Social media is the most commonly used platform for promoting of businesses. However, social media is only beneficial if your strategy is well researched and skillfully crafted. Unfortunately, even today there are several mistakes that brands are still making which could be easily avoided.
Following are the 10 most common slip-ups by businesses that prevents them from getting the results that they want to achieve using social media platforms:
Mistake #1: Posting without a Strategy
One of the most common mistakes made by businesses is posting aimlessly without having a plan. Having a consistent strategy (distinct for every social media channel) keeps your audience hooked and attentive and also boosts engagement. Planning your content helps you set goals and objectives which when achieved, offer real value to your business.
Mistake #2: Not having a Brand Personality or Feel
Having a social presence with no brand voice and personality is a huge error. Depending on the nature of your brand, it’s essential to have a personality reflected in the content you share in order to make it more humanly and less robotic; may it be humorous, witty or serious. Work on developing a voice for your captions, have a distinct visual appeal, generate content that portrays your brand and show the world what makes you unique!
Mistake #3: Being Unaware of your Audience
Another major mistake brands make is not having adequate knowledge about their audience. Knowing who you are talking to and what kind of message your audience demands for is remarkably a significant factor in social media marketing. Scrutinize your audience by analysing the optimal timings to post content, examining the posts that are performing well and checking various other metrics that would help in building an effective strategy based on messages tailored in a manner that is best understood by your audience.
Mistake #4: Posting too often or not posting at all
Your social media isn’t about self-promotion or spamming your audiences’ feed. Posting too much or not posting at all could prove to be catastrophic for your business. It is, therefore, crucial to find out a frequency that best suits your audience and follow it in order to have a consistent posting schedule. Engage your audience by offering them meaningful content that they could connect with.
Mistake #5: Not Responding to Queries and Comments
Cater your audience and show them you care by responding to their complaints and queries on time. Make your audience feel heard and cared for. Engage with your audience and build a community of goodwill by having conversations whenever possible. Be consistent with your responses and handle negative reviews in a manner that reflects a positive image of your brand.
One of the most important things to avoid is posting same messages everywhere. The style and format of content shared on each platform prominently differs from one another. Brands must study social media channels in order to optimize content according to the nature that best fits each platform. You can’t expect high levels of engagement with same story being shared the same way on all of your social media networks!
Mistake #7: Not Posting Video Content
Videos have vastly become the most important form of visual content. Incorporating videos in your social media strategy would be beneficial as videos uploaded natively on social media perform much better than link to a YouTube video. Videos are more engaging, captivating and dynamic which is why they are dominating the world of content!
Mistake #8: Focusing on Quantity of Followers over Quality
In the social media world of today, the biggest mistake businesses make is to consider number of followers as a benchmark for determination of success. Having a large follower count holds no significance for businesses today because a business that has less followers could run a campaign as effective as that run by a business having millions of followers. The level of engagement and participation of your audience is what matters the most now. That being said, it’s high time for businesses to build a follower base by focussing on quality and not just quantity.
Mistake #9 Irrelevant or Over Usage of Hashtags
Overfilling your posts with hashtags is anything but useful. Hashtags must be relevant and well researched. They must be targeted and should be crafted in a way that actually helps users to find the content they are looking for. Use maximum 2-3 hashtags in your posts. Use hashtags when necessary. Not every post needs hashtags!
Mistake # 10 Not Keeping a Track of your Performance
Posting content without check and balance would not help you achieve the results you want. Monitoring your posts and how well they are performing helps you increase engagement and follower count. It gives you a better understanding of what your next strategy should be based on. Therefore, it’s necessary to regularly collect insights and systematically analyse where your content is going!