When it comes to social media marketing, one of the biggest mistakes any business can make is to assume it’s almost impossible to get it wrong. But as social media is easy to use and is indeed used by billions, many businesses fall into the assumption that social media marketing as a whole must be pretty simple.
In the hands of the industry’s most experienced marketing companies, the power of social media is almost too extraordinary to comprehend. For those with less experience however, achieving any kinds of returns whatsoever from a somewhat haphazard social media marketing strategy can be borderline impossible. On the whole, it’s a uniquely fickle marketing tool the likes of which can deliver results on exact opposite ends of the spectrum, in accordance with how it is put to work.
So for the benefit of those who’d rather keep things on the positive side of the fence, here’s a quick introduction to six sizeable social media marketing mistakes, guaranteed to reduce your strategy to rubble:
1 – No Strategy
First of all, it’s extremely difficult to reach your primary objectives if you haven’t already established what exactly these objectives are. Social media can be used for pretty much anything these days from a marketing perspective. From reputation management to improving conversion rates to expanding e-mail databases and so on, anything your business needs to grow and develop is on the table. Nevertheless, trying to achieve great things without having decided on an objective is akin to heading out on a journey with no directions or destination in mind. You might get there, but the odds aren’t exactly in your favour.
2 – Poor Use of Available Platforms
While leading platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are undoubtedly the largest and most powerful, they are by no means the only social media services out there. For the purposes of contemporary marketing strategies, it’s crucially important to consider all available social media platforms and strategically decide which to focus on. This means neither focusing all efforts on a single platform nor to spreading things too thinly across literally every platform available. And as the most potentially powerful and lucrative platform may not in fact be the most obvious…or even known to you…it usually makes sense to consult with the experts.
3 – Buying Favour
There was a time a while back where the success and prestige of any business with a social media presence was gauged almost entirely by audience numbers, ‘likes’ and other such badges of honour.Unsurprisingly therefore, businesses in enormous numbers began buying fake approval in quite spectacular volumes, till such a point where the whole thing became null and void. You can still buy audiences and likes these days, but in 99% of instances it is painfully apparent when a business is faking it. Suffice to say, doing so will not have a positive impact on your reputation or your performance.
4 – Self-Focus
When it comes to your primary website, this is where you should be (and probably are) using your very best sales spiel, promotional pitches and general conversion-focused content. Which is absolutely fine, but don’t under any circumstances fall into the trap of approaching your social media pages in the same way. Whereas a business website is designed to sell, social media marketing is all about engagement, conversation and reputation management. This means focusing entirely on what it is your target audience wants, needs and is interested in, as opposed to just try to sell to them. Or in other words, it’s a case of avoiding self-focus at all costs and dedicating your social media presence to the tastes/preferences of your audience members.
5 – Sharing Too Much or Too Little
It can be tricky to know where to draw the line between regular posting and posting too frequently. Nevertheless, exactly what constitutes the right amount to post will be determined by the quality of the content you publish. If for example you have an incredible wealth of fabulous information to share with your followers, you will of course get away with more frequent posting than if you had nothing relevant to say. It’s really just common sense to avoid extremes – you don’t want to bombard them with an avalanche of information, but at the same time you don’t want your pages to become stagnant.
6 – Being Antisocial
And finally, it’s crucial to remember that the secret to success with social media is given away in the title itself. This is a ‘social’ approach to marketing, which means that instead of promoting your business, your products, your services and so on, you should be looking to get well and truly involved with your target audience. Generate discussion, join the discussion, respond to comments and questions, join groups and generally demonstrate the fact that rather than being a faceless brand only out for profit, you’re well and truly in-sync with those you’re trying to win over.
