

“Buy this.” “Download that.” “Read this.” “see that.” “We were featured here.” “Avail our new offer.” “Buy! Buy! Buy!”

Well… 😐

Imagine you follow a brand that posts only on these lines. Every single post is self-promotional, adding no value to you. Nothing fun, nothing motivating, no customer interactions, just this.  Would you follow them?  Nope, nope, nope.  I wouldn’t 🤐

The fact is, Social Media is a fantastic place to build and grow a community of like-minded people. This is where you can, this is where you can add value, get feedback and establish long-lasting relationships with your customers and users.

Follow a 20–80 rule where 20% of your posts are self-promotion and the other 80% add definite value to people lives and are complete with a takeaway or two. This balance will help you subtly promote yourself while maintaining a healthy relationship with your customers and be less overwhelming (read in your face) for them.

5. IGNORING THE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK 🙈

Feedback is feedback.

Sometimes it is positive and when it is, brands happily re-share it, interact and show gratitude. But what about the negative feedback? It is unavoidable. No one is perfect and customers are going to tell you certain things that might not be so pleasing to your ears. It can make you 😠 😢 🙇‍ but that doesn’t mean that you should ignore it.

The best way to improve your product/ brand/ service is by listening to the negative feedback, thanking them for taking the time out and letting you know about it. Later, work on improving yourself if necessary. That’s how you get better and better!

Remember, negative feedback is different from trolling, don’t feed the trolls.

6. NOT INTERACTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE 🙊

Customers expect interaction on Social Media. Sometimes they just want to say “hi👋” to their favourite brand and sometimes they want their problems to be solved.

In any case, you need to talk to them, acknowledge their presence and make them feel wanted. They should feel that there is a real human being behind the brand persona who is listening to them and available to help. And believe it or not — this could help you grow exponentially!

Higher audience engagement = higher reach = more exposure ⭐️

Conclusion

With Social Media, brands can reach a larger audience in a very effective and affordable way. As a brand, it’s up to you to make sure you use the right social media tools, plan ahead and always keep measuring your social efforts to get better. Avoiding these common mistakes can help your brand grow faster, have an increased reach and a bigger, stronger user base.

Over to you

Got any questions or want to add something? Leave it in the comment section. I’m all 👂