5 Social Media Marketing Mistakes Every Business Owner Must Avoid
Social media marketing isn’t anything new for brands, especially those who outgrew themselves in the last decade. Initially after the launch of social media, most people thought it’s just going to be a fad, but now we are sure that it has undoubtedly become a thing in our advanced world and how is it helping small brands to make the most of their marketing investments.
Social media marketing (SMM) is a strategy employed by diverse organizations, but most brands fail to develop a prominent social media presence despite continuous efforts. Being aware of the latest social media trends and following the best practices might only take you near success but knowing & understanding the culprits for unsuccessful marketing helps you achieve and attain success.
Do you know how many social media sites are available on the web? Over 200 social media sites are available. Yes, you heard it right, and we know you are aware only of the few!
With so many sites available, it is challenging for businesses to determine the core platforms to focus on and get the most out of them individually. In the attempt to create a notable presence, brands often make mistakes that cost them credibility, likability, and majorly- potential customers.
Here’s when professional social media marketers come into play. They understand each platform and how things work out in the new environment. Marketers devise a planned marketing strategy that includes measurable goals, content, KPIs, and analysis.
Here are five social media marketing common mistakes that every business must avoid doing:
Publishing content without a social media calendar
Most brands start super motivated about their social media, but it gradually wanes over time. Many organizations struggle with keeping their social media marketing activities for a more extended period now. It majorly happens due to publishing posts without a clear strategy. It is necessary to understand your target audience and create a flexible posting calendar.
2.Showcasing your brand like a Trained Robot
Most brands follow their social media calendar strictly, but it shouldn’t be like that. Brand marketing over social media must be flexible, and there should be enough room for creativity and inspiration. Your calendar should be available when creativity is absent. Interact with your audience- like their posts, comments, and reply to their comments as well.
3.Not Understanding Each Platform
Most businesses have the habit of posting the same content on all of their social media accounts. It is a big mistake as your visitors will consider your brand inauthentic and lazy. Each social media platform is unique, and brand marketers must understand how the algorithm of the platform works. Just like Instagram & Pinterest are image-driven, whereas Twitter is best when it comes to text content. Use different approaches for each social media platform and outline them in your social media strategy.
4.Ignoring Negative Feedback
Negative feedback is inevitable, and when your brand encounters it, you must not ignore it. You must take it in and stride with it. Be careful with the words you choose while responding, as wrong impressions (deleting the comments) can affect your brand image. Be authentic, endure the mistakes or inconvenience that your user had to go through and promise to provide an optimal solution. It showcases your professionalism and commitment to excellent customer service converting it into a win-win situation.
5.Stealing Content
No one wants to see the same content on your plate as well as your competitors. If you are stealing content, STOP doing this. Stealing content showcases your brands as a loser. If you get caught by a person who created the content with improper credits or no credits- this is a copyright infringement. Your audience will be more interested in authentic content. Make sure that you write and curate your content that will drive more users to your brands.
Additional Mistakes You MUST Avoid:
Overselling
Remember, social media is a place to promote your business, its products/services instead of a place where you oversell your services/products. There are various social media rules which one must endure to get immediate success, such as the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 law states that 80% of your published content must be informative, and only 20% must relate to your services/products. Be careful when you sell your brand, as overselling can violate your social media success.
Buying Followers
Most marketers think the shortcut to social media growth is increasing paid followers. Platforms like Instagram do not entertain fake followers and clutter out most bot accounts when measuring your social media success. Purchased fake accounts are also known as vanity followers as it makes your profile appear more popular than it is in reality. Aim to build a follower base by utilizing viral marketing or paid advertising.
Ignoring Analytics
Imagine you are doing great on social media, getting new likes, ranking posts, and experiencing more followers but suddenly notice a downfall in your social media growth. It happens because you are publishing posts without utilizing the data from the analytics.
Every business is collecting data, but most marketers ignore the data. It would be best to ignore analytics as it plays a pivotal role in social media success. An in-depth analysis can help you prepare better content strategies for the future.
Zero A/B testing
Most businesses do not test different types of content, formats growing the boredom and negatively impacting their brand in the audience’s eyes.
If your viewers are engaging you with the same type of content, it might be only for a short span. The audience is changing, and while streaming similar content over & over again will make them bore and dull while thinking of your brand.
Every business owner/marketer must test new content and look for what resonates best with their key audience.
Retargeting Everyone
Most businesses marketers make is retargeting every bounced visitor. It doesn’t matter how good your services/products are, as not everyone that visits your store comes to buy them. In a study, 58.6% of US online shoppers have left a cart simply because they were not ready to buy.
If you consider people that are not interested in any purchase of any kind in your retargeting list- it’s a waste of time & resources. Targeting every visitor won’t increase your rewards but increasing your costs.
Conclusion:
Mistakes are an integral part of your business success as you learn from them. You can probably correct the course even if your organization is making the aforementioned social media mistakes. Marketers must be sure to keep the content authentic, less promotional, and focusing on the needs and demands of the critical audience. Be consistent, and your social media success will pave the way on its own.